Swimming fun and challenges

Monday 4th Feb: Hannah enjoyed joining in with some other children with their big tube today.

Tuesday 5th: Asher taking a hug from Hezekiah this morning. She often enjoys hugs in the morning. It generally has to be on her terms though.

Fun at the pool this afternoon. It's wonderful to see Hezekiah so quickly confident to jump off the top step.
Didn't get them both in the air at the same time - but still cool action photos.

Wed 6th: Ruth strong enough to hold a very heavy Asher who doesn't have any idea of how big she is getting.
That's a very big baby to have on your hip Ruth. :-)
Anastasia has been enjoying this little horse toy lately. Ruth spotted her lying with her head on the pillow and took this photo. Such a cutie.

Thursday 7th: Brooke brought one of their puppies over for us to cuddle this afternoon.

Friday 8th: Story time with Dad. Anastasia does love books.
She had an odd rash on her legs today. Thankfully it cleared quickly enough.

Sunday 10th: We enjoyed a lunch at friends after church today. Anastasia loved their swing.

Thursday 14th: Senior swimming sports today. Ruth's worst day of the year perhaps. She struggles so much with her swimming but is so dedicated to being a good example and doing her part, that she does as best she can. Every race they swim in gives points to their house. So these are very hard earned points. She loves the water (she has enjoyed the water most out of all of our children) but has struggled the most with the strokes. Backstroke is the easiest as she doesn't have to fight to breath.
(NOTE: Only writing this in September 2019, I have now met a top swimming coach from the USA. She told me that it's because of her body type. She just sinks. She has worked with African Americans and although it's possible to help them - it takes a lot of specific training as they have a huge physical disadvantage.)

With it being Valentine's Day - the children decided at the last minute to send us out for dinner (paid for by them). What a blessing they are. And Rachel even lent me her dress so I had something special to wear.
Thank you girls.

Photos of our dinner at the relatively new local restaurant (as they were eager to know what we had).

It's been a while since Brendon has enjoyed some ribs - so this was a lovely treat.

10 pin, swim, school and cool

Sunday 27th: I needed to get to town to return something (within the 14 days of purchasing it on-line) and so we decided to make a day of it. We managed to get a carer for Asher and Anastasia again, so could enjoy a fun day out with these 4. Ten pin bowling was the venue. I went when I was a guide leader around 8 years ago, but we can't remember when last Brendon has been bowling. The decades of not playing didn't bother him though and he got loads of strikes and spares.
It was lovely to do something totally different and make some wonderful memories with the children.
10 Pin Bowling Quik story. Everyone got at least 1 spare (I just didn't get them all on video). Got some great ones though.

Nice to have a print out of the score card. The younger three had the sides up to help them and even the playing field. Which meant that I ended up coming last on both games. :-)
I post the score cards here as I'm sure Ruth will enjoy looking back to them if / when we get to play again.

Arcade video. With the holiday special we got (with 2 games) we also got free arcade coins. So had some fun with those after the games.

Monday 28th: Asher "reading" to Anastasia this morning. Anastasia had the book and Asher took it from her. So I just put Anastasia next to her so that she cook look while Asher paged through. It was very sweet.

Cuddles with Ruth this morning.

She still enjoys climbing in boxes. We have to keep her from climbing in the ball box (which is smaller than this).
Swim 28 Jan. We headed down to the pool this afternoon at 5pm. Here is a video of some of the fun.

Posing for a photo.
Unfortunately it was too late in the afternoon and Asher ended up having a seizure while in the pool. We can only guess that the light's angle is too much later in the day. All the other successful swims have been closer to midday. It was only about a minute and a half. That's only the 2nd seizure in January though.

Tuesday 29th: Asher wanted to give Anastasia her milk today.
It was very sweet.

Once I got her position right they both carried on playing while she drank. :-)

Wednesday 30th: First day of school 2019. And all in new uniforms too. Looking so good.
Ruth is year 9, Hannah is year 7, Hezekiah is year 3 and Asher is year 2.

After her time on the trampoline she had a swing but then clearly told me she wanted to have a swing on this one too. She saw Asher in it the other day - so that's enough to make her want to do the same. :-)
Swim 30 Jan. Rachel stayed home with Asher and Anastasia (who was sleeping) and so we had a great time at the pool testing out the GoPro a bit more. Here is fun video (including slow motion which was fun).

I've learnt how to take photo snap shots off the videos too. Hezekiah had never jumped off the bench before and was so brave today. At first he started on the lower step and everyone was cheering him on. He wanted Dad to grab him as he landed. He did that just once and then went to the top. He didn't even hesitate too long and went for it - with loads of applause from the kids around. It was really cool to have them all supporting him like that.

