A 7 year old and a container painted

Wednesday 3rd October: Happy 7th Birthday Hezekiah. What a lovely pile of presents you have this year. So nice that his sisters each got him something special.

He asked to have 4 friends come and play today and was blessed with more presents. What a treat. And such lovely gifts too.

Even though he has his birthday cake last week, it just didn't feel right not having a cake on the day, so Rachel quickly made a cake this morning for him to enjoy with his friends. And nice to have Happy Birthday sung to you on the correct day too. Hezekiah always gets a bit shy when people sing for him. :-)
Ruth created balloon items for the children.

And organized some games too. I'm so glad they could all come and make it a really special morning for Hezekiah.
BELOW: In the afternoon the team arrived to start preparing the container for painting. We needed to get the foundation of the house repaired (the last of the earthquake repair work) and as it was such a small job, no one really wanted to do it on it's own. The container does need a good seal too, so it was good to get both jobs done.

My two babies deciding it was fun to climb on Mum this afternoon.

Hezekiah enjoyed keeping them company during their afternoon tea break.
At first he didn't know if they were speaking English. He then heard Brendon or I talking to them and realized it was just an accent. So he told me he could understand them now. :-) They were so friendly and I think enjoyed chatting away with him.

Thursday 4th: There was a community event this morning which I headed up to with Ruth, Hannah and Hezekiah. There were unfortunately not many other children present, but they enjoyed doing the colouring in competition and getting some hot chocolate and chocolates. There was a sausage sizzle too, with bottles of water. I mention this because Hezekiah was thrilled to get a bottle of water. He doesn't like fizzy drink at all (he says it burns his tongue) and so this was his preference by far.
There was a bit of a talk on how to use the Defibrillator (there will be one installed outside the 4-square for access 24 hours a day) and they also handed out a Hand Turbine Torch Radio to each family who came.
It was nice for me to catch up with a few people that I have met before from the Red Cross and Wellbeing North Canterbury.
BELOW: Hezekiah was keen to be able to help cover the windows this afternoon.

I thought I should take a photo of Anastasia's new swaddle. I had spoken to the Plunket Nurse about her need for swaddling and how I was uncomfortable with the safety now that she is moving so much. And it would be so hot in summer. She suggested trying these swaddles that have little "angel wings" for their arms. In this way they have a bit more freedom to move (she can comfortable wiggle into any position she wants and can even sit up if she tries).
It does however just give her the bit of restriction that she still needs.
If she is not in this she won't fall asleep and will also startle herself awake often. So I am so thankful she has taken to this so well.
The reason it's blue - it was a cheap 2nd hand one on trade me. :-)
Friday 5th: Some rust treatment done today. It was just too wet though and they could not get much done.

Saturday 6th: Our Saturday BBQ - rain or shine. Thankfully the rain did stop long enough for them to enjoy a bit of time riding around on the deck.
For those who are wondering why Asher is often still in her pjs so late in the day - let me explain.
Through the holidays I got into doing this because if I tried to dress her, she would immediately start talking about going in the car. And then she just won't stop. She LOVES going in the car. So I just got into the routine of just waiting till she needed to go to the toilet (which was sometimes only after lunch) and then when she takes her pj's off for that, I then put clothes on her.
It's the same reason everyone spells b-a-t-h in our house and the words shower and car have to be avoided. :-)

Sunday 7th: Anastasia enjoying some hot chips. Still not getting much to go down her throat - but enjoying the experience of having food in her mouth to chew, and NOT gagging.
She is enjoying standing on her own a lot now. We got her to clap and she was so well balanced.

Monday 8th: A wonderfully clear day today to get the painting done. First the white undercoat. Then two layers of the colour. It wasn't quite as brown as we had hoped, but I still think it looks great.

Ruth giving Anastasia some gym workout.

While Anastasia napped Asher had to have her "bed" setup in the lounge. She often plays with dominoes and her iPad on her bed, and thankfully she was happy to have her pillow and toys brought to the lounge. I love the way she has put her leg on Ruth. She often takes a bit of affection in this way. Very special.

Anastasia always wants to play with whatever Asher is playing with. Asher is slowly getting better at tolerating Anastasia's involvement.

Holiday fun - week 1

Sat 30th Sep: The holidays have only just started but Ruth has made a great start to her holiday goal - making a number of loom band items to sell. Asher was checking them all out.

At 4:30pm Asher had a 1 min TC. She had a lot of pain afterwards. It always breaks my heart so, especially that there is no comfort we can really give her. We can also only guess as to what pain she has. We can see pain on her face, but she can't tell us what is hurting.

Having some fun with Hezekiah this afternoon (before the seizure). It's not a simple thing for Asher to learn a new "game" so this was really fun to see. They were playing a bit of "tug of war" with the ball.

