Little monkey

I was pretty spoiled with Oliver and Jonty, especially Jonty who at 6 wks was sleeping 12 hours a night. Yep pretty spoiled!!! This little monkey feeds every 3hrs and after doing a couple of 6 hrs at night, has reverted back to every 3-4.5 hrs at night. Did I say I was spoiled with Jonty?? ;)

Flynn hates his cot. He will sleep in it at night but during the day he won't sleep unless someone is holding him. So if I had a wet nurse of sorts, one that just followed me around holding him all day, that would be great. I have a sling but it's hard to wear that ALL the time. Maybe he is a kangaroo baby because he loves to snuggle into whoever is holding him and sleeps quite peacefully but as soon as you put him down, bam, he is awake and protests really loudly. He is still getting used to being stuck in his car seat so when he starts protesting, this is how Jonty reacts...........

The other day Simon had the idea of putting him in the chair sitting up on his tummy to see if he would sleep. All I could laugh at was his big nappy butt sticking up in the air. But hey it worked for a bit.

So I need to remember that they don't stay babies for long and be content to nestle in on the couch with him and watch him while he sleeps instead of worrying about everything that is not getting done. :) Cheeky little monkey!!

Meanwhile Simon is away training some new search and rescue recruits and sent some photos of them abseiling at Coles Bay. The scenery from up there looks breath-taking.

Simon keeps offering to take me abseiling. The jury is still out on that one.

Tooth fairy gets overtime

Yesterday Oliver lost his very first tooth.

I remember getting 5 cents when I lost a tooth but this morning Oliver discovered $2 under his pillow. Inflation I suppose!!! Then a little birdy told me that the tooth fairy pays $5 for front teeth. I wonder if I can get mine pulled.

Hallie also lost her seventh tooth last night.

No wonder the tooth fairy charged overtime for coming to our house last night.

(lovin' the fake smiles)

Sitting on my throne.

I think Jonty is getting a little obsessed with his potty. He now even wants to eat his breakfast while siting on it and watching ABC Kids. Maybe he is thinking, "if I just sit on it all day, Mum won't keep nagging me by continually asking if I need to go sit on the potty".

Charlotte May

it only lasted such a short time. how can it still ache so much. maybe because for us. we are mothers the moment we find out they exist.

once we see them, touch them, feel them... we become different people and there is no going back.

its in us forever.

im so very thankful for being then. for her life. for the short time i was able to call her mine.

I read the above from this blog, an inspiring sweet mother who lost her little girl at 4 months of age.

Today one year ago at 7.15pm, I gave birth to our beautiful baby daughter, Charlotte May Triffitt. In the past I have described her as a perfect soul inside an imperfect body but now even that doesn't seem right. I think now that even her body was perfect. I see other children with Down Syndrome and I see their bodies as perfect, a mirror to their perfect sweet spirits. It makes me wonder what Charlotte would have looked like when she grew up. How gorgeous would my little girl with Down Syndrome have been. Can you see her? With her beautiful blonde hair?

Her tiny perfect body................

You had tiny perfect ears, curled over in the Down Syndrome trademark way. They were oh so very cute. I wanted to whisper in your ear how much your Mummy loved you, how much it was hurting me right now to have to go through this but that it would be okay because we would be together again one day.

Flynn's fingers remind me of your fingers, so small but so perfect right down to the tiny wrinkles on your knuckles, with one fist curled up resting on your cheek.

Flynn's toes remind me of your toes. Those tiny little feet, begging to grow and run through the grass and play in warm rich soil.

I made you a blanket. I know you must giggle at the wobbly lines I sewed that don't quite meet up but it was a blanket of love and acceptance of your extra chromosome. I made it before you passed away, hoping to wrap your warm little body in it and you would grow up with it, knowing how deeply your mother loved this unexpected package that you came in.

Instead even though it is pink, Flynn is having a wonderful time with it. It was there right at his birth, waiting for his body to be wrapped in it, part of me wishing it was you, but loving him equally as fiercely.

He loves to hold the fluffy bits with his hands, just like I know you would have. What a blessing it is to have him here in our family. I am so grateful for the joy he brings to our lives and I know this makes you happy.

Happy birthday my sweet little girl. I can't wait to blow out the candles with you one day.

