And we have.... Bumbo

Well I have finally given in and gone against some proffesionals opinions and gotten Master Jax a bumbo to help with his tummy core strengthening. His back is nice and strong but his tummy is a little weaker so he doesnt like to sit on the floor unaided. He will roll one from end of the floor rug to the other, slide across the floor on his back as if he is following me around the room, Lift his head up high and follwing me around the room with his eyes and head moving nicely, attempt to do the start of a crawl and pull himself to stand up while holding my fingers in his little hands but he is not too keen on sitting all by himself.  So other parents opinions and advice has won out! 

And dont you just love the sexy lime green coloured one I chose!

Next few days were better

Once Christmas Day was over I was feeling better. I think there has been alot of goings on this year and I am exhausted and I always feel really sad and miss my Mum. 

But have alwso decided to head off to the Doctors next week for a blood test to check my hormonal levels... Hmmm pre menopause could be rearing its ugly head!!!

Had a wonderful afternoon with my Aunty and her current squeeze driving them along the coast suburbs of my city. He had not been to Adelaide before so seemed to appreciate the drive, when he wasnt asleep... lol...

A few more days and the New Year will be here... Bring on the new fresh year and 2013....
 

 

Christmas can go F itself right about now!

Ok I should apologise for my post heading I guess but I have severe PMS today and obviously it is winning! And well I want this blog to be the truth. the whole truth and nothing but the truth in my weird and wacky world of ME, MYSELF AND I... Oh and my gorgeous boys!....
I am tired for one.... I am NEVER a morning person. Even when I was in the RAAF years ago I struggled to get up early though I did it.. Working in retail and starting at 8am and having to drop the now teen off at school first, I still struggled to get up. I did it but I hated it!!!!  The other is I sooo need a bloody hysterectamy as I do NOT like these mood swings I have been getting all yer... UNLESS I am pre menupausal... Maybe a trip to the GP for a blood test is in order?. I could so go lie down for a nap right now but I have guests coming over mid afternoon for the evening roast meal so going back to bed wont happen until later tonight.... I was feeling fine and then all of a sudden my mood changed, something to do with facebook and something I am not going to get into on here as the walls have ears so to speak... I guess at times I feel as if I only have my two boys who truly are my only family now that Mum isnt here!. I am adopted for those of you who dont know and well both birth families are dsyfunctional enough before I enter into the picture. Then there is my adopted family. The eldest brother married a jealous bitch who calls herself a christian and was actually in the church and good friends with our Mum until they got together and well he is estranged from all of us (his loss) and then my other brother is so much like my Dad (who well lets just say Mum left him at 67 yrs of age after 43 yrs of marriage rather than stay with him any longer).... So back to the other brother he is so much like Dad that his marriage has just broken down and while he is a good father to his kids he sucks when it comes to being able to talk to people (women, and yes me his sister, the one who has spent 43 years being his sister and putting up with his teasing and shit) and treat them very nice and with respect.. I was invited to my brothers half birth sisters house for a beautiful lunch today but after having had a headache for 4 days until yesturday I just didnt want to go. It would have been a nice lunch but I had words with my brother the other day and he just brushed off what I said about how I was feeling about something and well he can pee off too... The teen was happy not to trapse across the city to one of the seaside suburbs across town so then it was sealed. So we just had fresh baguettes filled with sliced ham and cheese and in about one hour I will lite up the bbq and throw a roast lamb under the hood for roasting. I will cut up the potatoas for roasting and I will set the table all christmas and top the pavlova with whipped cream and strawberries and then I will put on the biggest friggin smile both my boys and visitors have ever seen despite my PMS winning!!
Merry christmas from a warm and sunny South Australia xx

A wonderful day

Yesturday, Saturday was Master J's First Birthday party. His actual birthday is this Thursday. All of the little cousin's or little friends seemed to have a wonderful time. They arrived at 2pm and the party finished at 4pm but of course it ran over that and the last little child and their Aunty left about 6ish. The Giraffe cake was a huge hit. It even got more likes than Master J on my FB page. Below are some photos of the party! As I wont share photos of other peoples children on FB or here without their parents permission there will only be a few photos shared...

