thank you

Thanks so much for voting for Allergy New Zealand. They are getting a $15k donation which is wonderful.

#2 was talking yesterday... "when i am an adult and i won't have this bracelet, i will be able to eat cheese and milk..." I had to explain to him that he'll probably always need to wear the (medic alert) bracelet and avoid cows milk.

Of course we hope he'll outgrow it (80% of kids do), but we must live our lives as if he won't. It's unfair to get his hopes up. It's bloody hard to do but you just have to keep at it.

Sometimes it feels like I've got it all under control and then I'll read an ingredient label in the supermarket and almost be in tears, because it once was a safe food and now it's not. I found recently a brand of pizza sauce that has two different packages with identical names and pictures etc, one is a bottle, the other sachets. Anyway one contains milk and the other doesn't. Can you pick the one with milk? Totally crazy and very frustrating. You just can't assume anything.

This photo was how I found him this morning before kindy, reading under his umbrella in the hallway.

can you help?

If you can spare a couple of minutes today please go to Sovereign Sunshine and register and then vote for Allergy New Zealand on the main page.

At the moment they're in the lead to receive $15,000 which would be a huge boost for a small charity. But there are only hours to go and it's a close race. Once you are registered, you can then vote for a different charity every month, so this is a great way of lending support without spending money!

As you know #2 has a serious cows milk allergy and has been hospitalised because of it.

Allergy NZ (in particular the lovely editor of their magazine who is a kindy mum) has helped so much with organising our kindy to be as safe as possible for him. Please vote (and see if you can get someone else to do it too).

Thank you! (Yes it's an old photo before we cut his hair)

UPDATE - they got it!! Thanks to anyone who voted. x

fight club

Trampoline fighting was happening the other day so rather than intervene (I prefer them to sort it out themselves) I took photos. Our boys get along well most of the time. We go through good and bad patches. Recently it's been mostly good, lots of made up games and silliness. There's 18 months between them but only 2cm in height and the shorter, younger, one weighs a kilo more. Even though I like to blog about all the fun, good things we do, sometimes a bit of fight photography is in order ;o) Just for fun.

another apron

Another Montessori style kids apron that I made for the 5year old's birthday at the weekend. I enjoyed sewing some super girly fabric for a change.

our royal family

We went to a royal ball this evening for a sweet girl's 5th birthday. All the parents were invited to come and dress up too. There was much dancing and general craziness. I got my dad to snap a royal family portrait of us before we left. I cropped out our heads though - bad bad lighting! Yes I'm wearing my wedding dress, and #2 is in his new knights outfit, I'll have to snap a back view if I can get him to put it on again.

mucking about

Messing about with the boys in the car.

Everything is funny when you're 3 and 5.

the best lunch in the world!

#2 was very excited when he saw his lunch box today.

"mummy you make the best lunch in the world!" he exclaimed.

Marmite sandwiches, mini wheats, nori and apple. The mini wheats are diary free hooray! There had been a mini blueberry muffin too and another sandwich.

It's so nice to be appreciated for the mundane everyday things (like lunch making) and especially unexpectedly from a three year old. He really is incredibly sweet (when he's not up to mischief) and uber affectionate.

first day

There was much excitement in our house this morning. The backpack (full with a years worth of stationery) was worn to breakfast and only taken off to put on his hoody for the walk to school.

All four of us walked together and #2 was very excited to see the classroom and play with some of their puzzles. #1 settled on the mat with a girlfriend from kindy and the six other new kids. They whispered and giggled together and were quite happy when we said goodbye. I don't imagine he'll have much trouble settling in.

I took my sunglasses and some tissues (for me) just in case, but haven't felt teary yet. I do feel a teeny bit sad that his time at home as a preschooler has come to an end. We have a had a wonderful five years of music and play dates and zoo visits and beach visits and train trips and baking and play dough and adventures and imaginary games and board games and books, books and more books. I know there will be many more of these things and these times but that it won't be the same. I've been warned about the after school exhaustion and tantrums which we have to look forward to.

