Tummy bugs

Phew, what a week. Mapera got a nasty puking bug from her friends last week, poor little mite. She spent the day lying on the sofa drinking water and throwing up. I eventually got some coca cola and gave her 1/2 a cup of it flat and she stopped puking straight away, then was fine after that!! Good stuff that coke!
We all seemed fine after that, then I made the mistake of visiting the same friends on Sunday, and although all the kids were fine, Dad had the runs, so surprise surprise, Monday morning I wake up with the same thing.
Coke didn't kill it this time, so poor Tareka had to take 2 days off work to look after me and the girls til I got it out of my system (basically by not eating for 2 days and just drinking rehydration sports drinks).
I'm all better now, thank goodness, and the bonus is I've lost 3kg! I really shouldn't be so happy to have lost weight by being violently ill for 2 days, but hey, that's what happens when you have body image "issues".

Projects are still mainly knitting pixie hoods for the stall (though they won't sell well over summer, so I may save them until the weather cools off again).













I've also managed to complete the first page of Mapera and Kaitereo's scrapbook.
I went and spent some cash on the materials to make some nice Christmas cards too, so I'll be getting together with my craft-buddy soon in order to get them underway.

What a palaver!

Well, Kaitereo gave us quiet a fright last week. On Friday, the midwife saw her and said she was not happy with her cough, so we were to keep a close eye on her, and if she got any worse we should take her to hospital. She also said if Kaiterero changed colour at all, we had to call an ambulance.
On Saturday morning, Kaitereo had her feed, then started choking on the milk. She went purple, so I turned her on her side and patted her on the back to try and get her to cough it up. She vomitted up most of her feed and started to breathe again, but I had already sent Tareka to call the ambulance. The ambulance people were great, the operator kept me on the phone and kept checking on Kaitereo - who was breathing but very floppy - and the guys arrived after about 15 minutes.
They checked her over and decided she needed to go to hospital for observation, so off I went in the ambulance. We gave her oxygen on the way which perked her up a lot (thank goodness!), and the paramedic kept a close eye on her.
At the hospital the doctors and nurses took all her vitals and kept her under observation for a couple of hours, and gave her some saline drops to clear out her nose. We were sent home around lunchtime with instructions to keep putting the drops in her nose, sleep her sitting upright and keep a close eye on her. If her temperature rose, or if she had another apnoea attack we had to bring her straight back.
Sunday I still wasn't happy with how sleepy she was, so we got the emergency doctor out, and he reassured me that she was just sleeping off the illness, and her chest was clear.
It's been a week now, and she's improved 100%, she's waking up properly during the day and feeding like crazy (making up for lost time I suppose!), so I'm a lot happier.

This week, Tareka finished making Mapera's buggy board which she loves. She was unwilling to let Kaitereo use the buggy until we got her the board, now she wants to ride it all the time!

A family of four

Well Kaitereo has been home almost 3 weeks now, and she's a great baby. She's been sleeping and eating well, but just developed bronchiolitis the poor lamb, so the nights are a little more disturbed.

Her big sister is loving having a baby in the house, and wants to cuddle and kiss her all the time. Mapera has even moved herself into her "big girl's bed" quite happily. She trundles into our room first thing, and asks if "Kai'to wake?". Last thing at night she says "ni-night Kai'to" - bless her!

I think we may also be starting to crack the potty training, as Mapera asked to go to the toilet today, and actually went (rather than just sitting there)!! Lots of praise and a big sticker for the chart there, so let's hope that continues too.

Project update:
I am being very good and sticking to getting my knitting finished. I have now mastered the Pixie hood, so I'm knitting up all the wool I have into cute kid's hats ready for our craft stall. I think one of my friends has bought me a knitting machine for my birthday, so I'm hoping I can make them on that too, which will speed up the process no end!

I also made a scrapped mini-album of Mapera and her Grandparents with a scrap-mad friend of mine, which was going to be a Christmas present, but I've sent it early instead as it was so nice, I couldn't wait to send it to them.

Tareka is off work for another week (apart from one day back on Monday), and although it's been great having him at home, we're both ready to get back into our old routines again. I think I'll manage OK with 2, seeing as Kaitereo is such a laid back baby (so far!). The only time that's going to pose a big challenge is bed time, as Tareka and I have each been putting one of the girls to bed, and I've not tried to get them both off by myself yet.

I've had a few hours at home alone with the 2 of them, and thank goodness for Mapera still having an afternoon nap! It's been a lot easier than I thought, but I know that'll change as soon as Kaitereo starts getting mobile (not for a while though, let's hope!).

Summer is sneaking up on us in between the wind gusts, and Mapera has another birthday party to go to tomorrow. I really need to try and cut back on the amount of crap food she eats at parties, as we had a crazy night last week after she had a whole morning of birthday parties, along with the crisps, sweets and iced biscuits that go with it. I remember having sandwiches, sausage rolls and vol-au-vents at birthday parties, with maybe jelly and ice cream if you were lucky. I think we only got a few sweets in the "going home bag", not piles of them on the lunch table, maybe I am mis-remembering, but I really don't think my and my friend's parents fed us anywhere near as much junk as kids get nowadays (god I sound old!!).

Oh yes, and I'm turning 30 in a month. I don't believe it, as I am really only 15 in my head, but it seems time is catching up with me. Do I have to be grown up and responsible now? I hope not, we're having a Middle Eastern themed party, and I demand belly dancers!

