Losing It

As per usual much has happened since my last post:

Matt has had another birthday.

Matt with a celebratory "Birthday Platter"

We visited Sarah and her girls in Brisbane, and met Ellie (our God-daughter) for the first time!

Me with Sah and Ellie by the beach

Shae has starred in New Idea magazine (in a short write-up about Ronald McDonald House in Melbourne).

The event which earned Shae "celebrity status"!

Ethan has become the proud owner of his first guitar (an early birthday present from Mia and Grandad).

The boys and their toys

And Asha has had a visit from the Tooth Fairy - twice!

Asha just after losing her first tooth!

Ash discovered her first loose tooth when we were in Brisbane during the school holidays and last Wednesday night (August 12 - 5 weeks later) it finally fell out. Unfortunately, Daddy missed the event, but the Tooth Fairy obligingly granted the request written by Asha and left the tooth for him to see when he came home from his trip. The Tooth Fairy had her work cut out for her last night when she came to collect Asha's second tooth, which was unfortunately rinsed down the basin drain with the toothpaste after brushing her teeth yesterday morning! It's lucky she is so tiny and can fit through the plughole....

Princess for a Day

Disney came to town! Princesses on Ice. And Disney-holics that we are (and raising our children to be) we splurged so the princesses in our family could attend. It was a mummy and daughter affair to remember.

Me and my Princesses

The entire day was such a delight!


The show in itself would have been enough to get our wildest wishes flowing, but there was icing on the cake as well. As a prequel to the event we were invited to attend a Princess Luncheon and Playdate at Jane's palace (now officially crowned Queen of the Princesses). Princess Claudia (Jane's daughter) hosted Princesses Asha, Shae, Zara and Emma (all in the same class at school) for a selection of princess themed activities, lunch and, of course, princess cupcakes. Meanwhile the princess Mums were also hosted for a beautiful lunch and lots of photo taking!

The Scene

The Princesses

The Mums

Princesses at Play

It was such a fantastic day - as you can tell, because it inspired me to get blogging again! A total escape from reality and into fantasy land. And goodness knows we all want to feel like a princess once in a while. Thanks Jane!

When I grow up

Last night at the dinner table our family conversation turned to career and life decisions.

Asha informed us that she would like to be a hairdresser and live here in Adelaide. I'm sure that if she does end up pursuing this career path she will make a lot of women feel like the princesses we all are inside. A noble cause indeed.

During our time in Melbourne Shae decided (after having watched Father of the Bride Part II quite a few times) that she would like to be an obstetrician. She loves babies and has always said that she would like to be a mum when she grows up. I think the labour scenes in the movie were enough to make her rethink her position and rather help other mothers get their babies out. I have told her that if she wants to, she could actually be both. She would also like to live in Hong Kong with Big Ethan (our friends, the Hunter's, son) as her husband. She said over dinner last night that she would visit us should we be living in Adelaide at the time. Today Shae asked me about my earrings and whether it hurt to have my ears pierced (to which I truthfully replied "Yes!") and she asked if she had to get that done. I told her that she might want to when she gets older, so she thought about that for a little while and then said "I don't want to have earrings when I'm an obstetrician"! She has herself all figured out then.

And then we came to Ethan. We asked him "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and he said "A pirate!". We all laughed and Asha said "No, do you mean a PILOT? You know, and fly the plane like Daddy?" At this point Ethan was the one who laughed and he said "NAH. I want to be a pirate!!!". Case closed.

Memory Making

I have decided that Memory Lane is in my top ten list of favourite destinations.

I'm not sure what prompted the thought, but today on the way to church Shae asked if we could show Ethan the video footage we have of her and Asha as sub-one year old's helping take the washing out of the machine and place it in the dryer at our apartment in Robinson Heights, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong.

And thus began a 3 1/2 hour walk down memory lane. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. After having watched about an hour and a half of video-taped memories of the girls (which only covered from about 8 to 18 months!) Matt and I started to get guilt-pangs over how much we had recorded of the girls and how little we had of Ethan. So, Matt got to digging out the video camera tapes we have of Ethan's short life - and lo and behold there were 9 tapes!!! We watched from Ethan's birth day and quickly our guilt subsided. We had recorded a monster portion of his life too (phew!). Plenty of riveting hours of time on the playmat, in the bath, tummy time. We had a delightful afternoon of reliving first hours, first cuddles, first surgeries, first triumphs, first foods, first steps, first bike rides, first falls, first words, first books, first songs, first spots, first beds....of Disneyland and kangaroos, Grandparents' houses and kindergarten, friends, family, family-friends, Christmas plays, crawling races, elephants. Oh, it was great!

