Is there anyone out there?

Well I have finally poken my nose above the parapets. All assignments have been completed, tests have been undertaken and I am in the final frenzy known as studying for exams. I have 3 of the things. One on halloween, on on the afternoon on November 7th and the final one on the morning of November 8th. So what's been happening here at chez seal. Let's see.....
Obviously the most exciting event recently was Chris experiencing what seemed to be a stroke. He'd taken wednesday off work so I could do my assignment. I knew something was wrong when he came back from Parrs Park and told me about a dizzy spell. Mumbled something about seeing a doctor after we came back from Kerikeri. He then tried to get Cameron to sleep, had some more interesting symptoms - tingling in one arm and leg, tingling lips etc, staggered downstairs and asked me to get him an appointment that day. After I called and described the symptoms he got the choice of having an ambulance called or me driving him. So I drove Chris and Cameron to the hospital. Chris was in bad shape at this time - slurring etc. I thought I was doing quite well hiding my fear until I returned to the car at 3:15 and saw I have left the car in Drive with no handbrake on. Yes, my driving ability was not enhanced by thinking my husband was having a stroke. Chris then lolled around on a bed in the ER, getting his chest shaved for the ECG. Heehee that was funny. Cameron was exceptionally good for a little boy who was torn from his bed before he had had any sleep. After we headed off Chris was sent for a CT scan. Cameron was asleep 2 minutes into the drive and I popped him into bed before collecting Kieran from lovelt Isabelle who had walked to collect Kieran and Madison from kindy. Chris got to stay at the hospital and be woken every 2 hours and have a torch shone in his eyes. I got to do very little work on my assignment, and have a little cry when I got loving phone calls. Collected Chris the next morning, he had not had a stroke, or even a mini stroke. They think he experienced an atypical migraine, but he has been referred to Auckland Hospital's Neuro team. That will happen sometime in the next 6 months. Apart from that we have changed our diet, and will keep changing it to remove some fat and salt. And Chris will be encouraged to exercise more.
Cameron is settling down well at kindy. When I say settling down well I meaned he is rudely jerked from his slumbers by his mother shouting Kindy kindy! He then deigns to be carried downstairs, shod and escorted to the car. Once we reach the kindy gates he races through and begins cavorting. The kindy staff love him and call him a free spirit.
Kieran also loves kindy, but still persists in telling me how every day is a sad one as I wasn't there with him. I completely understand this for I am the bees knees :) The kindy teachers greet me with many stories of his exploits and I stagger out with sheets and sheets of artwork so he can't be too miserable lol. He has been getting better - which is all good for school. I have been helping out the kindy by sorting all their books and making a catalogue. Over the next few weeks I will order them into useful categories. Dewey decimal it won't be, but it will work for their needs. I asked to be a member of the kindy committee too and have a kindy committee meeting on the 25th. I am also session leader for Playcentre on Mondays which is kind of stressful, but good too. I have enrolled for my final 6 papers for my BA. Semester 1 will be doing 3 1/2 papers and semester 2 will be 2 1/2 papers. Semester 1 will be a frigging nightmare. Semester 2 I will have to travel to class so hopefully the classes will be on the same day or adjacent days as I am not that much of a fan of driving to Massey day in day out. This does mean that I can then apply for the PG DipPrimary. Yay me. Lets hope they let me into the programme! I am thinking of resigning from the Plunket coffee group - but we'll see. They are in the process of selling the building so will see how it goes.
The weather is very Springlike, sunny one moment torrential rain the next. We went to Kerikeri last weekend for Freya's christening. We got her a charm bracelet with the letter F on it. As we drove up saturday morning in the pouring rain, a truck roared past going well too fast for the conditions and threw a sheet of water up onto the windscreen (we couldn't see for a few seconds!) as well as a large stone, which put a half circle gouge into the glass. We managed to get into Novus in whangarei (the kind man waited for us as he was due to shut at 12) only to find that there was no point repairing it as it would fail a WOF anyway. Our WOF is due December 23rd. Merry christmas car, you get a new windscreen, 2 new tyres and the rust cut out of the roof by the rear windscreen. I don't really want to spend a grand on the car but it looks like we'll have to.
I am in the process of making the boys halloween costumes. They want to be peter pan from peter pan returns. Isabelle made the boys pants from a pal green sheet I scored from the op shop jumble sale. I converted 2 tops into Peter Pan tunics, and am making peter pan hats from felt. I have done one, and the next is to come. I bet on the day Cam isn't keen lol. Kieran currently has a double ear infection - lucky little lad! Our Working for families tax credit FINALLY came through, so we went and had my passport photo done. I could weep. One of the worst photos ever. Oh well. I took over 300 pics of Cameron and finally got one that hopefully is acceptable. Now we just need a witness to well, witness them and they can head off to the passports office.

