Ears, cuddles and friends

Monday 15th: Asher got given a pair of bunny ears. She was very pleased about putting them on. :-)

Tuesday 16th: Foosball fun.

Ruth popped this photo through to me. She loves getting Asher to give Anastasia a cuddle.

Wednesday 17th: We planned a trip to town today as we had booked in to get Asher's car seat and buggy adjusted. The children got to play while the guy worked on them. The car seat was quick to adjust (adding and extra piece to it) but the buggy proved much more complicated. So they had to send it away to get adjusted at the warehouse.

It's always fun to have a sliding partner. :-)

After Anastasia woke from her nap she joined in the fun too.

Thursday 18th: Fun with Dad.

These two enjoyed the popcorn that got made today.



Fun with friends.

Friday 19th: Sister cuddles.

Saturday 20th: Asher managed to get these 4 puzzles down. I don't normally allow her to do all of them (I normally limit her to 2). The reason is because 3 of them have the same cut. If I let her do two with the same cut, I normally sit with her and direct her with the pieces (pointing out to her what is on the picture of each piece).
Today I didn't worry about sitting with her and allowed her to build them on her own.
This was the result. We have told people before that she builds puzzles by shape. This was a perfect example of how she does that. She does not have any concern about the jumbled pictures she created. The pieces went into their proper shaped position - and that was all that matters to her.
It's quite interesting for me that she is not interested in sorting them by picture, as she loves sorting in so many other situations.
As it was overcast this afternoon, I took Asher and Anastasia out to the tramp

Unfortunately the sun then came out and Asher had a seizure not long after these photos were taken. It was less than a minute, but so disappointing for me that she can't enjoy this activity more.



Below: The girls had a fun time with Brooke making up funny games with the bikes.

Sunday 21st: In order for the rest of the family to actually get to watch something on the TV, we set up the portable DVD player for Asher. It was very cute to see Anastasia and her watching together.
Tuesday 23rd: Hezekiah loves getting cuddles too.











Ruth's colouring in competition entry. She does love doing these and puts such incredible effort into making them beautiful.

Ruth took this photo for me - Anastasia wanting to help Dad with fixing the cupboard.

Assembly and assemble

Thursday is usually really low of photos. Rachel works in the morning and then I head off to dance in the afternoon with the older 3 girls. At least it starts a bit later this year. And with Ruth and Rachel getting private lessons, they get done at the same time - so that's helpful too.
Friday 24th: If anyone cuts their nails, Asher will hear the first clip and fetches the clippers to do her own nails. :-) She doesn't really cut them, but knows how the clippers work.

I headed up to assembly this afternoon.
Above - Ruth showing the coat of arms she designed. I really love what she created.
Left: Hannah receiving a certificate today.

It says: For showing thought, effort and enthusiasm in all your work, especially your writing, maths and drawing.
Well done Hannah.

It was a really hot day again and I was looking forward to heading to the pool once Brendon got home. Unfortunately he had a bad fall at work and his knee was really swollen and sore. So I ended up going up with Ruth, Hannah and Hezekiah. The girls helped keep an eye on Hezekiah so that I could get a number of lengths swum. It was great to do some of my old training. The only negative was the gross feeling of all the chlorine stuck in my hair afterwards. I couldn't wait to get it washed out. Yuck!

Asher enjoying the new drums we were given. So nice to hear her enjoying them.

At 6 Brendon headed off with the older 3 girls to a Thinking Matters presentation in town. When Brooke came over for a play, I was pleased when she didn't mind staying to play with Hezekiah. They had a great time outside on the bikes and then also joined Asher and I with some ball throwing on the deck.
Asher has such a frustrating little routine going. She would catch the ball, throw it back to me, and then take her boots off. Then the boots go back on and the cycle repeats. Over and over again.
Eventually we managed to break the routine a bit when Brooke and Hezekiah came to play catch too. So we had a nice game going passing the ball around. It was also handy having Brooke around when I needed to prepare Asher's dinner. Asher could just continue playing on the deck while I got it all measured out.






Hezekiah showing me his new trick.

And already managing to ride with one hand. Good job Hezekiah.


Saturday 25th: Not a great way to start the day, as Asher had a 1 1/2 minute Tonic Clonic at 6:15. Thankfully she had a sleep afterwards and woke up fine and ready for the day.

One of the jobs I had on Monday in town with the girls, was fetching the new filters for our water filter system.
Brendon got to change them today. This was the colour change in a year. I believe people in Amberley have theirs looking black. I'm thankfully the water isn't that bad here.
Right: The other filter looks rather grimy. We didn't want to open the new one to compare though. Some of the family had started to taste a difference in the water, so it was good to get them replaced.
Hezekiah being a great helper.

