A New Year, With Some Kind Of New Outlook…

So the working week has finally begun after a well-deserved (and I don’t think I am tooting my own horn here) break.

This is my first post for 2012 as I took a break from blogging as well. I felt I needed to come back refreshed and attempt to have a positive outlook for the year ahead. The slog that was 2011 is behind me and I am trying to get things better all around.

The Festive Season had its fair share of drama that makes me cringe when I think about it.

We went to the in-laws for Christmas day lunch and the kids and family had a wonderful time. Only for A1, myself and A to be struck by food poisoning 24hrs later.

Note: ok, so maybe it was anywhere between 8 – 10 hrs later. And yes it was food poisoning. Some name that is long and complicated to spell and that activates within 8 – 10 hrs of ingesting said infected food (I googled clearly). Was. Not. Amused. The debilitating cramps sucked.

Luckily A had the mild version so wasn’t as sick. N didn’t have it because she is a fussy eater. I had a medium case and A1 had it worse out of all of us. It took the rest of the bloody week for the crap feeling and cramps to subside. Like literally a day before we were to spend New Year’s day lunch at the in-laws.  We survived.

After all of this we finally got to get a bit of a vacation at the coast. Ok, so we live at the coast, but we went to another area of the coast for our holiday. It was hot weather all around. The kids had a blast. We were sunburnt and exhausted. But the kids had fun. We suffered through a terrible tantrum at the mall. But the kids had fun. We didn’t get to do half of what we wanted to do. But the kids had fun. Did I mention we were exhausted? But the bloody kids had fun!

And so this brings me back to where I started. Yes, the work week has begun and so far so good (except for not being able to log into my pc for the first part of the morning. Amazingly I have remained somewhat calm). I am attempting to keep a positive outlook on this and not be as hell bent to put myself into the hospital suffering from a stroke. I will take things at a pace where I will do what I am capable of in the time I have allocated. I will also not be walked all over and will not shut up when I see that things are bordering on bloody ridiculous. Enough is enough and I will NOT be a doormat.

So here is to a super and productive if not zen 2012 folks!

Amazing Little N….

I will forever and a day be amazed at the strength kids possess. Strength that enable us as parents to actually be calm enough to go through whatever needs to be done without having a complete meltdown.

N went for her procedure yesterday and she was such a trooper. My baby handled it with the style and grace of someone waaay beyond her years. She took the gas mask and didn’t nearly have the fit I thought she was going to have. A little bit of a struggle, but that part went well.

When she came out of surgery she was still asleep. And woke up as peaceful as a lamb. No crying, nothing!

She is now breathing so clearly I had to check last night if she was breathing! Yes, I was utterly and completely paranoid. You see, after a while of being able to hear her from afar when she snored, to now hearing nothing, it can be just a bit scary.

Just happy that her experience at the hospital was one where she wouldn’t have nightmares after.

All’s well that ends well.

 

Anything surprise or truly amaze you about your kids recently?

The Art Of Remaining Level Headed Escapes Me…

So we all wake up relatively early yesterday morning to get ready for N’s ENT Specialist appointment.

 We had to wake her up! Every other bloody morning she is up at sparrow fart, but yesterday morning? Nope, we had to wake her. She seemed ok. And what I mean is that she wasn’t in a crap mood (coz she can be, which would have made yesterday a terrible experience) and I breathed a sigh of relief.

We had to sneak out of the house, so A (who stayed with L) would not have a fit coz he didn’t get to “go out”. We were finally off and made it to the ENT’s office in good time.

N played in the waiting room with the kids’ stuff and we were the only ones there. The doc arrived like 15 minutes late for our appt. I hate waiting especially when it has to do with my kid. But I sucked it up and we went in.

N was such a trooper and sat (to my amazement) quite still on my lap while doc checked her ears, nose and throat. Granted he was really good with her and played with her to make her comfortable. That made me relax somewhat.

I tensed up again when he sent us to get X-Rays of N’s nasal passages to check her adenoids. She had never been before and I was extremely nervous of her reaction.

Don’t you think my baby takes it like a trooper? Hellyes!! She lay nice and still on the table, even when the X-Ray chick held her head to position it correctly. She didn’t make a peep. No moaning or crying! I was so proud!

Side note: clearly I come from the age of still waiting to get X-Ray slides. Apparently they now email the scans straight to the doc and you don’t have to wait for an eternity! Who Knew?

Back in the docs office and he shows us N’s adenoids are highly enlarged. My heart sank. I knew where this was going.

The gap in her nasal passages left for her to breathe is only about 1mm!

She would have to have them removed.

I wanted to cry right there. Although it’s a painless procedure she still has to go under anesthetic. I have to go into the theatre with her until they knock her out and then leave them to do their thing. I don’t think I’m strong enough. I don’t know how she will be when she wakes up. I’m paranoid and irrational and the thought makes me get a lump in my throat.

She goes in next Thursday. I have to mentally prepare myself. She can’t have anything to eat before the op. We have to be at the hospital at 7am. Meaning we wake her up and get ready and if she wants something we have to completely not give her anything. My heart breaks.

I’m gonna be a wreck.

Now to add to this A has a cold. Might be flu but am determined not to let it get that far. So sleeping is rough at the moment. And we now have to make sure that N doesn’t catch it. Right, how well do you think that is going to work???

And did I mention we got car back after clutch cable snapped? Repairs cost over R3000!

I’m starting to feel slightly unstable here. But I need to hold it together. I need to not just go ahead and scream. I need to not have a complete meltdown and go hide in a corner.

I need to.

Weekend Roundup…

My little girl is still snoring like a bear. Poor thing. I have now gone ahead and made an appointment with the ENT specialist to see what exactly the problem is.

I would really hate for it to be that the adenoids need to be removed. Not cool. And I don’t know who would be traumatized more, me or N. In hindsight, I reckon it will probably be me. I know that adenoid removal isn’t the most life threatening surgery you can imagine but the thought of my little girl going for any kind of hospital procedure puts a lump in my throat. Of course I could, as usual, be over reacting. It could actually be something that can be taken care of with meds. Let’s hope so.

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We let the kids watch the remake of the Smurfs this weekend. Had to laugh at A coz he kept on saying “Smurppss”. I’m laughing now as I type this. Sadly though N is not amused by the little blue people and tends to shut her ears and hide away. I think its coz they’re blue and weird looking. She did the same with the movie Megamind. Poor A will just have to forget about the “Smurppss” for a while.

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I think N’s obsession (and I do mean exactly that) with biscuits is becoming rather alarming. She wants biscuits after breakfast, lunch, supper and also at snack time. She will take other stuff but will always come back to a “bisik”. That’s her word for biscuit.

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So Friday I’m on my way home after dropping off L. I’m driving merrily along when all of a sudden I hear like a snapping sound and my clutch drops to the bottom. Shit! Clutch cable snaps while I am driving! I somehow remain cool calm and collected and just kinda managed to put it into neutral and just free it up until I couldn’t go anymore. I managed to get into the road where my folks live and my dad came to tow me up to their place.

It’s going to cost a bit to fix it. I can feel it in my bones.

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So I reckon all in all a rather interesting weekend. Hope you all had a fab one. Any interesting stories?