Sunday 1st October: Children's monthly photo taken this afternoon.

Monday 2nd: This evening we watched a production of "Little Red Ridding Hood". Ruth has an "Act it up" badge that she is doing with Guides, so she got them practicing today for the performance.
Hezekiah made a great wolf.

Well done.

Tuesday 3rd: Hezekiah's 6th birthday today. It was great that Brendon had taken the day off to help with the party this afternoon. So we could enjoy the tradition of opening presents in the morning as a family. Rachel, Hannah and I bought him a transformer each. He absolutely LOVES them.
He had a great time with his friends over in the afternoon. Those pictures getting on their own blog post. :-)

Hannah and Hezekiah regularly get called on to chase the chooks off the deck. There is one chook who loves just sitting down when you want her to move, so Hannah often gets to pick her up. This is as close as Ruth will get though. She doesn't like the idea of picking them up (even though she has tried).

Ruth and Hezekiah loved the Lego Star Wars ship that he got from a friend for his birthday. Ruth enjoyed building it for him this evening.

Seizure update:
Wed 3pm - 1m TC with pain afterwards again.
Thu 7:15am - 1m TC with shivering afterwards (thankfully no pain).
Thu 7pm - 1m TC with a bit of pain and shivering.
Thankfully she had a nice break after these 3.

Wednesday 4th: This game that he got from another friend is also very popular. (It got so much use this holiday.)
The original plan was that Brendon and I would go and see my midwife for my check up early this evening, but for the first time she had to cancel as she was at a birth. I had shopping to do though, so we just headed down to Amberley and enjoyed some time together (and something special to eat).

Friday 6th: Hezekiah got to visit his friend Sam this morning and Rachel watched Asher so that I could take Ruth and Hannah to a free skate lesson in town that the Champion Centre were given for their families. It was nice for the girls to get this special treat today.
Hannah showing me how she is learning to turn (lifting the front).

I got a bit of shopping done while they were busy (like getting a much needed toaster as ours has been playing up for a while now). After the girls were finished we went back to the shops to get some cheap jandals for summer (they were only $1.50 a pair). I also got to enjoy just relaxing and getting some reading done. A rare treat but one that I have been making an effort to get to more lately.

Trying the ramps at the end of the lesson.
It was a nice morning out. We got some lunch before heading home and also treated the family to pizza for dinner. So a real spoil of a day and a nice highlight for their holidays.

On Saturday morning I headed off before anyone was up, for Parent to Parent training in town. It was held at the Commodore Hotel and we had the whole day Saturday, stayed overnight and finished up around 3pm on Sunday. It was a treat in so many ways as well as a time of learning and growing. I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to attend.

Daniel also came for a visit this weekend, as a surprise for Rachel. He arrived before lunch on Saturday and Rachel had NO idea he was coming. No photos were taken through the weekend. It was rather a wet weekend, so they could do their regular park visit. They did make the traditional pancakes though. :-)
Monday 9th: Anakin such a obliging cat. Hezekiah enjoying his cars and his cat this morning.

Happy 6th Birthday Hezekiah

Hezekiah invited over a dozen children to come and play today, but as it's the school holidays many could not come. Having just 5 friends come was enough though and they had a great time together.
Having fun opening presents. Thank you so much to the friends for this.

Ruth had decided that she wanted to do some party games. So she planned a treasure hunt. She helped the one team while Hannah helped the other one.

Ruth bought the party poppers and balloons as the "treasure" at the end and then they had fund doing some balloon racing across the lounge.

Ruth had a pass-the-parcel organized too.

I bought a bit block of ice cream so that we could have an "instant cake" today too. Nice to have candles again and sing for him again.

Wonderfully Brendon took the day off work so that he could help (specifically with Asher). We were also hoping he would read "The book without pictures" for them - which he agreed to do. It's always such a highlight for the children and it's SO much fun listening to (and watching) him read.

Kids charades was enjoyed. Rachel and Ruth were great helpers in getting this working.
A fun filled afternoon.

Flowers, hair and r2d2

Saturday 23rd: Brendon and Rachel loaded up all the building rubbish that needed to be dumped. Hezekiah was a great help too. He brought this piece all on his own. That's still from the container - so it's great to get all the rubbish taken away. There was so much from replacing the shower - so it had to be done sooner rather than later.

Almost half a tonne of junk.







While Dad was out I asked the children to clean the deck. The chooks keep coming up here when it's raining and have made such a mess again. We have a plan to lock them up in a bigger sheltered section when it rains, so it was time to get the deck clean. After a bit of working out how it's done, they worked really well as a team with water and brushes and got it looking SO good.
Daniel arrived before lunch for another weekend visit. I didn't get a photo of them heading to the park this time - but it was a much anticipated outing for Hezekiah and Hannah. They got the old chook area sorted first - so at least we have somewhere dry to lock them up if they keep wanting to come onto the deck to get out the rain.
After another week of no seizures Monday through Friday, Asher had a seizure today at 4pm. It took half an hour to get her settled for her sleep. Thankfully just the one today (not like the 2 last Saturday).

