Enna's 2yr check

Eleanor had her 2 yr check today, and she woke up in a foul mood which meant she probably wasn't going to co-operate with anyone!

After a fraught bath and hair wash, we arrived at the clinic and we were eventually called in for our turn. This was either going to go really well, or spectacularly not!

All of my kids have been early talkers, and always had a really good range of vocabulary, but if Enna decides she doesn't like you, (and you have about 30 seconds on meeting her to make an impression), then she will not speak to you! The HV was on to a winner as she already had brightly coloured crayons and paper out to play with, and Enna loves to draw (albeit usually on the walls).

It took me a few seconds to convince her she wanted to draw a picture, but doing so she settled down a little and found her stride.

She drew a dog and a face...

She wouldn't show the HV where her eyes, nose and mouth were, so the next bag of tricks was a doll and accessories. The HV laid out a doll, a spoon, a cup and a hairbrush, and she told Enna the baby was hungry, so asked her if she could help her out. She said "I will just brush her hair first, it's a mess" and proceeded to brush the bald doll with the brush. Then she looked quizzically at the spoon and the cup, the HV had assumed that she would just accept the cup was a bowl and use those to "feed" the baby. However, after looking at it, she declared "You shouldn't eat out of a cup, can I have a bowl?"

Next was the tower stacking which she managed her required 6 bricks, and then came the picture book...

She was asked and correctly identified strawberries, egg, carrots and broccoli, at getting broccoli correct, the HV said "Well done, they are a bit like trees aren't they?"

Enna looked at her quite bemused, possibly unamused and said "No, they are vegetables!"

She was then shown a picture of a yoghurt, and she didnt have a clue. Due to food allergies in the house, we just don't buy dairy products, so she wouldn't know what a yoghurt was. I don't think it will hold her back too much though ;o)

She is the correct weight and height for her age, and her hearing is fine but they do think she is short sighted, so she is being referred to have her eyes checked. It wasn't a surprise as John and Ethan are the same.

All in all it went well, and she quite enjoyed herself in the end!

Pensive

I feel in quite a pensive mood today, well the last few days really. When I was a teenager I had quite a lot of friends, predominantly through the Mormon church. Although I don't consider myself a Mormon anymore, because my whole thought process has changed, I still care deeply about a lot of people I was close to back then.

A few days ago, I learned that one of those people had been killed in a tragic accident; his motorbike colliding with a car. He was 33 yrs old, and although I hadn't seen him in many years, it has made me feel really sad. It is too young.

I have many fond memories of him, and I suppose it has naturally made me think back. He was one of the only people who would play with my hair whilst we watched a movie, usually round the Vousden's home. I remember driving him back to Colchester in Bob's white van singing Celine Dion at the top of our voices, but making it sound like she was under water. Goodness knows why, but we ached with laughter. I remember when he first passed his driving test and he took us out for a drive in Bob's Granada, the control freak in me was petrified.

But the boy did good. The boy was good. I am sad that his family are now having to come to terms with life without him!

Rest easy old friend. xx

Half term week.

I was so looking forward to the kids half term. Fabulous, I thought, two whole weeks of lay ins and just doing as we pleased. Hmmm that was mistake number one, I don't know why I had convinced myself they were having two weeks off. At least I realised (due to my trusty life coach facebook) before I received a phone call from the school on the second week asking me why my children weren't at school!

It has been a fun week, we took Ethan to his friends for a 2 night stop over on Monday and collected him back again Wednesday! We also took all the children to Box Hill on Wednesday for a lovely stroll in the woods. How difficult can it be for 3 adults to take 7 kids to the woods?

Well it depends if the 3 adults are me, Leah and Naomi, I guess! At the beginning of the walk the kids were buzzing with excitement. Leah had organised maps, compasses and a challenge for them as they went round and it worked really well. After looking for "The Big Tree" to climb, a very long haul, a sheer drop, a dead end and danger high voltage cables later the kids enthusiasm started to wane a little!

We eventually found the big tree, which was more by good luck than good management, and the promise of a cake and hot chocolate at the cafe kept them going until we finally found our way back out of the woods!

Aaaaachoooo!

Cough cough cough, splutter splutter splutter, achoo achoo achooo!!

These are the sounds resonating through the Drummond household this week! I think there is only Ted and me who are feeling relatively healthy, if not a little tired from looking after all the poorly people through the night :)

Eleanor is not making a gracious patient, she won't let me put her down and has even resorted to having her dummy, (which we had ditched quite some weeks ago now) and Olivia is struggling to keep her asthma under control.

