Turning 11

On Friday Oliver turned 11 years old. I will never forget the day he was born, probably because he was my worst labour. Started on the Monday and I had him on the Friday morning at 5.05 am. It only got super bad from 2 pm on the Thursday and after 4 hours of pushing they had to pull him out as he was stuck. #wherewerethedrugs 

After that hiccup,  he took first place on the podium of best baby (until he was topped by the Jontster)  not even blinking an eyelid at his Mum having kidney stones and her gall bladder removed at 5 months of age, not to mention bringing home nits from doing parent help. He just fit right in and adapted to life with 2 sisters and is a beautiful young man.

Ollie loves reading and will devour book series until 1.30am in the morning. I LOVE that he has my obsession with this and so one of his presents along with the lego and nerf guns was a gift voucher to Birchalls. He also got a package in the mail from Nan in the USA, and a contribution to his savings from Oma, the Binghams and Bastian and Nora.

Oliver picked tacos and nachos for tea with pink lemonade, snakes, cheddar shapes and cheese and bacon balls. He also wanted a 'Steve' mine craft cake.

Ollie had two of his good friends' Clancey and Noah sleep over. They get on so well.

We also had the Binghams and Andrews come for tea which made 17 in total. They all enjoyed playing  together and Ollie loved having so many people celebrate his birthday with him.

            

Nora had hung out with us for the day with Flynn and it was so funny to find these pics on my phone.

Good times.

Oli's hospital sleepover

Father's Day weekend turned out to be a little eventful, especially for Oliver. For a few days last week, Oli had been complaining of a sore throat and I just assumed it was the lead-in to the flu that everyone seemed to have had. On Friday he still went to school and played soccer in Friday afternoon sport. When he came home, he kinda crashed on the couch and said he was really tired. 

I went off to work at 7pm and early in the morning Oliver's breathing became really shallow and he was finding it hard to breath and his chest was decompressing with every breath. He could hardly talk and was quite panicked. Simon set off to the LGH and texted me to say that he was taking Oliver in. My shift was about to end so as soon as I could, I raced into the LGH. Poor Oliver was on a bed with an ECG going as his heart rate was very elevated and they were trying to work out what was going on. 

They started him on nebulised adrenaline and prednisolone and were trying to work out if it was asthma or croup or a virus that manifests itself the same as croup because the Dr said he was a little old to be getting croup. Oliver has had croup before back in 2008, which I had conveniently blogged about back then. It turned out quite fortuitous that I had, as it was easy to bring to mind his medical history. I smiled too as it brought back memories of hanging with my sisters in the playroom back then and we were sending texts about our party in the playroom and about how it was time to revisit that party.

The Dr (Maggie Phelan) was great and I told her that she had helped with Hallie when she was a baby, 12 years ago. When I said it was the baby girl with CAH, she said, "oh that's right and you guys lived on the coast". It's easy to remember when you are a 1 in 15,000 and not many other CAH cases come through the hospital, except for maybe your sibling of course! 

After Oli was stabilised. he was admitted to 4K (kids' ward) and settled in. He was still unwell but his breathing had improved a bit and his heart rate was much better. His temp was still 38.3 so they continued to do half hourly obs and they put him on some fluids. He was really good having the canula put in downstairs in emergency as they had numbed a few different spots in preparation for doing bloods etc. He said he didn't really felt he needle going in which was a great result. Even if he did, Oliver is a really good brave boy and was trying to be really calm.

Once I got into emergency, Simon left about an hour later  and organised to bring the other kids in later that night. Jonty and Flynn absolutely loved the kids' ward as they hadn't been there for a little while and I think they wanted Oliver to stay in for longer than he did so they could come back everyday and play. Flynn narrowly missed being there with his 4th bout of gastro in 2 months and his paediatrician said I really should have had him there but between the GP and I, we managed to keep him out.

As I hadn't been home really since Friday morning, Simon stayed the night and I went home for a shower and to do the weekend washing. A lovely friend had made us a yummy pie for tea and it was so appreciated. The next morning was Father's Day and we got back to the hospital about 9.30 and Jonty was excited to give Simon his presents.

Simon left about 10am and the younger  boys went back and forth from the playroom. Lisa came to visit us and had also popped in the day before with some yummy treats for me and Oliver. It was so nice to see her smiling face. Lisa ran into a lovely nurse, Bec who used to look after Noah, and it was so nice to see them catch up. I teased Lisa that she was a celebrity on the ward as she knew the Dr who was looking after Oli as well as Bec.

Bec came in to Oliver's room and and gave everyone a can of fizz and asked if we wanted anything else. We were all laughing as it looked like she was going to clean out the fridge for us.

My Dad has been in hospital for nearly 8 weeks now and it has been very hard for him to stay in bed all that time as he prepares for a skin graft on an old wound that opened up and got quite nasty. Because we were only a floor below him, I sent up a photo of Oliver's lunch.  (We have been commenting on the food in the hospital over the last few weeks and Dad is dreaming of a beautiful lamb roast. I promise I will make him one when he gets out). The exact same thing was on his menu too. - Irish stew!

Initially the Drs were talking about letting Oliver out sometime on Monday but as the day wore on and his breathing continued to stabilise, they said if he had some food and liquids, he could go home in the afternoon. I've never seen Oliver eat so quickly.

;)

Once Oliver was discharged, we went upstairs to ward 5B to visit my Dad with my sister Lisa. It has been a long hard struggle and I feel so bad that he has been in for this long. I'm really hoping that today when they do more surgery, his 4th in 2 months, that the end of his recovery will be in sight for him.