                                                                  The Giraffe cake

                                                       The monkey & number 1 cupcakes

                               Blowing out the 1 candle with the help from Mumma and big brother

                                            Spoilt boy with lots of new toys, clothes & money

Bring on Thursday now when my little boy turns ONE. What a year it has been.. Born 6 weeks premature and 1.6 kgs. Heart surgery at 10 weeks of age etc, but thats another blog... I just want the world to know that Master J is the most gorgeous and loved little boy!

Hello Summer

Wow I havent blogged for awhile again have I? It is hot here today. In fact at almost 10:30pm it is currently 33.c  (celcius) ... It was only supposed to get to 36.c but got to well over 40.c. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 38.c  I have just put the weather channel on Foxtel (satellite tv) and it is not going to get below 27.c tonight so we might be bunking down in the lounge room instead of our bedromms tonight. I dont think the ceiling fans we have in all of our bedrooms are going to help too much! Master J's 1st birthday party is in 3 days. It is expected to be about 30.c but stormy so we may be having his party inside... 

Check out these cute little glass milk bottles I have bought for the little ones to drink at the birthday party!

I have been busy preparing for Master J's birthday. It's Jungle theme. Here I was having a go at doing the candy bar table. It already looks abit different again 3 days out! There is alot of hellium balloons to add and al of the confectionary... Should be alot of fun on the day.

Lincoln Fires

Bushfires are a big problem here in Australia once the warmer months start. Although it is still officially Spring come December 1st, this marks the first day of Summer for us. At the moment in my state, South Australia there have already been a few bushfires with a decent sized one over on the Eyre Peninsula at Port Lincoln. Hopefully the changing wind will continue to come and the fire will head away from the direction of the town. As much as Lincoln and the Peninsula are used to fighting these bushfires you still dont like them happening!

The tree is up

Today we put the christmas tree up and we are going for tradional chistmas colours of red and green with a touch of silver...

  

New decorations all for under $20

 Up close

family photos

Today we had family photos taken by a friend and a fellow mum of a beautiful boy with ds. Taking photos is one of her passions. We dont have the photos back yet but I did take a few on my iphone while she was snapping away trtying to get a photo of bubba for photo christmas cards for this year! Cant wait to see these photos and then take them to the photo shop and get some calendars, Christmas cards and larger photos to send off to family for Christmas 2012..

              Jaxon having a drink break

             My two boys. Bubba & the teen
 
For the photo shoot we also put up Jaxon's Cowboy teepee and it looks great.Got a few photos of both bubba and his teen brother in there teepee.

 

October 31 and Halloween

It is Halloween tonight. I have gone out and bought some lollies (candy) for any trick or treaters who may call on us tonight. Last year we decorated the house and the teen had a Halloween Fancy dress Party. This year he didnt want to do that again which was great because neither did I. Below are just some photos of the 14 and 15 year olds dressed up at the  2011 teen party! 

                                A fairy who won most popular female costume

                                                                  Queen of Hearts and Dracula

                                                               A witch and a pirate

                                                                         A french maid

                                                              my teen  as a Zombie

                                          3 of the boys who chose to wear masks & the fairy 

                                                   A jailbird handcuffed to bottle head...







 

10 months on...

Bub is asleep and his teen brother is down in his bedroom at other end of the house playing playstation 3. While I have a few minutes (but hopefully two hours) to myself I have come into the living room and have just put the movie the Blindside into the blu ray player. I love this movie. I love most of Sandra Bullock movies too but the story is just beautiful. If only the world was full of a hundred thousand more people like the woman she portrays in this movie.

Anyhow thought I would get a blog in while I have my 15 minutes of "Mum time"...So it is day 24 of Down Syndrome Awareness Month and as bub is 10 months and 4 days old we are 9 months and 2+ weeks into this with Jax being diagnosed at around 12-13 days old. 

