Trip to the Aviva Stadium

Last week Derek took Dylan to the Aviva Stadium. It's relatively new, he took him to see a Leinster rugby match, which is kind of a big deal here! Dylan had an a brilliant time, their seats were amazing and they had a great view. I was delighted that they had a father/son evening all to themselves. They took the train in and out, and spent some great quality time together. I know it meant a lot to them both. Lauren and I went to visit with some friends when they were at the match, and Lauren and her little friend had a really nice play date!

Here's the boys before the big match...

Waiting for the match to start...

The view from their seats

One happy little boy

I'm so happy they had a great time!

Easter Sunday 2012

This year we spent Easter here at home in the morning, and then we travelled down to my parent's house for the afternoon and spent one night there. Our neighbour kindly watched our kitty for us! The Easter bunny was very kind and left us lovely treats!

Lauren's Easter basket

Dylan's Easter basket

You can almost here them saying in the pic...'What you get?'

This year Lauren woke us up to tell us it was Easter! This is the first holiday she's ever woken us up to tell us about! It was precious.... Then we went on the Easter egg hunt, which proved very fruitful for them!

Look what we got!

We don't like them to get too many Easter eggs so we make sure the Easter bunny knows to bring some useful things too!

Then Derek took Dylan back to the hospital for his dressing to be changed, they changed it and it was looking so much better. It's really on the mend now! When they got home we had some photos of the kids, and then we headed down to my parent's house.

The kids had a lovely Easter, we celebrated our religious holiday

with family. It was a lovely weekend.

Family Photos

Happy Easter!

Under the Weather....

It's been a bit of a nightmare here over the past few days! Lauren woke up Thursday night crying and holding her ear saying it was really hurting so I called the doctor on Friday morning first thing, and they were fully booked but told us to bring her in and they would fit her in. It turns out she has a bad ear infection and the doctor put her on an antibiotic. She seems to be on the mend, she had a more comfortable night last night. Thank goodness our lil baby is feeling better.

Now onto the next topic which is leaving me livid. Dylan had his hospital appointment on Monday for X-rays and a consultation. Derek and I noticed his cast was getting a bit smelly and we were worried it was dirty and had gotten wet or something. It turned out that his arm was infected in the cast, when they took it off it was smelly and weeping. His skin looked like it had been eaten away. I was really upset, as was Dylan. They called the orthopaedic doctor back in again, and he didn't answer my questions very well, and refused to give him an antibiotic which I really felt would be needed. Now I'm not medicine grabbing if you had seen his arm you'd have agreed with me. I asked the nurse for a dressing change appointment, and took Dylan home.

Derek went back out Friday morning to have it changed. His friend is an adult surgeon and advised that this is a surgical wound, and it's quite serious to have an infection in it. Derek demanded to be seen by an orthopaedic consultant and didn't leave the hospital until he saw someone. He didn't mince his words, he made it quite clear that he was very unhappy and wanted answers as to why his arm was left this way.

Two hours later the surgeon arrived and of course it was the same guy we saw in the outpatients department the last day. This time around he realised how seriously we felt about things, and Derek said he was very good. He cleaned out the wound and found a suture that hadn't dissolved and he removed it, and dressed the wound with a medicated dressing. He gave us an appointment to come back out on Easter Sunday to have the dressings changed again.

When they went out on Sunday apparently it looked much better, and Derek was a lot happier and I was too. I'm dreading him having to have that wound reopened to remove the Tens nail again. I really wish he isn't going to be left with a rotten scar. I hope we can put this whole experience behind us soon.

When you see the photos of his arm you can see why we were furious and demanded answers. I thought it was disgraceful that it hadn't been taken as seriously initially, but we sorted it out. There is no way my child will be left with a wound like that without proper aftercare.....No way!

So it's looking so much better now an I hope it will continue to heal properly.

Trying to pretend he's not scared of getting his cast off, with the ' I don't care, I'm not scared look,'

So we've been a bit under the weather here lately, but hopefully it will all be uphill from here!

Easter Sunday 2012 post to follow...

Ballet buns & ice-cream cones

Lauren had her second ballet class yesterday morning. She was very upset when we pulled up outside! She cried all the way up the drive and up the stairs. I sat in the class with her and she was still crying, so I decided to be strong and left the class! And she cried for a second, and then sat quietly on her chair and watched. Her teacher coaxed her slowly into the group until she took part...

Here she is with her ballet bun in her hair, and her little tutu and ballet shoes...

I got a picture outside the ballet class, I was hidden and took it through the glass in the door!

Lauren is sitting on her little chair and she is slowly being coaxed into the class...

Eventually she got up to join in, but kept her back to the class. Slowly she started to take part, and at the end her teacher asked her would she like to come back again, and Lauren gave a big smile and said she would love to come back!

I am delighted with the outcome, I wasn't very optimistic before class as she seemed so upset and unwilling to get out of the car! But I knew that once she agreed to go in that she would enjoy herself. I thought it was important not to let her decide she didn't like something after only trying it once. I encouraged her into it, but I knew it was for her own good. This will really help with her confidence, it is also important for her to take part in activities. I am so proud of her for taking part and for enjoying herself. She also looked really adorable in her little ballet outfit! is there anything cuter?

Today we went for ice cream in our favourite ice cream spot out in Dunlaoghaire! We have had absolutely amazing weather here all week, and today it was bright but cloudy...

Dylan was a bit cold when he was eating his ice-cream!

After our ice cream we went for a walk along the pier, and then we had a little play in the play ground, while Daddy and Mummy had a lovely well deserved coffee.

Would you look at what I have to work with! He finds it traumatic to sit for a photo for his poor Mom!

Kind of a better picture if you ignore the chocolate ice cream faces!