He's such a gorgeous kid and makes me laugh so much. Yesterday the two boys played such lovely imaginary games together all morning. There were no fights or shouting matches. Then a wee friend had come to play for the afternoon and it had been quite blissful, everyone had shared, no one had been left out. B had gone fishing for the day and when he returned in the evening he noticed how happy I was and not my usual (sometimes) frazzled state. Even though I had been (stuck) at home with the kids all day it was quite a relaxing Sunday, end of the holidays and end of an era.

After school today I'm taking #1 out for afternoon tea, his special request,

"some time with just me and you mum". I'm looking forward to it too.

handmade

I've been really enjoying making pressies for the boys' friends birthdays at the moment. Maybe they'd prefer Spiderman or Barbie but I think there's something special about home made gifts. We have a lot of birthdays at the moment so not all of them are going to be made by me. I can't believe that I used to be scared of the sewing machine, crazy. I'm aiming for a homemade Christmas this year too. Might have to get started soon! I made this felt pencil roll yesterday. No pattern, just a couple of pieces of felt and a ribbon. I'm not sure if the birthday boy liked it (I wasn't there when he opened it) but I'm sure his mum did ;o)

gratitude

We've been writing birthday thank you cards this past week. Actually #1 has been writing them himself which is lovely. After various melt downs and much frustration we've discovered that if he dictates to me I can write it down and then he can copy it. No more tears!

I think it's really important to write thank you cards to people who send gifts as we live away from a lot of family. We made a stack of them up before Christmas and wrote in them on the day! Kinda geeky but it was also quite nice. It made the kids think about it a bit and appreciate their gifts more too. I'm not very good at sending Christmas cards before the 25th. Most years I don't do it at all.

conversations from the garden

I adore how our two play make believe games at the moment. They spent most of the day being "gloria and ruby" (a hippo and bunny), playing "doggie school" and later in the backyard it was "mr mcdonald and kid".

It was an almost balmy 15'C (pretty good for midwinter!) and so we enjoyed being outside, no hats or jerseys required. Our wee lemon tree is doing really well and after snapping picturtes of the lemon harvest I left them to it. We're going to make some lemon squash and some lemon muffins. Yummy!

While I was downloading the photos I could hear them chatting away... so funny I had to transcribe a few snippets. I wasn't sure what the game was at first but it soon became evident that it was something to do with McDonalds (a place that we don't go, have you ever watched Super Size Me?). I try pretty hard to avoid too many chemicals in what we eat and so avoid articifical colours as much as possible too (hence the comment about the food colouring drink).

The game went a little like this...

let's hop in the minivan and drive to the cafe

can i have a sandwich please?

we don't serve sandwiches

but we do serve fatty sandwiches

all the people who come here eat fatty sandwiches

is that chewing gum? i've never had chewing gum or bubble gum.

can i take my bag of fatty food and chewing gum and can i get a food colouing drink too?

can i have a drink and a double scoop icecream?

blowing out the candles

Turning five is a pretty big deal. I still remember getting to blow out the candles on my playdough cake at kindy. We had a sweet celebration at the boys' kindy before the holidays. #1 got to decorate his special hat and all the kids sang while he held his "cake". The teacher then went through his portfolio and talked about all of the fun things he has done in his two years at kindy. It seems like he's been there forever but it's gone so quickly.

Standing on the chair at the front he looked so grown up and yet still so young. How can you be both simultaneously? He was unusually tearful at kindy that day and I just put it down to starting school nerves. However late that evening the first chicken pox made themselves known. So it ended up being his last day there.

It's the school holidays at the moment but we took a picnic lunch along to school yesterday and met friends for a play. I'm trying to fit in a visit or two this week so that it's all a little more familiar when he starts for real on Monday. Not long to go. My last week at home with two preschoolers has quickly filled up with play dates and bus trips to DaddyB's work (an extra special treat because they have the Disney Playhouse channel there).

poxy

Perfect timing to get the chicken pox I guess, in the school holidays. We're over the worst of it now but not quite back to full strength. Mainly that's me as I had my wisdom teeth out this week. The boys are full of energy as always.