Ball games with Dad and Hezekiah this evening.

Sunday 26th: Ruth decided she wanted to build a puzzle. She can't tackle a very big one as we don't have space in the house (and she doesn't want to build out in her room). So she contented herself with this 221 piece one.

I spent the afternoon doing a lot of food prep and experimenting with menus for Asher. Ruth was a great help. She enjoyed being able to use the scale. Here she is measuring out 1g of baking powder.
I will leave all of Asher's menu details for a separate post.

Teeth, feet, tickle and fingers

Monday 20th Feb: Asher had a fun morning at preschool. Rachel watched her while I prepared her lunch. She made the most of the time and did some stretching while playing with Asher.

Brendon had taken the afternoon off as I had to take both the older girls to town for optometry check ups. Rachel for a check up on her retainer (which she had to wear most of the time till today - she is now allowed to just wear it at night). Ruth also had a yearly checkup to see how her teeth are moving and if they are correcting themselves at all.

We were wondering about the blanket of grey that we were approaching. Could it be the build up of smoke from the Christchurch Port Hills Fires last week? We were really surprised when on the other side of Amberley we already entered it. It was like driving in smog. All the way to town. And a bit chilly with it too. So strange to know it was a wonderfully blue sky just above that - and it was so hot at home.
We had a fun afternoon together too - getting some errands done. We did a bit of clothes shopping too, and Rachel bought matching tops for her and Ruth for dancing. Such nice tops as they can just zip off. They are nice and warm but lightweight too. What a special treat for Ruth.

It was special for Rachel too as she got to use her new bank card for the first time. In the past I have just been drawing cash for her and transferring it from her account to mine. Now she has full access to her account herself - with the appropriate card. So nice to grow up. :-)

Asher enjoying some puzzles this evening. And Ruth enjoying her new summer pjs.
You may also have noticed the bandage on Rut's foot. She had an insect bite from the weekend tramp that was worrying her, so I put some of my paste on it. The paste was a bit old though, so wasn't working very well. She took an ice pack to bed for it, but I wasn't surprised to see her later that night.

She came in because she could not sleep because of the pain. I know that feeling all to well. So I made a new batch of paste up, got it onto her foot and wrapped up and she headed off to bed. As her whole ankle was swollen, it used quite a bit of it up. So I then made another batch of paste so that there was enough for the morning and for her to take with to school if she needed to re-do it. Ingredients: Coconut oil, clay, lavender essential oil (to sooth) and Frankincense oil (to fight infection and help it heal).

Tuesday 21st: Asher enjoying her computer session, and just minutes after this she had a 1 minute Tonic Clonic. I only then realised that it was already after 10am. In future I will make sure she has her morning snack by 10 (in between two sessions) so that I know that is not causing a problem for her. She normally has her snack at 10 and breakfast was a little earlier today with our early start.







We had already arranged to go to the hospital to meet up with the dietitian, so we just managed to get that done a bit earlier today. The Outpatients area has all been redone - but Asher didn't mind the change because all she saw was the familiar Thomas the Train. Thankfully it was really quiet, so we just sat and chatted in the waiting room while she played with the train.
Asher has lost 700g over the last week, so the dietitian has increased her calories. Which means more fat and a bit more carbs with each meal. No extra protein however, as she is getting just 1g a day per kg of weight. And that was worked on her weight last week of 15.3 (not the 14.6 that she is today). So at least the protein has not been reduced.
She had a nap on the way home. She hadn't slept for a full hour this morning, so she was probably just catching up (she never sleeps in the car).

Ruth forgot last week to show us the certificate she got in the singing assembly (parents don't go to that one). It is a blessing to know she is respectful and polite at school.

Wednesday 22nd: Lynda had to look after her grandchildren today while their little sister was born, so Asher had the morning at home.
A bit of tickle time with Rachel while I got a job done.

It was so hot today so we headed up to the pool one Brendon was home from work.

Hannah showing us how well she is doing with jumping into the deep end - off the top driving board.
Asher just loves the water. It's rather hard with her though as she thinks she can just go on her own. She often pushes away from you when you are holding her. Hezekiah has gotten really good about going under the water. Even without his goggles on. Well done my boy - we are so proud of you getting over that fear so quickly.
The secret agent assignment I gave him worked so well. :-)
The few extra people left and we had the pool to ourselves.
And then some last jumps.

The girls had guitar practice today and their teacher put some new strings onto another guitar we had gotten. So the three of us got to play a bit. My fingers didn't last very long on the metal strings though, so eventually Rachel switched and I got my one to use (which is much more comfortable for me). She will practice between the two to get her fingers stronger. She has started saving up to buy herself a proper guitar.