We need some sunshine. I love to wake up in bed with a nice cosy warmth all over, and I don't mean from having wet the bed. It is good to have a bit of sun on your face. Let's just skip spring and straight to summer please!!

The sugar cube castle

Ethan came home about a month ago and said he had to make a castle from sugar cubes for his homework. I died a little inside, because we had already had to construct a mountain from "materials" and a replica of a cell from Jelly. My creative skills extend the same length as my culinary skills...not very far at all!

It is OK though because we had a month and that is LOADS of time to make it, right?

At about 7pm tonight I asked "Ethan, the castle when does it have to be in?"

He replied "Don't worry mum it doesn't have to be in until the last Monday of this half term"

Tomorrow is the last Monday of this half term !!

I consulted my life coach (facebook) on the best way of sticking the sugar cubes together, and after a general consensus of opinion it was decided on the trusty glue gun!

So we got the stuff together...

Could we find the trusty glue gun? Could we flipping heck!! So I mixed an entire box of icing sugar with water...NO too much water!! Gloopy glue, suggested Olivia. Perfect thought I. At this point I was feeling quite smug at my ability of solving this little hiccup without having to refer back to facebook again.

Just a little note, for anybody making a sugar cube castle in the future, icing sugar already mixed with water does NOT then mix with gloopy glue. I felt like I was sticking my child's homework together with sperm!!

Ethan's input in the beginning was to sit and eat the sugar cubes, and then he felt that I was complicating the situation and in the same breath asked me how I was going to construct the roof and doors, and did I know that castle foundations are laid in a way the walls should be curved.

I threw him a look, and we quickly agreed on square walls!!

So after refrigerating a bunch of sugar cubes, stuck with homemade glue we constructed something that can possibly be compared to, well, a bunch of sugar cubes stuck together with sperm I guess!

There are two things to come of this. One, he won't get detention and two, they will think he did it himself because surely no adult could really be that artistically challenged...

Snow.

Eleanor

Eleanor is two years old, the fourth child in our family, and most definitely the last! She was our smallest child and without a doubt she is our most willful!

She is, dare I say, her mother's daughter. She doesn't need you to help her, she can do it herself. She won't be guided, she will choose her own path. She is not always right, but my goodness don't you ever tell her she was wrong; but above all she informs me "Mummy you're my world, and I am your world and *hims* (pointing to her siblings) are *he's* (pointing to dad) best friend, not yours, you are mine!"

Woe betide anyone that tells her otherwise!!

She wakes up in defense mode and remains that way until the minute she decides she is going to bed!

You see, you all thought it was me that ruled the roost in the Drummond household, but NO, it is without doubt little Miss Enna!

A pinteresting link!

Well I haven't written for 2 yrs (almost to the day) and what has dragged me back in to the world of blogging tonight? My latest little obsession is Pinterest, and as I was browsing around I saw a link to my blog! I think it suitably shamed me to get my butt in gear and put my thoughts down again!
It may help me be more organised, with my head being less cluttered of thoughts but somehow I seriously doubt it!

I am still waking up on the "Oh sh*t we have slept in" alarm and I have to be one of the biggest procrastinators, but I suppose I work better under a bit of pressure!

Ted (now aged 4) is almost 23 months in remission, and we are nearly down to 3yr 1 month until he gets his all clear. Until then I will keep living with this cloud hovering over me. It doesn't contain rain, but it contains all of my biggest fears, all the uncertainty and the control panel of my life which I know I don't yet have the password for!
I like to think I have control over everything, but I know with the big C control lies firmly out of my hands!

Today he is well, he is strong, boisterous, noisy and has just overcome a huge obstacle in his life and is now toilet trained. He suffered damage to his insides from chemotherapy, and gaining control of his bowel has been a big challenge, but he took it head on and got to the finish line! It also means he will be able to start school, he should have started in September and I already worry about his lack of social interaction with his peers, so this is a big step!




Be child cancer aware is now a registered charity in its own right, and has now changed directions from the campaign it was initially thought it would be! We still raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of all childhood cancers, and we have to date issued 3.5 million awareness cards to primary schools in the UK, but we also sponsor the beads of courage program here in the UK! We are the sole charity to do this and it is the most fantastic arts in medicine program created.

In 6 months we have enrolled 20 UK hospitals, and this July we hope to at least double, possibly triple this number when we hold our next training sessions. The transformation you see with the children, and families is worth every minute of hard work we put in. When you sit with a new family and go through the program with them you can physically see the change in their faces and where it was initially filled with cynical views, it is quickly replaced with hope, understanding and awe!

Enough from me tonight. I will endeavour to update at least twice a week, and if you havent already, go and check out Pinterest.com It is blogging with pictures.