School disco

Dear Matthew, Toby and Josie

Last Friday you had your annual school disco Matt! As always I am so grateful you were able to experience this safely! Your friend Michael came over to our place beforehand and your dad drove the both of you there. I'm told you had a great time running around with your friends and playing bey blades haha!

As an aside, your dad and I get to have our first covid vaccinations this month! We are so lucky to finally be in the priority group. I'm glad I didn't procrastinate on booking us in either, as a few of our friends in our age bracket did and they ran out of booking slots, so some now have to wait until October before they can even have their first one. Hopefully with your dad and I being vaccinated, you'll all be better protected until you can receive your own vaccines (hopefully in early 2022). 

Love you all, 

Mum xxx

 

A metaphorical bag of poo

Dear Matthew, Toby and Josie

I'm acutely aware that a lot of what I post on this blog to you is very upbeat and doesn't always show the wonderful slog that life can sometimes be, with it's not so nice parts dispersed between it's Kodak moments. In the interest of keeping it real, I've included a copy of an Instagram post I did recently below:

I’ve been told I look tired a lot lately. I reflected on this and realised it may be because in the last year:

I required surgery from a third degree tear following an unmedicated birth. Josie had colic and hated the car for 9 months so I had chronic anxiety. She had a frenectomy at 5 weeks old. At 2 months old I had terrible gastro and could barely hold her. Toby took three trips to the ER, firstly for shoving a piece of Lego up his nose, then being attacked by a swarm of bees and then for a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. We were all sick over Christmas so missed seeing some extended family. We put multiple offers on houses and when finally accepted, our discharging bank delayed settlement leaving us almost homeless. We prepared our old place for lease and said goodbye to our cat who was adopted by a neighbour. Soda was hit by a car and had a severe reaction to eating grapes. Neil’s beautiful grandfather passed away. Matt experienced anxiety, sleep issues and was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD. Toby is being assessed for sensory processing issues. Both cars broke down. Our trip to the Gold Coast was cancelled. A suspicious mole was cut out of my back. Most of my work colleagues quit or took a redundancy. At home, I managed 3 types of therapies, 6 extra-curriculars and 5 types of medical appointments. We had 3 lockdowns, 2 in a tiny duplex. So yeah. Tired, exhausted.

But there’s also been a lot of good: I had a natural birth and a daughter. We moved to a bigger house and we took some holidays to Mandurah. The boys both landed extraordinary teachers. Josie has thrived. I got HDs in 2 Masters units and got asked to record a presentation for future students to watch. We safely celebrated all our birthdays, Christmas and Easter with friends and family during a global pandemic. And we have constantly had love and support. All this to say, some seasons are harder than others, but joy can still be found. To anyone else who may also be trying to smile on the outside, but really they’re carrying around a bag of poo, please know you are not alone and will get through this, even if you look a little tired in the process 💜

Love you all, 

Mum xxx

 

Pajama day and school photos

Dear Matthew, Toby and Josie

Matt you recently had pajama day at your school, so you got to wear your Minecraft pajamas all day long, along with your classmates and teacher. I'm told it was lots of fun :) We also attempted to get a family photo of you kids together during school photo day at school - as you can see from the last photo below, you weren't playing Josie! Never mind, we'll give it another go next year. But boys you did great, especially you in your individual one Matt, so handsome! I've also included a few cute photos of you all that I've taken recently, and a few showing you doing some Art Hub on Youtube art work Matt- you are so talented!

Love you all,

Mum xxx

 

Toby's hospital stay

Dear Matthew, Toby and Josie

Unfortunately we had something not so nice happen to you recently Tobes. During the school holidays we had a bunch of kids over to our new house for a playdate. During the playdate you were bounced off the trampoline as you were getting down from it. You hit the back of your head on the cement path and experienced an extremely bad concussion. You came inside crying hysterically and I instantly knew something was wrong. There wasn't any blood or anything, but you wouldn't let me near you and wanted to fall asleep in Matt's bed. I started to get worried and would keep checking on you but you wouldn't let me near you. Then you started to vomit and I knew we had to get to the hospital ASAP. I loaded you and Josie in the car, left Matt with one of the friends who was over and we sped to our local hospital (now affectionately known as 'your hospital'). We met your dad there and after many hours of monitoring (and a few more vomits) we were told to bring you home, but bring you right back if anything bad continued. So your dad brought you home that night but within half an hour you had vomitted twice we he took you straight back in and they did a CT scan. At 1am we got the results - you had a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain unfortunately. They couldn't tell us anything more so they sent your results to the Children's Hospital to get the neurosurgeons there to provide further advice around 8am. When the morning came around, the neurosurgeons said they were pretty happy that you didn't need surgery, but wanted to monitor you so you were transferred by ambulance, and you stayed for a further three nights in your own room at the children's hospital. We had thought after a couple of days you were fine to leave, however you vomited again just before we were meant to leave so you had to have another CT. We were told originally that there was further bleeding on your brain, but turns out the blood likely just shifted. So thankfully you could come home, and we were just to keep you from intense exercise for 6 weeks. Josie and Matt really missed seeing you and got so excited when you came home. Your dad and I were emotionally overwhelmed all week and are so sorry this happened to you Tobes. The trampoline was moved around so the entrance is now on grass and we are hyper-vigilant with your head! You were an absolute trooper during the whole ordeal and put up with everyone poking and proding you so well. We love you little guy and are so grateful you're ok. 

Love you all, 

Mum xxx

ETA: Three months later we had your check up at the children's hospital and you have made a complete recovery. We are so, so lucky.