And once he had jumped with Dad there for a couple of times, he even had the courage to do it on his own - realizing that he would automatically come up.
He had been doing some "jumping" from Dad's arms before, and then Hannah came over. She is too big, so had to go on his shoulders. She did a great diver that I only just got on video. The video didn't work, but this snap shot of the video was cool. Hezekiah then had a go on Dad's shoulders too and did a great job.
It was lovely to be able to get the time with them at the pool having fun like this.
Thankfully Asher got to swim at school today and it went fine. With them going more to the middle of the day it seems to not be such a trigger for seizures. She has her dark goggles, and I am just thrilled that she has gotten to go. So she didn't miss out completely today.
Talking about little children enjoying boxes, Asher decided she would use this one as a little hut. It was so cute seeing her back up to it.
Thursday 31st: Full school assembly this morning to welcome the new students and teachers. I was so surprised to hear that Ruth had been selected as a deputy house captain. She is the youngest one. Well done Ruth.
Asher had a challenging start to school yesterday. I asked the carer who gets her ready to rather stay with Anastasia while I took her up. That was a good call because I had to forcefully keep her in the new classroom. She wanted to just run when things were all so different, but I knew that if we allowed her to get into the habit of going to the previous class or hiding in the store room - she would want to do that every time she was unsettled. Thankfully with me holding her tight, she was able to get her iPad with familiar games and then eventually notice that there were other familiar games there too.
Today the carer took her to school and although she did need to direct her to the new classroom, once she was inside she found her desk and familiar things. What a relief.
She was also fine both Wed and Thursday at the end of the day. First playing in the sandpit and then today making bubbles. It was good that she was happily busy, and not at the gate rattling it to go home. So on the whole a very good start to the new year for her.

Friday 1st Feb: Uniforms all into the wash when they got home and I love the colours they changed into. What a cool summer photo.
Asher had a more difficult day today. She was not herself in the morning and eventually I had to pick her up just after midday (she fought to even take her medicine which is never normally an issue at school). Thankfully she was ok through the afternoon and as you can see in the photo above - she didn't look sick at all. She didn't' want to eat much today and so something must be up. Hopefully its nothing serious.
This evening I got the step for Anastasia to climb onto. She had so much fun and was so proud of herself.
Ruth had a busy evening packing for her first kiwi-watch trip for the year tomorrow. With her best friend not going (and her mother) Ruth had to organize and carry all her food this time. Thankfully Rachel got two free tramping packs and let Ruth borrow one. It will be good to have the weight off her shoulders.

Swim, watch, walk and first tooth out

Monday 31st: Asher really enjoyed the swim today. Her new fun activity is jumping off the step in the deep end.
Anastasia wasn't that sure about it all.
I made a video as I had so many photos.

Tuesday 1st Jan 2019. First children photo for this year.
And a fun day in town. Dad wasn't interested in the movie the kids wanted to watch, so he watched Anastasia while the rest of us were in the movie. Thankfully she fell asleep in her buggy. Asher was at a carer. So it was a nice treat to get to watch another movie with the children.
Enjoying the games again.

Wednesday 2nd: We managed to get a carer for Asher again this morning so that we could take the kids up to the lookout.
This back-pack is the one we bought when Rachel was a baby. So nice to be able to use it with Anastasia.

Perfect weather. Just so beautiful.
Again a video to include more photos from the day.

It got hot this afternoon, so Ruth enjoyed dressing Anastasia like Moana (you can guess what was on TV recently). :-)
Fun on the trampoline

Friday 4th: Ruth enjoying reading to Anastasia

and Asher.

Saturday 5th: It was so hot today that I suggested we head to the tea room for ice cream. Everyone was thrilled at the idea. Asher did really well (as we forgot her buggy) and Anastasia had a little bit (she still needs to stay off dairy).

Hezekiah and Hannah went for a swim later this afternoon. I was really moved by this big family who were at the pool. Apparently they were here on a previous day when Brendon had taken them. They included our two in their games and were so kind and friendly. It was really special.

Asher has also lost her first baby tooth. We had seen they were getting loose and saw the gaps growing between the teeth. Her right one is out but that left one is very loose (and you can see the gap between it and the next tooth - it almost looks like it's in the middle). It was so strange to not hear about the wiggly tooth for days or weeks before it came out. And we don't even know when it came out. So quite a different experience for us with Asher. I suspect it will be the same for most of her baby teeth.