I have been posting alot of pictures and facts on my fb page, probably bugging my friends -- however I cheekily do not care if it is. Down Syndrome is apart of my life now and they are apart of our lives so why shouldnt they understand abit more about DS?

10 months on there is still one word that still cuts me like a knife everytime I hear it, one word that sometimes brings tears to my eyes, one word always makes me feel sick to my stomach, one word that sometimes makes me want to harm the person saying it and one word that often gets me giving the person what for. Everytime it has been online. I am no longer allowing people to stay on my fb page if they say the word. I dont care if it is not on my page that they are saying it. If I see they have written it they are gone! I do not want people like that in my life. In the teens life and more importantly in my bubbas life.I would love to be at the place where it doesnt hurt me so much or make me angry. I dont know if that time will ever come. knowing me probably not!

Last week I went to big brothers high school and spoke to the deputy principal. I told her that it was DS Awareness month (and they know that bubba has ds). I tol her that I was hoping the school could sign a petition or something to stop using the R word...Yes the word I hate!!! The deputy principal was fantastic. She is going to take it to the SRC (Student Representitive Council) and that they should be able to write up a pledge for students. I am going to ring back next week to see if it went before the SRC and was approved?

Anyhow for those of you who have been blessed with a family member with DS-- Happy Down Syndrome Awareness month and for those who havent Happy DS Awareness Month to you too! And while bub has ds he is Master J first. He is very loved and wanted and is da bomb!! 
 xoxoxo

Our First Buddywalk

We had our first Buddywalk on Sunday (October 14th)... This is just a short post with more photos to come in the next few days. The weather was a beautiful Spring Day and 27. celcius...
 

Down Syndrome Awwareness Month 2012

As Down Syndrome Awareness Month runs for the whole of October I am adding things to my facebook page each day to help educate and spread awareness to all of my friends. This coming Sunday is the Buddywalk and our 1st Buddywalk. We have about 22 people coming or more. That is if some of them dont get called into work. Sam and I have been busy going around to different Spotlight shops getting iron on felt letters to iron onto brand new tshirts. They read TEAM JAXON.

                                                   Some of our buddywalk tshirts....

September girls lunch

We went to lunch today and had some extra girls from our high school days join us... Mandy and Alayna.. Here is a photo at the end of lunch.... It was great to catch up! xxxx

3 months till Christmas

This is just a short post. I am about to unpack my new sewing machine. Grabbed a cheap one on half price special so it only cost me $150. Also grabbed some christmas material. I plan and let me stress plan on sewing a Christmas themed quilt for the floor or grass, some christmas stockings, Christmas bunting streamers and a few other suprises... Lets see how I go? :)

 

1 funeral, 2 new friends and 3 gorgeous little boys

After the recent passing of my Uncle the boys and I packed up the car Thursday and headed off in the car to my hometown 2 and a half hours away (though we make it in less time if the traffic is good and YES I am a safe driver). I got confirmation that yes my uncles funeral was going to be the next day and I had not long dropped Tyson (Ben and Sarah - friends) at school an hour and a half earlier. I texted Tyson who is allowed to have his phone on silent about 10:30am and told him I was packing for the 3 of us and I would be picking him up at school at midday. Once I had picked him up, we called in home to collect our bags and he added his all important playstation 3 into the luggage, hehe we hit the road. 

                   It was warm but not warm enough for a swim

Arriving in Pirie we settled into our accomodation, a 2 bedroom apartment at the Motor Inn and then rang my brother to catch up so we could see the cousins. We went there and then the kids came back with us for a few hours instead of going to their own things they were supposed to be doing that evening. But we dont see them very often and they do get excited when they see their big cousin and now their baby cousin. We ordered deserts from room service, like mini pavlovas, sticky date pudding and chocolate sundaes. Everyone had a go in the spa bath too...

            Filling the spa for my turn once the niece and nephew had left.

