Finn's Chickens - 15/06/2016

Simon's Cat inspires 'Finn's Chickens'

Conor recently introduced these little clips called "Simon's Cat" to the kids, and Finn LOVES them, so much that he started his own little series.

This was our first introduction to "Finn's Chickens"

My favorite one is the two chickens near the middle page, but a little down and to the left.
The chicken on the right is confused because the chicken on the left has a troll mask on hahahaha

Olivers tooth

When he got his first tooth (his top front left one), he must have just banged his face a day or two before, and the tooth came in a bit pink.  I wasn't sure so waited until it was fully through, and sure enough it was pink from the inside, so I took him to the dentist and she said it's called "tooth resorption", it had basically bled into the tooth, which is the beginning of the end of the tooth. At some point it would need to be removed.  When I saw her, his tooth was currently not giving him any pain, and was a tad wiggly, so she said we'd just keep an eye on it and follow up in 6 months, but to come in if he seemed to be in pain there, or if there was an abscess or any swelling.

Well Thursday during lunch we were eating as usual and all of hte sudden he just lost it!  He was crying soo much, and it took me a long time to calm him down, but then he did calm down, and as I said before he got a new tooth that night, so I figured it was just that.  But then Friday during his birthday dinner the same thing happened, again finally calmed down, but that night was terrible, he woke quite a few times and needed a lot of bum patting and rocking to get back to sleep, which is NOT like him at all.  The next morning, Conor took him out of our room as usual and made breakfast while I slept a bit more.  When I came into the dining room Oliver was already in his high chair, and I looked at him and thought he looked a bit like a little piggy, how cute!  But then I thought WHY does he look like a little pig? After breakfast I looked closer at him and his face was a bit swollen, the lip area in front of that tooth.

Looks like a little piggy!
The swelling at that moment was mainly the lip, and it was pushing out from under his nose.

After humming and hawing a while, I decided to take him in to the emergency dentist, since it was Saturday morning, and a long weekend at that.  I figured he probably had an infection that needed antibiotics.  So we went, and the dentist that we got was very timid with him, every time he started to cry (which was a lot, because he didn't like us looking at the tooth) she would back off, so in my opinion she never got a good look at the gum area around the tooth.  She said that it wasn't a bacterial infection and didn't need antibiotics, and that she would put him on the waitlist for their specialists and that the tooth would likely need to be removed.  But the waitlist for the public dentists would likely be a few months.  So on Tuesday I rang his pediatric dentist and she got us in the next day and was surprised to hear that they hadn't prescribed antibiotics.

Swelling moving up his cheek

By the time I had him in there on Saturday, the swelling was nearly to the eye, and our dentist said that could actually be quite damaging to the eye.  Thankfully he's always bumping his face, because on the weekend at one point, I can't remember quite when, he fell on his face and was bleeding from the tooth and I thought it looked like there was pus...and by the next day the swelling had actually gone down, so our dentist said he essentially "popped" it, which was probably a good thing!  She got me a script for the antibiotics so he's started that now.

Waiting to see the emergency dentist

But unfortunately the tooth definitely has to go :(

We saw our proper dentist again yesterday and she's got him booked in for July 13th (Elle's birthday - boo!) and please pray for him on that day.  Always that risk that something could go wrong with the general anesthetic.  He'll also be having his upper lip tie cut, it never gave us feeding issues thankfully, but it's quite a big tie and would likely give him a big gap if we don't get it done.

Thea - Three Years Old

Thea is 3!

Some little randoms about her:

• Such a spunky kid. 
• She loves cuddles
• She makes lots of funny faces
• loves minions
• loves anything crocodile (which she calls "bigabigas")
• She would spend 4 billion hours on swing at the park if you let her. 
• She doesn't like loud noises. 
• She wants to do everything herself. 
• She's so fun to watch play, but the sounds she makes for some of the toys shes playing with can be SOOOO loud! haha

Cuddling Oliver at the museum

Pulling faces

A perfect smile! Usually she squints her eyes when she smiles for pictures.

Being silly in a pillow case

Sad because she wanted me to keep pushing her

I'M THREE! With piggy tails

At a trampoline center

She doesn't usually nap anymore, but if we've had a big morning she might sleep in the car on the way home.

Such a goof.  FYI, she wears these slippers out about 99% of the time!

On the double decker tour bus in the city

Eyes squinted and bangs too long ha

At the miniature train, it was too loud for her so she had her ears covered (and she was crying alot), so the conductor came over and told her he would only blow the horn once, and to sit at the very back so it wouldn't be too loud.
She had a great time and every day for about a week afterwards, when we said bedtime prayers or prayed before our meal she would thank Jesus that "it not too loud!"