Sunday 24th: Today ended up being a bit of a repeat from last week though. She had a seizure at 11am again (during church) and then another at 6pm. Thankfully the day was better for her this week, but I think she knew something was not right before the 6pm one. She kept coming to me, almost for comfort, and I could see she wasn't looking great. I had just thought about putting a nappy on her but didn't get time. I think in years to come she would be able to tell us that one is coming. Most of the time they hit her by surprise though. Like this morning. She was happily hugging Dad while he sang and looked so comfortable and relaxed. I was enjoying watching her - and then saw as it hit.
Ruth was a star this afternoon and got the other two busy in games outside.
This allowed Rachel and Daniel to have a bit of time in conversation just with each other. :-)

Rachel got some lovely flowers from Daniel. It was nice that they ended up behind them in this photo.
Daniel ended up staying longer than planned this afternoon as we watched The Hunger Games in the afternoon. The movies came on TV recently and although I wasn't sure about the girls watching them - we decided to watch it with the older two while in Hanmer. Rachel decided to do her last English Personal Response on the first two movies. So although it was mainly because we had decided that Hannah could watch them too, Rachel enjoyed watching them again and having Daniel join in. She has written a very good response on a number of the themes in the movies. They are very thought provoking.

Monday 25th: Ruth had her guitar out this evening as the Kapa Haka teacher has asked her to practice a song for the end of year assembly. Asher wanted to join in, so we got "her" guitar/harp out and Hezekiah joined her in making a bit of music.

Tuesday 26th: Champion Centre this morning and then a hospital appointment with her neurologist after lunch. Her OT (and the team leader) from Champion Centre came with to the appointment this afternoon to chat about getting a letter from him in support of Asher's ORS application for her school start in Feb. (Ongoing Resourcing Scheme for students with severe and ongoing needs for special education.) I'm so thankful for all the help the Champion Centre give us through this time of transition to school.

Wednesday 27th: Final school assembly for the term this afternoon and I attended as I usually try to do. Today was an extra special assembly though with a lot more parents present as there were 12 students who shaved their heads for Shave for a Cure. There were 5 girls and it was quite emotional watching them. They were so very brave. This is Ruth's friend. She and another girl in her class raised $800 and $900. In total the school raised over $3,000. What an amazing effort.

I got Hezekiah's birthday cakes made this morning while Asher was at preschool. Once cool they went into the freezer. They will come out Thursday evening and then I will cut them into the shape while frozen (much easier to sculpt with frozen cake) and then Friday morning is icing time.
BELOW: Fun this afternoon. Lately Ruth has often gotten Asher onto her back. She is creating a nice new game with her. It was also so fun to hear the games Hezekiah and Hannah were coming up with.

Unfortunately this peace fell apart when I left for bible study at 6 and Brendon was out from 6-7 at karate. By the time he got back it was more like a war zone. We had planned to have them all home next week while Brendon comes with me to a midwife appointment. We will have to make other plans though. It will have to be "Divide and conquer". It's hard enough for Rachel to watch Asher, so we can't let her have that extra burden of a possible conflict amongst the others.

Thursday 28th: Normally Brendon takes the girls to dancing, but I was so tired this afternoon that I took them so that I could nap in the van while the practiced. I had been struggling to stay awake while watching Asher in the afternoon, so I knew 3 1/2 more hours would just be too much.

Friday 29th: Cake day today as it's the last day of term. So although Hezekiah's birthday is only on Tuesday, it was nice to celebrate with his class today.
Thankfully Josie came around and helped with Asher for 2 hours this morning, so Rachel could help me. She was a great help in rolling the icing out (and colouring the blue). Other than the big piece for his body, she rolled all the rest for me. We had a great production line going.
As I covered a piece, she got the next piece of fondant ready. It was also nice having her input on where to put what "decorations". She also always makes the butter cream icing. She made that while I was taking the children to school so I could get started asap.
I was glad I had done the cutting the night before. I worked solidly on the cake from 9 till when we left at 12:15 to take it for them to have at lunch time.
Hezekiah has been looking forward to today for over a week.
So nice to share this memory with his class. And there was enough cake for Whero class too(where he still has a few friends).
Singing Happy Birthday. The blue candles suited the cake well.
When Hezekiah got home he asked if he could have his presents today (he knows Hannah has bought him something). He will have to wait till Tuesday though. He will have a few friends over for a play in the afternoon (of his actual birthday), so it will be a special day for him and nice that he can look forward to that too.