On saturday morning we headed off in the car again, myself and my two boys, my brother and his 8 yr old son for the funeral 2 hours further north. We got to the church about 15 mins before the service was due to start and it was overflowing. We squeezed our way into the back of the church but as there was no chairs or pews left we had to stand for the whole hour and so my teen son and I who had pushed thru the people (my brother waited back in the foyer and was joined by his bored son halfway thru the funeral) took turns to nurse Jax. It was the cemetary part of the service next. We wernt sure where that was so all I can say is thankgod for MAPS on the iphone and my teen son rocks with directions..Our next stop was going back to the church hall for a lovely light lunch provided by the church. I must send them a card to say what a lovely job they did on supplying all of the food etc. It is typical for this to happen as Morialta church did this when my late Mother passed away too but it is still lovely.

Before we headed back to my hometown we had some visitors come say hi. Rachel and her son Jacob who we have met before (turns out her late grandmother was a family friend of ours -- it really is a small world isnt it) and new friends kylie and her gorgeous little son Felix, both from the ds world.It is so nice to finally meet Felix and his beautiful Mummy.

          M e holding Jacob, kylie with Felix & Rachel holding my little bubba..

My brother had to get back to our hometown by 5pm so we didnt get to catch up too long which was a shame but there will plenty of other things going on here in the city that we will see both Rachel and kylie at which will be good.

Back in Pirie a few hours later both the niece and nephew came over to our apartment for the night. They wanted to sleep and hang with their cousin's oh and their cool Aunty of course who spoilts them rotten. My niece had her netball presentation first and won two trophies and then they came over for the night.The boys played ps3 after the Aussie Rules Football had finished on tv and my niece had cuddles and photos with her and Jax...


On Saturday morning we said goodbye to the kids and my hometown and drove back to the city. But before that we took the kids to have a continental breakfast in the Motel's Restuarant.. We had bacon and scrambled eggs, toast, cereal & orange juice.. There was other food to eat aswell such as yoghurt and fruit salad. They loved it...

 

Our 4 days in Perth, Western Australia

We had a nice but sometimes busy and stressful time in Perth. First came the landing..... OMG the pilot came in way too fast and when we landed on the tarmac the back end of the plane swayed one way and then back the other and I am pretty sure I aged 5 years during those first 10 or so seconds.The girl who sat next to Jaxon and I does the flight month on month of as she work up north in WA for one of the gas fields. She said this was the worst landing she has ever experienced and that yes the plane did sway twice. Scary stuff! (I spent the next 4 days dreading flying home and this comes from an experienced flyer)...

My Aunty Bev met us at the airport and then we went to Bayswater to pick up the hire car. We went in this because my Aunty drives a comby van (like a surfy van) and she has no bolt fitted for Jaxons baby seat. 

We went and saw my bio Nan friday night. It was lovely to see her but she has lost alot of weight since we last saw her in Nov 2010  and she is abit forgetful at times. She is in the Nursing Home section now and is not happy there but after her fall she needs to be in this part now. Really it is not much different to her room on the other side of "Gracehaven" but she is monitored more in there and some of the residents have gotten forgetful or a in wheelchairs now. One of the residents was called Billie but she is abit forgetful now and talked about how her Mother was still a wonderful dressmaker although her dear mother has long passed due to her being 80 ish herself. She also asked my Aunty if she and I would love to go for a wal with her to NSW after tea.... (For those not in Australia that is from one side of the country to the other).. We said we would love to go but we didnt have anyone to babysit the baby! Naturally all of the old ladies loved seeing Jaxon.

                                       (My Grandma Joy... Jaxon wish his Great Grandma)

After saying Goodnight to Nanna Joy, Bev (my Aunty), Jax and I went to  LICk YA LIPS fish and chips shops.Jax fell asleep in the car so we sat outside eating out tea (evening meal) on the wooden table and chairs there. When Jaxon woke up Bev put him in her jumper and he looked so snug peeking out! :)

On saturday we went to lunch with Chantelle and her husband Jeff at Golden Gates shopping centre. Chantelle has been a facebook friend of mine for about 5-6 years now so it was lovely to finally meet them.