Loves little tasks: here she is washing the walls.

She really wanted a piggy bank for her birthday, she loved the little hat on the one we got her!

With her Godparents, MariaJose and Ricardo

Birthday Cupcakes

Eating ice cream at costco

Oliver - Twelve Months Old

Oliver is ONE!!!!

I just absolutely love this age.  The cuddles, the new tricks like passing things back and forth.  But I'm so sad it goes so fast!!

Poor Oliver actually had a very rough first birthday.  His birthday was on a Friday and from Thursday to Monday he was pretty miserable during the day AND the nights, which was terribly exhausting for Conor and I.

His body gave him a birthday present, a new tooth!  His 7th tooth (and now as I'm writing this a week past his birthday, I think the 8th is just popping through).  He also got a cold, which wasn't/isn't pleasant, but the worst part was an infection in a problem tooth of his.  I'll write about that all in another post though.

His First Year!

Anyways, a bit about Oliver.

• He love to dance
• He loves to point
• he babbles a lot, and will sometimes copy us a bit (buh, duh, da, mama)
• He waves and says "buh buh!" when I'm putting him to bed
• He's still waking 2-3 times a night to feed
• Will eat pretty much anything we give him
• LOVES to climb.  On anything and everything.
• Not walking yet, but will stand on his own and is almost able to get up to standing from the floor
• Really in general he's just a very happy, busy kid.  Loves baths, doesn't like to be excluded from things (will throw little baby tantrums if the kids are in their room with the door closed, of if someone else is having a bath and he can't go in!)
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Probably his second time in a trolley.  So that I could have a coffee without him grabbing at it! And so he could eat a bun without getting crusties on me

  
  

  

  Opening Birthday Presents

  
  

  

  A walking toy for his birthday.  He's standing unassisted here and there, but thought this might help him

  
  
  
  

  

  Lots of climbing from this boy!

  
  

  

  The most dangerous thing I've walked into in a long time!  This chair is now banished to the spare room hahaha

  
  

  

  He NEVER sleeps in a carrier anymore, thank you Ikea for this rare babywearing sleep!

  
  
  
  

  

  Such a big smile.  Such a happy boy.

  
  

  

  He LOVES the girls playmobil, and for the most part is pretty good with it.
  also, enjoyed finding a new thing to climb/sit on.

  
  

Back spasms

They're still going but definitely not as intense as yesterday. 

I took some Valium and strong pain killers and I think they helped for awhile, but when Oliver woke to feed at 1am I suddenly got very dizzy when he was just about done and had to hand him over to Conor so I could lie down again and eventually was sick. It was not fun!

Conor's been great though. We switched sides of the bed so he could settle Oliver in the night, or at least get him into and out if the crib for feeds, so that helped a lot. Now he's taken all four to church! Hope it goes okay for him!

Random stuff for the day

I think I want to get this blog going a bit more, so let's see how I go!  

Here are some randoms:

1. Finn is coming along so well now with reading!  He's "behind" where he would be if he were in school, I'm sure, but I don't care. We're going at his pace, he's loving it, and I'm loving getting to be the one to watch it all unfold!  We got some new readers from Costco this week and one book particularly he was laughing hysterically through, partly because it was a funny story, and partly because he was just so chuffed with himself. Makes my heart happy. He's also loving writing stories. For awhile I've let the kids dictate stories to me and I'll type it up for them and print it out like a book and they add their own illustrations, but this past week Finn has been enjoying writing his own stories by hand, with a little help by me

One of the first times he ever just sat down and tried to write something!

If you can't guess, they've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia.  Currently they are reading the Last Battle

2. Along with that, Elle has been doing a bit of reading eggs, but also just listening to Finn and I do his work she's picked up a lot. Today Conor took the girls to the shops and when they walked past the butcher Elle tried reading some of the labels. She got "beef" and "pork" all by herself!

3. I've been having issues with my back the last few months. I think it's just that my core isn't very strong, so when I bend and lift I'm straining my back. Lately it seems like one tweak will finally feel better, I'll have a few days of no back pain, and then I'll go and tweak it again!  Today it's resulted in spasms, which I've thankfully not had up to this point yet. But it's 6:30pm, and my back has been spasming since before 9am!!  It's so awful, and I feel terrible that Conor's having to do everything (and the kids are extra feral because for two days they've been up around 5am!). I feel like one of those "real housewives of Orange County" or something because I'll be popping a Valium tonight when Oliver goes to bed. 😂