Daddy's Day

It’s been an exciting morning. I dragged the box for the trampoline out of the garage and the boys played at being pirates. After the yo ho'ing died down they lolled in their pirate ship playing with IPAD's and LeapPads haha. Much later Chris sauntered down and was greeted with screams of joy and "Happy Daddy's Day!" They delved into the bag of Father's Day goodies, showing off their cards and pictures and then pulled out the chocolatey part of the gifts. These were loving presented, with many admiring comments and gentle strokings. Some bosom pressing also took place. A celebratory round of hot chocolates followed before Chris had to retrieve his cobwebbed furchild from the top of the kitchen cupboards. Tonight we'll have a rack of lamb chosen by Kieran, and Chris can bask in the fathomless love of his wee boys lol.

Gladiatorial combat aka kindy sports day

It’s been an exciting week or so. I have submitted the most recent batch of assignments and am now working on the next lot – no rest for the wicked! I have now immersed myself in more vampire movies and books, before I dive into Human Development. The boys have been having a blast. Kieran spent much of the week training for the Kindy Sports Day. He was in the green team aka God’s Gladiators. He has been sprinting, and climbing, and leaping and having a thoroughly marvellous time… as he should as we have had some lovely sunny days this week. Friday was especially sunny and the Sports Day went off well, with Kieran winning a silver medal in the bucket and ball race. He was so proud of winning a medal “just like the Olympics” and has vowed to win a gold medal next time. Maybe it was his haircut. We dashed up to the barbershop just before the sports day started, and K got his hair cut. He had a blast and chatted happily to the hairdresser while Cameron chittered his rage that he wasn’t getting a haircut. Kieran has settled nicely into his new kindy routine of Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday – in preparation for Cameron doing a morning session on Monday’s and Wednesdays. He is also enjoying going to the library storytimes on Thursdays. I am applying for WINZ child subsidy for Cameron. I am entitled as I am studying – woot. If I get it I won’t have to pay $40 for Cameron’s 2 mornings a week. They’ll only be starting mid-October – just in time for exams lol. We signed up for a free trial of the reading eggs program. In our 2 weeks Kieran did 34 lessons, and is able to sound out words and craft basic sentences. I am so proud of him. Cameron was also keen, but at 2 and 3 months was not able to progress as well as Kieran :). There is a Hairy MaClairy show coming up in September that I will take the boys too. As father’s day is coming up the boys have been churning out Father’s Day cards. I also took them up to the FourSquare and they chose a present for Chris. They were insistent that “Daddy wants chocolate”. I suspect Daddy will also be doing a lot of sharing lol.