                                                 (Jeff, Jaxon sleeping & Chantelle)

Saturday night we caught up with my brother Mike and took Nan Joy kFC for her evening meal. She loved it because she doesnt get it very often and it is her favourite takeaway! She was so happy to see us again and Mike.

On Sunday it was lunch at the Baywater Hotel with some friends from my Yahoo 360 days, IVF and DS Communities. Unfortuntately some couldnt make it on the day and then I ran out of time on Monday to meet up with a bigger group of friends from the ds community but it was lovely to see those who showed up!

                                  (Us girls at lunch on Sunday at the Bayswater hotel)

Monday morning we headed into the city with me driving the hire car and my Aunty leading the way in front of me in her comby to drop the hire car back. After that we had lunch at Red Rooster near the aiport and then headed to the Airport to book in. We had a few hours to waste so Bev and I took photos of different things at the Airport to post on facebook and joke around about NOPE NO DRUGS IN THE QANTAS FREE STROLLER. below is the photo for that.

I am happy to report that landing home in Adelaide at 9pm Monday night was perfect. I was really nervous after our horrible landing in Perth and my hands were all sweaty but we landed and there was no swaying!!!!! Thankgod! Ty was waiting for us with friends and as soon as he was holding his little brother, Jaxon started smiling up at his big brother and then giggling. It was beautiful and they had missed each other!

Heading to Perth in 6 days

Bubba and I fly out to Perth in Western Australia on Friday. We are going for three nights. This will be there first time I have gone anywhere on a plane without my teen since he was born. The reason for my quick trip is because my bio Nan is not well so we are flying over so she and Jaxon can meet. The big brother is staying back in South Australia and will have some friends come stay. It will be good to get back over to Perth. Hopefully the weather will be nice. While there I hope to see my brother Mike and some of my IVF friends and the some of the girls and their bubs & children from our DS community. We will be staying with my bio Aunty.

Our June-July holiday 2012

We had a nice time at Surfers Paradise (Gold Coast) on the Eastern side of Australia for 8-9 days but when we came back to South Australia we all caught colds due to going from wintery weather to warm weather and back to wintery weather. Am happy to report that all colds are gone now though but unfortunately it is still Winter here for one more month. It was great catching up with old friends and new friends while up there. Just wanted to share a few photos with you all.

                                           This is the Hotel pool, spa and bbq area.

                                                      Ty swimming in the pool

                                                Mummy & Jaxon lazing by the pool..

                                               Poolside at night.. Isnt it beautiful?

Tanyia and I did a 4km walk with Jaxon in the pram while her hubby Steve took the teens and younger kids back to the holiday apartment where they were staying. We walked from out hotel at Surfers to their apartment at Broadbeach. Below are some photos I took on the walk! By the way we power walked on a jogging-cycling chat off the sand and only went down on the beach to take these photo's..

We went 77 stories high to the observation deck of the Q1 building. The lift (elevator) ride is less than 43 seconds from bottom to the top. Some people actually pay a couple of hundred dollars to climb around steps on the top half of this building like climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Aghhh no thanks! Ty was nervous enough looking once we got up to the observation deck. I was more nervous standing out on the balcony of our hotel room on the 17th floor as that is outside!

                              View of the Q1 building from our pool deck on the 5th floor

Another day we went on a tour of both land and the water to check out the mansions on the harbour and Nara Seaworld on the Super Duck. Saw Elle McPhersons house that she bought & now her parents use it as their holiday home and a mansion that belonged to Jackie Chan for a few years. He must of been here making a movie or whatever but when he sold it three to four years later he made a nice profit.

                                                           The Super Duck

                                One millionaires home came complete with a helicopter

                                                       Lots of expensive yachts

Master 15 had a go at formula 1 driving in a simulator. The guy let him drive longer than he was supposed to. God help me when he turns 16 in 6-7 months time & he gets his drivers license... hehe...

We ate out alot at places like Hogs Breath Cafe and Hard Rock Cafe. There are plenty more photos to post of us with out friends but without friends permission I wont post any of them unless I have their permission at a later date....
                OVER AND OUT FOR NOW.....