And what delighted me most was the realisation that we've only just begun with the memory making.

Take yesterday, for example - a day of memory making. We spent the late morning and early afternoon at Carrick Hill with some relatively new and precious friends (who feel like old ones already). We had brunch and sat in the garden with champagne and nibbles. We discussed life, love, dreams (and how they change), children, heartache, adventures, jokes. And all the while our beautiful children frolicked in the garden - every now and then contributing a delighted squeal to the ambiance of the day or returning to home base to refuel. It was divine.

And this is why I am a fan of Memory Lane. It highlights the best times that life has brought (not just the happiest, but also the most challenging that have resulted in immense growth) and encourages me that there are still so many more stops to add along the way.

We've only just begun with the memory making....

Amazing

I know I have been silent for some time now. Silent and amazed! I have spent the past two weeks getting to know a young girl who is full of energy and wellness and life. And I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

I'm not quite sure what I expected the outcome of this surgery to be. To be totally honest, I don't think my thought processes went beyond "Take Shae to Melbourne, support her through surgery preparation and recovery, return to Adelaide and integrate slowly back into the old way of life". But that's not what has happened at all!

After Shae's first week of going to school for two half days, her cardiologist said that we could phase her back into full days - as many as she could comfortably handle. So, I was thinking of sending her on Mon Wed and Fri the following week. After all, there had been tears of separation anxiety, pain anxiety etc. on her half days. Surely three full days would be enough.

Well! You should have seen the little Energiser Bunny go!!!! After a gradual process of realising that not only did she like school, but that she could actually (for the first time) participate fully in all the physical activities engaged in there, she took to full time school like a duck to water! She went every day last week. And has been every day this week. She has engaged in PE classes that she previously spoke of with angst. She has fallen over and skinned her knees twice while engaging in phsical activities with gay abandon. I have watched her throw herself down the slide in the school playground and, feet no sooner having touched the ground at the bottom, race to climb the activity frame in order to repeat the act. Their class went on an excursion to Port Adelaide yesterday to visit the Maritime Museum, the Rail Museum and climb the lighthouse - and last night she whispered to me that she had done lots of walking and "I didn't get puffed out". Oh!!!!!

I had never realised what a difference this operation would make. How remarkable the change would be.

I feel like I am getting to know the real Shae for the very first time. She's gorgeous! And I admire her so much!

Too Cute

Well, today was another big day on the cardiac surgery/recovery calendar - Shae's first half day back at school! And it went very well. And I cannot miss taking this oportunity to say how incredibly gorgeous she and Asha look in their winter uniforms... in fact, there is not a little girl in reception that doesn't look adorable in these uniforms. Admittedly it does take an extra ten precious minutes of the morning routine just to get them dressed - but it is just so worth it!! Too cute indeed.

PS I am in the process of adding pics to the blog, so please scroll through if you are interested in seeing how far we've come!

Shae's check-up on Friday went fantastically well!

Matt and I took a crying, feverish and pained little girl to her x-ray and review on early Friday afternoon and fully expected to re-admit her for further drainage. To my surprise, her x-ray looked better than the one she had taken on Tuesday. Being a little skeptical and thought they must have used the wrong image - but it was correct afterall. Her cardiologist was very happy with the progress and went so far as to say that she had "turned a corner" in her recovery. He is still reluctant to send her back to school, but suggested a couple of half days this week. She is, afterall, still only 4 1/2 weeks out of major open-heart surgery and flu season has begun. But we are progressing well.

We went home with a happy, cool headed and skipping little girl - a marked improvement noted right about the time we walked out of the cardiology department. We suspect perhaps she had some "white coat fever"?

We have had a divine family weekend. So wonderful that I can think of little that could have made it any better.

Praise the Lord a thousand times over....with a cherry on the top!