Loft bed, new car and matching pants

Wed 24th: Ruth always likes putting Anastasia on Asher's lap. Asher is getting better all the time at interacting with Anastasia.
Unfortunately Asher started pacing again this morning and had a seizure at 11:30.
As she looked ok after her sleep, I thought I would take her with to the pool this afternoon. Making sure her goggles went on before she walked into the pool area (as last time she walked past the pool first - so I wanted to make sure that wasn't the issue). Unfortunately after some fun in the pool she again had a seizure. So the mystery still remains as to why she coped for so many hours in the pools at Hanmer. Thankfully she had wanted to get out the pool and so she was walking around with me when the seizure started. It may have been a lot harder for me to get her out the pool.

Thursday 25th: Ruth loves putting Anastasia up in a sitting position. Here they are having some giggles together.
Asher had another seizure this morning at 10:30. Just 1/2 a minute this time.
So there was no way I was taking her to the pool this afternoon. Brendon watched her and Anastasia though, so that I could go and have a swim with the children. It was so good to get a lot of lengths in. It was SO hot today, so it was great to cool off and get some exercise. The pool temperature has been in the 30s, but with the outside temp at 37, it's still wonderfully refreshing.

For months now Ruth has been investigating getting a loft bed. So she was thrilled when it finally got made today. She has been working over the summer holidays and her one big goal with earning some extra money was buying a loft bed. She could not afford it herself, but did contributed financially to getting it made. She is so happy with how big her bedroom is now. :-)
Fri 26th: Ruth setting up cuddles again. :-)

With Rachel having her restricted licence in a manual car, she can now switch to an automatic and when she does her final license (even though in an automatic) she will not have it restricted to automatic only. So with her working this summer, she has earned enough to upgrade from her 3 door manual. So I got hunting today on Trade Me and found this car which Brendon and Rachel went to town to test drive.

They were both really pleased with it and we got a real bargain as the guy just needed a quick cash sale as he has to fix one of his other cards.
Rachel is very pleased with her upgrade.
(Note: Our next step was to sell her manual. Within a week of just mentioning that it was up for sale, it got sold.)

We headed to the final Summer Friday night bible study. Normally Brendon will take Hezekiah and Asher home after dinner, but this evening we decided to see if we could manage with Asher there. It went so well. We brought an self-inflating mattress and her own familiar pillow and blanket. At 7:30 when the study started (and the time she normally goes to bed) we switched off her music DVD and she happily went to sleep.
Hezekiah and Hannah enjoyed playing before and after the study and Hezekiah did really well sitting quietly through the study too. If only we had tried it a couple of weeks ago. :-)

Sat 27th: Ruth is very busy sorting out her room now that she has her new bed. I suggested she use one of the 3 bean bags we have to fill up the other two as they are all looking a bit empty. These bean bags are really good quality leather ones that Nana gave us when Rachel was still a baby. So they have lasted wonderfully well.


BELOW: It was so hot again today and there was no ice cream in the freezer, so we decided to help everyone cool off with ice cream Sundays at the tearooms. A nice last minute family treat.

Ruth's room looking nice and organized. I had suggested getting some rails for under her bed for hanging up her shirts as well as dresses. Her shirt draw is always really hard to keep organized, so I think this will work really well for her.
Looking so nice and neat.

Monday 29th: Asher had not had another seizure since Thursday so we thought we would try the pool again today. Unfortunately she again had a seizure. This time Brendon and I were both there with Anastasia (she had just woken when they were leaving). So I took Brendon, Asher and Anastasia home and then went back to join the children for a swim. It was great getting to help Ruth with her swimming as well as get more lengths in myself.
Tuesday 30th: The children only start school tomorrow but Champion Centre started today. So Ruth came with me. It was great having her with to help with Asher as I had my hands full with Anastasia.

We even made a parent child outing out of it and did some shopping on the way home. We now have matching pants. I saw a mum at the pool with shorts like this to swim in, and it looked like a great idea.

BELOW: An updated video of Anastasia "talking". I do wish I had gotten one with her talking to Debbie last week. It was so precious.
Thanks for filming Ruth.


Wednesday 31st: School started today but as Asher will be having visits next week and starting soon after that, I decided to wait on taking a "2018 school photo".

Dad and Hannah went to collect the eggs this afternoon and enjoyed a treat at the tearooms. It's working out well to have a forced little outing each week (even though the pickup is only 5 minutes away). It's a good excuse to get some one-on-one time.