NB. all these photos of Flynn were taken by the amazing talented Lisa King. Thankyou for capturing the essence of my sweet little boy and for the beautiful pendant you gave me to remember today (Flynn is holding it in the first picture).

I have it around my neck. I told Lisa I would wear it on May 21 every year but now I have it around my neck, I think I may not ever take it off -at least not for awhile anyway. :)

Sheila May

Dear Nan Triffitt,

A year ago today you left this world of ours. It was a Thursday morning and I got the call from Simon early that morning that you had passed away. You see, I wasn't at home. I was at the emergency department of the hospital, four and a half months pregnant, waiting to see if the bleeding I had discovered that morning was bad news for our baby girl. As it turned out, it was!! A double whammy of a day.

I am writing you this letter because I feel that I didn't give enough thought to you this day last year. You see the news of your passing just added to an already black day.

Today I want to remember what a privilege it was to know you.

Jonty's blessing day (Jan 2009)

I am grateful that for the last six years of your life, I lived only ten minutes away.

I am grateful to have seen you every Sunday, always smiling and cheerful despite your ailments.

I am grateful to have been your visiting teacher and as you sat in your recliner, to listen to your testimony of reading the scriptures. It sent shivers down my spine to hear your quiet but powerful testimony. Do you remember that day? It had a profound impact on me as I realised there was so much to learn from you.

I wish I had known you for longer, known you like your grandkids did, when you were younger. I love that your grandkids loved and love you. Simon took the kids out to the cemetery to see you today. They know you weren't really there but up above smiling down on them running through the cemetery.

I remember the day you had your stroke and just that morning you were thinking of others, giving eggs to someone. I remember standing at your bed at the hospital, crying and talking to you while you were asleep and not able to respond, and getting the distinct impression from you to "stop crying and be strong because you weren't going anywhere just yet".

I am grateful for you loving the colour pink and making the best sponge ever. I am grateful for spending time in your home looking at photos and albums with Pop sitting in the sun room out the back, proudly telling me every time I visited, what the temperature was out there.

Finally I am grateful for the legacy you left behind that enabled me to be married to your grandson, these past 11 and a half years.

And so we decided last year that because you and Charlotte shared something that day, something so sad and precious, that part of our little girl's name would reflect the amazing woman that you are. Charlotte May is named after a wonderful, beautiful and incredibly strong woman. But she already knows that!!!!

Lots of love, Simone. xx

PS. I drive by your old house sometimes and your garden does not look as good as when you were there. That's okay because the garden you are working on now, I bet, is pretty amazing.

PSS. You would love the beautiful Autumn trees at the cemetery. The colours are brilliant.

A smile is worth a thousand words

Today Flynn is one month old.

He has been smiling since about two and a half weeks but trying to get a photo of when his face lights up is kinda tricky. You can tell when he is about to smile, because he looks at you really intently and then a smile starts in his eyes and spreads to a great big grin and his mouth opens wide and his eyes crinkle up.

Gifts that last forever..............

Today I received two of the best Mother's Day presents.........

Presents that didn't cost a cent................

We had Flynn's blessing and Hallie's Baptism.

What better gift could a mother receive, two beautiful spiritual gifts that filled my heart with love and gratitude.

See I don't always need chocolate!!!

Happy first 'B' birthday Bastian

Next Saturday Bastian turns 1. Kyle and Jess came down for Hallie's Baptism tomorrow and so we had a 'B' party for Bastian today at the Wheelers.

Everyone had to come dressed as something beginning with B.

Here were some of the costumes.

I wore bandanas.....

Jo(Kyle's Mum) and Flynn were both bees........

Kyle was batman, Jess, a ballerina and Bastian, a banana......

My kids were -

Jonty - a bin

Sarra - a cricket bat

Ollie - a burglar

Hallie - BMX rider

Simon - a bobby (British policeman)

But no-one would keep their costumes on because they got in the way of playing!!

Collette - a bank

Lisa - wore black

Emily - Bella off Beauty and the Beast

Rohan - bathers

Mum - bandages

Some photos of all these costumes would have been good right about now. :)

The food was scrum-diddly-umptious.

And these bottles, Jess made for our drinks were very cute.

Bastian loved opening his presents.

And Collette had organised some awesome party games.

Getting ready for pass-the-parcel.

Singing Happy Birthday.

Happy first birthday Bastian. xx