It was definitely a very different Father's Day to what we usually enjoy, which is visiting my Dad and enjoying the daffodils on his property and having a lovely meal together.  This was my first Father's Day blog post from 2007 where we are at my Dad's place.  I had also planned to do a turkey roast and baked cheesecake for Simon so we might hold off until next week now. :)

Oliver has been sleeping a lot since we came home and is into his second day off school. Flynn has also crashed a bit with a temp and feeling unwell so they are keeping each other company on the couch. I posted a few pics of Oli in hospital on FB and IG over the weekend and Oli and I are grateful for everyone's love and support.
THANKYOU!

The big 10!

On the 4th of March, Oliver turned the big 10 -

double digits - a decade!!

He was so excited the night before his birthday and could not get to sleep.

He decided to go to school until recess time and then come home and have some birthday time at home. His best friend Noah was very excited to see him and with the help of some other mates, had written on the whiteboard.

 Two days later on the Friday after school, Oliver had a sleepover for his birthday with a few of his friends.

On the party invite, I had requested iPods or iPads for some "gaming" time and then I confiscated the technology for the rest of the night. They were all excited to be playing off against each other and doing stuff in each other's worlds on Minecraft.

Oli wanted a computer cake so I gave it a shot and even though it tasted nice it didn't look all that crash hot but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Sarra did a great job helping me out with the cold rock for dessert.

And then they all settled down to watch Night at the Museum 3.

I don't know what time they all got to sleep. I didn't hear much noise after midnight but I was too scared to ask. ;) In the morning I served up waffles and ice-cream and juice and they all sat around the table chatting and laughing.

I only let the kids have a party every second year because having 11 kids in the house takes me a whole two years to recover from. ;)

Oliver got some lovely presents and is very lucky to have such lovely friends.

The big 9

Yesterday Oliver turned 9 years old!! Where did that time go. He is growing up into such a  delightful young man and is so earnest and thoughtful. Last month for my own birthday, he blu-tacked three 2 dollar coins and a one dollar coin to a card for me out of his own pocket money. In the card he had written a number of words that describes me from his point of view. One of the words was "careful". He is such a funny boy.

Oliver had written a list of things he wanted for his birthday. Nine things in total to match his birthday. Three of the things were books, one was a hug!!

As per tradition, Oliver was allowed to choose whether he wanted the day off from school. Sometimes he has chosen to go until recess or lunch but he was happy to have the whole day off. I think it would be different if they were always having days off and not valuing their time at school. Some people might think we are not teaching them that school is a priority, that a birthday is just an excuse to have a day off school.  But on the contrary, because education and learning is so important in our home, the kids rarely have a day off and so it is extra special to have their birthday off as positive reinforcement for all their hard work. Plus we love having the one on one time with them for part of the day, where they choose whatever they want to do.

It worked out well that SImon had a rostered day off so while Hallie and Flynn had hospital appointments, Simon took Oliver to spend some of his birthday money and stop at the Cold Rock Ice Creamery.

After we took Hallie back to school, Oliver and Flynn spent the afternoon putting together some lego he got with his birthday money.

I finished off his birthday cake, which of course was all about Minecraft.

For tea Oliver picked homemade vegetarian sausage rolls, American hotdogs and party pies with some lollies on the side. Flynn filled his roll with M&Ms instead of a hot dog. Why not - it was a birthday tea after all!!

If there was ever a kid that was happy, quiet and content, always does what he is asked to do... straight away, hates getting into trouble, has never in his whole life ever tried to get back out of bed once he has gone, (a huge plus lol), has never thrown a tantrum, loves to read and learn and has the quirkiest sense of humour and yes sometimes I think he is a perfect child ;), then you pretty much have our Oliver.

The only child with a cute dimple.

Happy Birthday Oli!

Oliver's Baptism

On Monday, it was Ollie's 8th birthday. He has been SO excited for SO long, counting down the days and hours until his big day. He got up nice and early on Monday to open his presents.

He had some eager little helpers too.

As per our birthday tradition, Oliver got picked up just before lunch from school so he could have a few hours doing whatever he wanted on his own. He decided to go to Kmart and spend some of his birthday money.

 For tea the kids get to pick whatever they want and Oliver asked for homemade sausage rolls, Fanta, lollies, M&Ms and chips.

Ollie LOVES Minecraft and wanted a Minecraft themed cake. I thought it was a bit out of my league but I gave it a go anyway and made a Minecraft creeper cake.

On Friday after school, Ollie had four friends over after school for a little party. Because we live just down the road from school, we all walked home together. I felt like the pied piper with my own lot and then another four extra.

Oliver had a great time opening his presents which included a soccer ball, lego and a skateboard. HIs friends know him so well.

Flynn loved playing with all Oliver's presents too.

Pass the parcel was a huge hit.

Hallie did a great job with the music and Flynn did a great job of tidying up. ;)

Sticking with the Minecraft theme, I made square cupcakes with the creeper face on them. They were a hit as all the boys love Minecraft.

The best celebration of Oliver's 8th birthday however, came yesterday, when he got to be baptised after church.

These are all the Uncles and cousins and his Pop that helped in setting him apart. What a privilege and blessing for him.

Oliver with Oma and Pop

Three generations of Triffitts. We missed having Simon's Pop, Harry there who usually made it four generations, but we know he would have been proud of another one of his great-grandchildren yesterday.

 The fam with my Mum, Nanny Gibson.

I wish I got some more photos afterwards of Aunts and Uncles that Oliver had there with him that travelled from afar as Melbourne and from Burnie, Launceston and Hobart and ones of his friends from church both young and old, so he could look back and see just how blessed he was on his Baptismal Day to have so many people who love and want the best for him. 

Somehow though I don't think he will forget what a special day it was..... he has already decided that he will serve a mission when he is 18 but it has to be where the Olympic Games are to be that year as he is going to be on the Australian archery team.

And you know what I tell him...you can do anything in this world Oliver!!