Olympic shenanigans

I started this blog entry a few days into the Olympics and I finish it as I watch the closing ceremony. In my defence I had 3 assignments and 1 test on the go. It has been a mighty struggle wrangling the boys watching the Olympics and keeping up with assignment work – but I managed…I am also thankful it’s over so I can sleep again lol. NZ has a respectable medal haul – we even passed Oz at one stage haha. I loved the artistic and rhythmic gymnastics – my god, they’re SO fit! Kieran adored watching it too, although he is more a fan of the beam, bars and floor lol. He has been prancing around being a gymnast. We prepared a sheet “Kieran’s 2012 Olympics’ for kindy. Kieran chose the sports he wanted represented and we googled images of rowing, show jumping (the horses jumped over Saturn! And the Moon!), gymnastics and kayaking. He has pontificated on the Olympics at the drop of a hat to anyone who even mentions the Olympics, has made an Olympic torch and has begged to have gymnastics lessons again. I whisked the boys off to the doctors last week as they were coughing like old men with emphysema… to the point of vomiting. Oh yeah, the good times just keep on rolling in our house! And they have been rolling like this for 7 weeks. The boys were prescribed antibiotics which seem to have done the trick – booya! We have ordered our photos from the kindy photo session. Sadly we ditched the one with Kieran’s broad smile and Cameron’s cheesy grin lol. On Friday we headed to play Centre. The boys have gone from strength to strength bar their unfortunate illness lol, and have been having a lark. The weather was slightly improved this fortnight with some sunny days – awesome. We had a bike day at Kindy last week and Kieran had a blast. Then he and Cameron dragged the gym mats into a heap and performed death defying leaps onto them while the bikes skidded down the slope towards them. Cameron still adores going to kindy with Kieran. I hope his enthusiasm continues unabated in November when he goes in for 2 mornings a week. I have also prepared the letters from space up to Mercury which I thought would be the last one. More fool I! Gentle questioning of my son revealed he expected one from when Zoop reached the sun. I didn’t have the heart to mention that Zoop would have passed the sun several times in his planetary tour. Chris and Kieran made a kite on Saturday and had a wonderful time flying it over the weekend. It was pretty good for butcher’s paper, tape, string and scavenged sticks. I took the boys to Playcentre on Friday but had to leave early as Cam was listless, clingy, whiny and running a fever. We managed to score a dr appointment that afternoon. Luckily I did as he had a really inflamed ear. What a great weekend we would have had otherwise hehe. Medicine was prescribed, and collected and poured into the child who took a dramatic turn for the better. Plans for this week involved Play Centre, Plunket, calling Oratia Primary to sort Kieran’s pre-school visits, watching the Olympics closing ceremony, working on 2 assignments and trying to do all my reading and study for my papers at the same time. It is a struggle. I spend Cameron’s nap time doing readings and then once the boys are in bed at 7 I try and get on with assignments and study. The house, frankly, looks a tip. As I have assignments due on August 24 (x2), Sept 12, 17, 26, October 1, 5 & 12 (x2) & 26 followed by exams on October 31, November 7 & 8 I don’t really care to be honest. I have paid a lot for the 3 papers and I will pass them all. Perhaps even well lol. Cleaning has dropped way down my list of priorities. We may yet find Chris cleaning the bathroom and doing the laundry.

Calloo Callay

Well semester 2 has started and the workload has cranked right up! I have frantically read Frankenstein in preparation for 2 assignments based on it. Piece of emo fluff lol. I will be able to write a lot about it that's for sure. I have decided to write a letter from the monster to Frankenstein - lots of heart rending emo in it hehe. On wednesday I headed into town for my final SMNZI meeting. yup, I have resigned at last. And I think I made the right decision, looking at my study workload! On thrsday Isabelle dropped M and E over and we made pizza for dinner. Rather delicious ham, tomato and mushroom pizza too. Then I headed over to hers to get her lot into bed and headed home around 9:30ish once she got home from her event. Lucky I did as Chris let me know that we were going on the lash on Saturday or, as he phrased it, going to Prof Ferguson's retirement dinner at Sorrento in the Park. It was a delightful night. Isabelle babysat (yay) and we hiked from the stardome to the restaurant due to lack of parking. Me in my boots and skirt and all haha. Dinner was awesome, I got a bit tipsy heehee and then it went on and on and WE COULDN'T GET OUT. So we got home about 11:30 to be greeted with much relief by a weary Isabelle. I was just grateful that all she'd had to do was sit there and watch tv, read her book and wonder when the flaming heck we were going to come home lol. In child related news Kieran had his secomd eye test on Friday - and his eyesight is perfect. Afterwards we headed off to Playcentre where the boys had an absolute blast. Yesterday we did housework, played with playdough and baked walnut and cranberry cookies. The boys really liked the cookies! I made a pork pie for dinner and threw the remaining mix into the crockpot with some leeks and potato to make soup - yummy! So naturally the boys wouldn't touch it. I costed out the Aussie trip and nearly wept. The airfares alone are horrific. Add on cattery, car hire, passports, petrol and misc exp and it makes one gobsmacked. I sorted the car registration online today for the first time. I entered with a sense of anticipation and wound up shrieking imprecations at the site as it crashed when I finally reached the payment screen. How droll it was. Today was Kieran's kindy photo. I hung around at kindy and escorted him over to the room where they are doing the photos. The photographer said she was happy to do sibling shots so quick as a flash Keekersqueaker and Cameronbear nestled together on the pouf. Very sweet.  Afterwards I escorted him back to kindy and then they did their group shot. I should get the proofs within a month. Tomorrow is a trip to the StarDome for Keeks. He is so excited and looking forward to the busride. I just hope he keeps his eyes open this time lol. And tomorrow afternoon we are going into the Early Learning Lab at Akl University so I can "show Cam how to play with a toy, and they can see how he learns". It should be "interesting" lol. Cameron can now count to 13, knows and names all the planets in the solar system and sings the alphabet song while he points to letters of the alphabet - my clever boys :) Our favourite bedtime book at the moment is "How the Kangaroo got its tail" This epic yarn features roos, sugarbag, trickery, spiders, beatings and impalement. Naturally the boys love it. Keeks cuddles his bunny ans teddy while he listens, while Cam smooths a corner of his blankie over my knee and cuddles his Tiggy. Such sweethearts!