 

Tomorrow Dylan visits his consultant orthopaedic surgeon, we have to have X-rays and a consultation. I'm really hoping that they will change the plaster cast, it is filthy. The last cast we had didn't have to contend with mud and grass, because Dylan wasn't outside playing every day in it. This time it's the Spring and it is absolutely manky! I will be insisting they change it as I'm concerned he'll end up with an infection. I also hope we will get an idea of when he will have his surgery to remove the pin from his arm. So it was a lovely weekend, I have tomorrow off and Good Friday, and then the weekend and then Monday off again! I can't wait, we are going to go down and visit my parents and my friend is minding Amber the cat for us, so it's all good!

Easter is nearly here!!

&

It's Spring!

Two weeks ago....

I've had this post saved in my drafts for two weeks, and since then the weather has turned into the summer! and Lauren has already had her ballet class, I decided to go ahead and post it for my memories!

Two Weeks ago ...

Dylan

    Dylan had his appointment with his consultant last week to have his cast changed and X-rays done- everything looks great! And he is very happy with his new cast- he went for a green glittered coloured cast this time! He is very happy with it!

Also he's doing a new programme in school called 'food dudes' it encourages children to eat more fruit and vegetables, I can't believe how well he is doing with it, he's tried foods I never thought he would try!

Also he has been working amazingly hard at his reading and he has skipped four levels in his reading assessment, I am beyond proud of him. He is finding some parts of his maths tricky and he's now working on that, he is motivated to do it by himself. We haven't had to motivate him to do it! It's like a different child over the last few months, he's become so focused and dedicated to his school work. I said to him the other night that he did this, he had our support and help and extra classes in school, but ultimately it was HIM who achieved this, he had to put the work in and he's gotten the results!

He's been taking part in drama classes after school every week, he has his first speech exam coming up soon! He's also a member of the choir and they have a competition coming up! He has an excellent voice, I've been told by numerous teachers about this! He's really enjoying his after school activities.

Lauren

Lauren is enrolled in an excellent Montessori school and is due to start in September! I can't believe my baby will start Montessori in a matter of months! I decided to keep her home until she was over three, they are in school long enough. We sent Dylan to Montessori at two and a half and I really don't feel it was especially beneficial. Lauren has regular play dates with my childminder so she plays with other children. She is also due to start her ballet classes soon which will help her make friends! 

(em, the ballet class was interesting, as she wouldn't leave my side!! we'll see how she gets on next week!) 

She is turning into such a little girl recently playing with her dolls! She is so cute these days, she has so many words, and we have full conversations now. She has learned all of her primary colours and is counting! She loves her book before bed now! I'm loving the little girl she's becoming!

So the kids are doing well and getting big, sometimes I need to stop and realise how lucky we are to have these two amazing little children in our lives, they are very loving, kind and wonderful!

They are playing games together now, yesterday they went on a treasure hunt with a map that I made them, too cute! This morning Derek made them a tent from Dylan's bunk bed and they brought up Lauren's portable DVD player and they watched a film and we got to have a lovely rest! Dylan has been helping so much! They played for hours in the tent! Now they did bring everything they own into the tent... but they had a great time doing it!

Which meant my husband made me this to enjoy in peace! yum!

We took them to the park and for I've cream for playing so well together, and sharing and not fighting! I was so proud of them. So that's our long weekend all over back to work and school tomorrow!

Love long weekends....

Here's the kids playing today... yes, Dylan is currently LIVING  in his new jersey we have to wash it constantly!!

The week in review

This week has been busy! We got a new car on Monday - we got a ford C-max it's so high up and comfy! We love it! It has a great amount of storage and space for all our kid accessories! It's not brand new, but it's new to us. What I really love is we bought it outright without borrowing money, we put money aside until we had enough! Just in time as our last car just died!

Poor Dylan was off school for a day with a 24 hour tummy bug! He was pretty miserable, I hate when he's sick, but he's feeling so much better now thankfully! Here's my poor sick lil boy being comforted by his dear friend Amber.  Look how she cuddles into him... ADORABLE!

We went down to my parents for the day yesterday, the boys watched the rugby match and so my Mum and I went shopping with the kids, and for coffee and ice-cream for these two of course! It was so nice to see my parents again, I just wish we could see them more often.

Here's Lauren before we left showing off her new t-shirt I had made for her, by a very lovely friend of my Mum, isn't it so cute!

And today we had our new nephew's christening ! He is a tiny darling and I am in LOVE with him, and his big brother and sister are smitten!

Dylan of course was fully mobile, so I couldn't pin him down for a sibling photo, this is a running theme now. As soon as I ask them for a picture, Dylan runs away and Lauren starts smiling and batting her eyelids! They are the opposite ends of the spectrum!

So here she is today, looking gorgeous in her new dress, wearing the beautiful new cardigan my Mum knitted for her...

So we have had so much on this week not to mention working a 40 hour week! It is just hectic around here. We haven't had a full day to ourselves with just the four of us in so long! Needless to say I need copious amounts of the following to get me through the days... 

So that was our week in review, the weekend goes by so fast....

Lauren's Birthday pictures

I finally got around to making Lauren's birthday slide show. We had a really special day, Lauren enjoyed her party so much. I was so happy with how everything turned out, it was lovely to have all the family here too. I wish we had gotten pictures with Derek's parents, but they arrived when the party had started and some how they never ended up in any shots. Probably because they were behind the scenes minding kids, getting drinks and helping! I tried a new website called smile box to make the slideshow, it was nice to use and I'll use it again!

So here is my precious little girls birthday memories.... We love you Lauren Marie...

Lauren's Birthday Party

26/02/12

This free slideshow customized with Smilebox