It's a GIRL!

Born Friday 31st August 2007 at 5.27pm. Weighed 7lb 7 and gorgeous.

Blimmin email

Xtra (my email provider) has been taken over by Yahoo (internet overlord). Now I already have Yahoo accounts with attached email addresses, which I rarely use, they are only there because I had to create one to access some services or websites an age ago. I use my Gmail account for online stuff, and my Xtra account for real people only. This prevents spam and viruses getting into my actual PC, and it works very well. I also have a hotmail account, but I am slowly trying to move all the stuff that goes there either to the Gmail or the Xtra one, depending on what it is. Tareka accesses the hotmail account, so eventually, that will be his own internet account which he can use for internetty stuff (not that he uses the internet much anyway).

OK, so NORMALLY when I open up my email program - Outlook - it automatically downloads any new messages from the Xtra server into my inbox and I read them blah blah blah. Today it was having trouble doing so, so I went online to the Xtra site in order to access my Xtra mail direct from their server (which I have done many times in the past, when the connection has been wonky). BUT, as Xtra is now part of Yahoo, the website couldn't seem to figure out that I wanted my Xtra email account, and kept asking for my Yahoo login and sending me to my Yahoo mailbox AAARRGH!! I really couldn't find a way out of it. It makes NO sense to me as they are 2 separate accounts with 2 different passwords, why did it have to keep asking me for the Yahoo one when I wanted to log into the Xtra one??

Bloody Yahoo nonsense.

In other news, we are now officially 39 weeks pregnant, and no sign of baby arriving any time soon. Tareka is off on leave for a month now, so I am getting a lot more help around the house (which is lovely), and a lot more help with Mapera (which is a relief). The weather is starting to warm up so we've been trying to go for a walk whenever we can (which should hopefully get the baby moving too), and we've been cleaning up the garden and pruning ready for spring.

Project-wise I'm knitting hats for everyone I know (it seems!). I bought a cute little pixie hood for Mapera from the charity shop, and decided I'd figure out how to knit one, so I knitted one for a friend's little boy and it was lovely! Thing is, his big sister wanted one - so I made her one - and now his Dad wants one!! It's all good practice for me though, and I'm knitting up my scraps into finger puppets in between times.
I'm going to focus on the knitting until I run out of wool, then (depending on new baby) I'll look at doing some sewing. I may even get onto that around Christmas when my parent's are back as Mum will be able to help then!

Preparations

Well, I'm starting to tidy up the house again now hubby is back on shift. Only another 2 shifts and he's off on paternity leave for a month!
I'm starting to hand over some of my bigger commitments now, as I know I won't have time for them once the baby arrives. After things settle down I want to focus more on projects that will make me money, along with a couple of key voluntary roles that really benefit my children.

SO, the jousting group (Company of the Lance) is on the back burner for the foreseeable future, and the Great Lakes Tournament Market is being arranged by another member (phew, I'm glad that's off my hands at last!).

The Toy Library will be having their AGM pretty close to when baby is due, so I doubt I'll be going. All I need to do for this is write my Chairman's report and letter of resignation. I'll get on to that this week I think.

Mainly Music is now being run by a group of other Mums, but I'm going to go along so BabyM can participate, even if I can't. One of my good friends has offered to take her too, when I can't.

That should free up more time for craft projects as my friend Liz and I intend to start having a regular market stall from around November (depending on how I go with Baby2), so I have a deadline to work to at last. First off is to use up all my wool making finger puppets or other little toys I think. Then I'll move onto sewing.

OH, and we're getting a piano!! I am so excited! We could never really afford to buy one, but on of hubby's relatives are moving overseas and are getting rid of theirs!! I didn't think we'd have room for it, but hubby has worked it out that we do, so I am JOYOUS!

Back to the grindstone

Well my wonderful Mum has headed back to the UK for another 5 months, so it's back to work for me! I feel very well rested after her visit though, and I've got my motivation back for getting on with projects and things. Baby2 is now head down and making preparations to enter the world (36 weeks along now), and I'm hoping for a reasonable early arrival (38 weeks would be lovely, thanks!).

Project-wise I'm in the middle of knitting a pixie-hood for a friend's baby, and also slowly making half a dozen wool nappy covers for the newbie. I also have a gift for hubby's Grandma to finish off (it's a 3D picture of a witch as she collects witches), which I should have done tomorrow.
I'm about to hand over the Jousting Tournament organising, as I really don't have the time to devote to it that I did last year, and I don't want to leave it too late before passing it on. We've only had a couple of stalls confirmed, so it really needs someone to start canvassing more potential vendors, and I just don't have the hours in the day to spend doing it.
My scrapping is STILL on hold as I've not really had evenings free enough to work on it, but now Mum's gone, I won't have anyone to chat to when hubby is working, so I'll have no excuses then!

Usana is slowly ticking along, sold another stock item which I think I can safely start ordering in every 2-3 months, as the customer doesn't want to sign up for a monthly account, but will be taking the calcium fairly regularly. He's finding it's preventing his cramp which is a great side-effect I was not aware of, so Mum may well add that to her order too. I've put my autoship on hold for 3 months, as I won't be needing anything til then, and I don't have enough one-off orders to put on it.

Other project updates:

• Toy Library AGM - Ican't set a date until we've heard back from the Auditors apparently, so that lets me off the hook somewhat.
  
• SIL window sign - this is now done!