Vignettes

Walking to Kindy on a blue frosty morning with K running across frost spangled grass and twirling in glorious circles across the field.
Staggering around the house desperately trying not to vomit before asking Chris to come home.
Succumbing to Cameron's streaming cold the day after I recovered from the Flu.
Spending 53 minutes on the phone with IRD to discover they haven't received my tax form yet.
Running across the grass playing crocodile with the boys, and eating them up with hugs.Costing out the Christmas holiday and sighing.
Baking cupcakes for the boys before playing the Kinect.
Cooking soup for the Playcentre fundraiser.
Enjoying longer, warmer days with my boys
Completing my tax form to find that, naturally, I owe the IRD money. Of course I do!
Loving the fact K is sorted in the toileting department.
Pretending to be dragons walking to kindy as our breath mists in the air and K pontificating that boy dragons steam and girls puff.
Wending through bamboo on a blue afternoon, sunshine turning the bamboo green-gold.
Trying to take passport photos of the boys. Day three and no success to date lol.
Heart melting when Cameron tucks his blankie over my knee when we had bedtime storytime.

It can't be!!!

Where, oh where does the time go. How can it be July already!! Lets see, on Monday we cleaned the house and went for a walk as the weather was nice. I also called around like a maniac and began filling out my tax form. On Tuesday Kieran went to Kindy and I whisked Cameron up to the Plunket coffee group. The local pharmacist came up and showed off some new products. I was very taken with the Omega citrus flavoured fish oil supplement. Cameron snapped it up and wanted more lol. I also managed to get one of my textbooks cheap on trademe. This was especially great as the book retails for $200, and I have to buy books for all 3 papers. On wednesday we went to mainly music. How I wish I had known it was a pyjama party, I would have saved heaps of time getting ready lol. Afterwards we hit the library, Cameron slept while I did my tax return. A food parcel was dropped off to kindy so I grabbed some veges and baked pumpkin pie - for the third day in a row. We took the pumpkin pie into kindy.... and knocked it off the boot of the car outside the kindy gates. Luckily it was inside its pie dish, so although shattered (sob) was safe to eat. I have been rereading the Laurie R King Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. It is such a great read. On friday we had a knock on the door and a parcel from Sue arrived. The boys were enthralled by the present of little cars and Kieran swooped upon the scarf intended for me, winding it nonchalantly around his neck and informing me that he "looked beautiful!" I must admit he did look cute :)
As it was a lovely sunny day for a change we headed up to the library to read books on space and wound up staying for Wriggle and Rhyme. K was so excited! We discussed space, digestion and then danced and sang. Once home I baked bagels and the boys cavorted with their blocks. Cameron was being grumpy and begged for "kiss!" 'cuddle" and then was being a bit grumpy again. I had to stay in his bedroom for his whole sleep as he kept waking up and wouldn't go back to sleep without me there. I hate how this always happens on a friday! I wanted to take him to the dr's but Isabelle had dropped Maddie off with me and headed off to get her boy from school and take him to swimming. I expected her back at 4 but didn't want to call and make an appointment in case she was later than that. Plus Cameron wasn't that hot, not really.
I baked an apple and quince pie to take to Playcentre's Matariki party that night at 4:30 when Isabelle collected Maddie. We skidded into Playcentre at 5:15 blazing-hot-from-the-oven pie in hand. Luckily there was food left, but the boys ate nothing. They also ate no dessert but LOVED the toasted marshmallows. That is Kieran panicked at the concept of cooking food over an open flame, loved gooey marshmallow and allowed Cameron to have the majority of the marshmallows. Chris had arrived for dessert and fireworks and we settled the boys into bed at 7:30 - so a pretty good evening. We spent the weekend dosing Cameron on Ibuprofen and Pamol and I shall make an appointment for him today. Sadly, we were unable to go to the much anticipated Twisty Willow Ceildidh due to concern over sickly boys. Yup, K was a bit warm on Saturday too, and has been an absolute gobshite all weekend. Roll on kindy I say!! On sunday I cut Kieran's hair as he was looking a bit shaggy. It looks alright although somewhat layered and has become a bit shorter than intended lol :)