Bird, blood, broth and bubbles

Monday 27th: I got a very excited call that a bird had landed on Hannah's arm. So I quickly got out with a camera.
The bird was injured and didn't last very long. They enjoyed giving it a bit of love though.

On Friday I took Ruth to the doctor as she had a swollen toe when she got back from her holiday. She last had a swollen finger in July 2009 - so it's been a good 6 years since we last had this. Time to get some blood work done though and just check on a few things. So on Tuesday morning we did a fasting blood test and checked a few things. Although the one vein looked really good, as soon as the first vial was filled, the blood just stopped flowing. It took 3 more pricks to get the 2nd one filled. Ruth was so good and patient.
Ruth, Hezekiah and Hannah enjoyed playing with the left over icing.
Hezekiah created a nice colour with the black and blue.

So much fun.

The volcano that got created.

And our family fun was watching the recorded episode of Master Chief New Zealand from Sunday night. All we knew was that Leo (who works on the farm where Brendon works) made it into the top 16. It was so exciting for everyone to see him - and then even more exciting when they spoke about his job on the pig farm and had this shot of him with some sows and piglets. I can see this becoming our weekly tradition. The kids have always enjoyed watching Master Chief - but it is even more enjoyable when there is someone on that you know. :-)

Tuesday 28th. A friend tries to come around for an hour, 3 times a week. She spends some time reading with Hannah and then watches Asher for me so that I can get some jobs done around the house. It has been such a blessing for me to get that little chunk of time in the day to get a few things done.

After lunch I spotted Ruth giving Hannah and Hezekiah a few "drill" lessons.
It's a bit tricky teaching Hezekiah "left, left, left, right, left," when he doesn't know his left and right yet. :-)
Wednesday 29th: Look at that monkey, Hezekiah, and how he decided to look at the book Hannah was reading.
Too much "cheese" from me on this one.
It is always so nice to see Hezekiah and Hannah enjoying a game together. Dad made the photo even more memorable by "photo bombing" it. :-)
We had to laugh at Puss this week. I have been reading a book "Cure Tooth Decay" about Healing and preventing tooth decay with nutrition.  It reminded me of how good bone broth is - and so I have had some going. The smell is obviously so tempting for Puss - she just sits under the slow cooker - perhaps longing for a taste.

Thursday 30th - Asher enjoying a bit of iPad time - chilling with Dad. Such a cutie. I just loved the way she was sitting with her leg up.

Friday 31st: Asher using her visual cards at Champion Centre. The bubbles worked really well as she was encouraged to say "more" and then "bubbles" or at least point to the bubble picture, every time she wanted the teacher to blow again. It's a lovely repetitive game and Asher was more than happy to ask for "more" every time. :-)
The hope is that she will learn to combine two words. For now she can use the sign for more or the picture for bubbles and at least join two words in a different way (even if not saying two words). Sometimes she did her sign for "more" and then tried to say "bubbles" which was lovely to hear. She obviously had loads of motivation to learn that word. ;-)
Ruth had the job today of putting velcro onto the back of Asher's set of pictures that she uses at home. Great job Ruth.