Kittens and Jamboree swaps

Monday 11th: Kittens doing some more exploring.
At midday Asher had a 1 minute Tonic Clonic seizure. Thankfully she was lying down when it started, so she didn't fall. I was also thankful that she had already had some of her lunch (earlier than normal) and so could just have her afternoon nap a bit earlier.
In the afternoon I headed into town with Rachel for an orthopaedic check up. It was good to know that enough movement has happened over the last 8 weeks, and they will not need to take teeth out. Today just involved changing the elastics that hold the wire on. The wire stayed the same. This wire pulls the teeth into the correct position. Future wires will work at helping the teeth to learn to stay put.

Here are photos comparing the day they were put on, to now, 8 weeks later. Just look at the shape of that wire and how much it has changed.
The wire has incredible technology. It was developed for space. They made their space vessel out of this metal and then almost froze it. At these cold temperatures, it is totally flexible, so they could pack it into a tiny little package and blast it up into space. Once in space, it was taken out it's "box" and with the warmer temperature, it would just move back into it's created form.
So you can see how this helps with braces. The wire will constantly work towards getting back to it's created shape. The orthodontist said that if she ever feels like just having a "break" from the pulling, she must eat cold things. The wire will "relax" at cold temperatures.

Tuesday 12th. Asher had the runs this morning, poor girl. She was really good at getting to the toilet in time, at least 5 times through the morning. She was clearly more tired than normal and brought her blanket and teddy from bed to rest in the lounge.

Still enough energy to smile for the camera. :-)
I saw the doc later this afternoon for the yearly paperwork for her Disability Allowance. I mentioned her diarrhoea and he was not overly concerned. He said that there are a few people in the area that have some bug (I can't remember the name) and that it can carry on for up to 3 weeks (with 1 to 3 motions a day). So as long as she is not lethargic and dehydrating, we don't need to be concerned. There is nothing they can do to help.
I got her onto our homoeopathic remedy for diarrhoea and thankfully she was fine by the next morning.

Brendon took the afternoon off so that I could head away at lunch time to fetch Ruth. They could only be collected from 1pm, and I made it there by around 1:30. I was glad she didn't have to wait too long for me.
She had an amazing time at Jamboree. She is very tired from not much sleep. Getting to bed at 10pm and up at 6. She did really well through the afternoon though and was much better than she has been after previous camps (even though this one was so much longer).
And just look at how many swaps she got for her hat. It looks great.
I was specifically wondering how she would do after a week of food that was not FAILSAFE. We have been working on healing over the last month with a very detailed supplemental programme. And it seems it has already been a huge help to her.
I had sent a bag full of FAILSAFE food as options for her if she wasn't feel good (or wasn't sleeping well), but she didn't eat any of it.
I knew she was doing really well when she told me that on the last night they had a little final ceremony with their Purple Panda unit (with 30 girls) before heading to the big final ceremony with the whole camp (1,400 girls). She had the courage to ask the leader if she could hand out the little Purple Panda badges that she had made.
Ruth was pleased to see how much the kittens have grown and how much they are enjoying exploring.

Ruth enjoyed taking some photos of them.
Just look how big they have gotten. Almost 4 weeks old now.

How cute is that little black and white face!

Wednesday 13th: Ruth enjoying some more close ups of the cats.
On may way into town yesterday I dropped Rachel off to spend the night with a ballet friend. They keep in contact regularly via text, so it was nice for them to get some time together.
My back has been hurting me quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, so I made an appointment this afternoon with our osteopath who has now moved to Kaipoi. Ruth travelled with me to the appointment and we picked Rachel up on the way home. The treatment was immediately helpful and even driving home was so much more comfortable. No more mornings waking up and feeling like I can't even stand up straight.
Thursday 14th: With Ruth back they got to enjoy play dough time. Ruth takes responsibility for supervising Asher as she is so good with her.

Friday 15th: Last night Puss was making a lot of noise in the passage with the kittens. The previous two nights she ended up taking them under Ruth's bed. On Wednesday night she had done that and her meowing at the kittens kept Ruth up for a while. So last night I decided to rather move them to the fire place area. This way they still have a protected area (that Shadow can't get to) and I get my passage cupboard back. :-) Thankfully Puss seems happy with it and stayed here the whole night.

It's gives the kittens a lovely play area.

And Shadow gets to sit and enjoy watching them without blocking the passage.

Once Asher was in bed I suggested Ruth get all her blanket patches out and decide where she is going to put them on her camp fire blanket.
She ended up getting 55 extra badges for her blanket. It looks great. Now just all the work of sewing them on.
She only ended up with 2 doubles. I asked Rachel if she still had some extra badges to swap (doubles that she had from her guiding days) and she did. So Ruth got a couple more swapped with Rachel. :-)
Her hat looks great too.


From the other side.

At 5:45 Asher had a 1 minute vacant seizure. She didn't breath through it again, so we were very thankful that it was so short. That big breath when it stops is such a relief for us all.
After a great 16 day break in December, she has now had 4 seizures in the last 16 days. So not a nice start to the year for her.
She didn't have a full hour nap which was good because it allowed her to have some time to play before bed (and still get to bed at the normal time). I was really impressed that she let Hezekiah join in with her new game. She has been playing with these bottles for a while, but yesterday I gave her some beads to add to the game. Hezekiah told me that he had sorted them so that Asher had all the green ones and he had the rest. :-)