Back in the land down under...

Well, we have been home for three and a half weeks and I can no longer remember that we were away... but the weather isn't too cold or too rainy - about the temperatures we had in the Danish summer! Jasper still misses everyone! As we do too.

We came home with a thump as the kids both got colds the week we got back and Sequoia's turned into an ear infection and two burst eardrums. She sees the ear, nose and throat specialist on July 21st. Funnily, there has been little sleep for anybody. Jasper had his follow up at the children's hospital after doing a sleep study and has mild sleep apnoea, his oxygen levels are great, they didn't drop below 95 percent but he wakes every twenty minutes, so never goes into a deep sleep - no wonder he complains of being tired so much...



The kids running across the park at Pitwater. Sequoia has walked and almost runs everywhere since coming home. She is a shadow to Jasper, shouting out "JJ" whenever he is too far away to see and toddling off after him...



Back with granddad. So much to show him and tell him before having him take them to the park for endless swing rides...
It is getting chillier, some 11 and 10 degree days with jumpers and boots (Jasper is in my big boots here!!)



Ahhh, dollies...
or as Sequoia says 'dolly, dolly, dolly, mine, niiice' in a very broad australian accent. And quite loudly as she has two volumes on and loud or off.



"The wheels of the bus go round and round"... Jasper moved the dining room furniture and proudly showed me his bus, fully kitted out with plastic plate steering wheel, as well as with his very happy passengers.

It has been school holidays and the shopping centre had free circus workshops for kids which was great. Both kids got right into plate spinning. There was also juggling and stick twirling and balancing but the juggling balls were thrown and chased intentionally with our two!



J with a hoolahoop.



Nice hat, when I am not spinning it on a long stick (she really did too).
-----------------
It is now another two weeks on. Sequoia and Jasper have both been to see a wonderful ENT (ear nose and throat) specialist, Jasper is on a nasal spray to try to slightly shrink his adenoids, and so far he has been sleeping a little better, still wakes but way less snoring. Sequoia will have a small surgery to place grommets in her ears when we get a place on the list, about a 90 day wait. It will be great to have her speaking and hearing properly, so I hope this is all she will need. Even though we had felt her hearing has improved a bit, esp after all of the flights we took, and although she has about 15 words now, her hearing is still at the low level it was when she had tests at 4 months, 6 months, 12 months of age. But they do think that the drainage of the ears with the grommets will make a huge difference.

The kids got over their colds but now Sequioa and I had an awful weekend of food poisoning. I dont know what we ate, or whether it was a virus we caught but we have both been vomiting and vomiting. We are over the worst now. Sequoia seems much better than me, I moan around the house with a sticky headache and body that feels like someone has whacked it with sticks and she races around from toy to toy hardly letting anything stop her, If anything she has slept better, only one waking per night, as her body heals itself through sleep.

We have mum's cat while she is in Melbourne for a month visiting Jessi, and seeing if she would like to move back down there. The kids think the cat is is great and she has been very patient with them. She sits just far enough on our bed so that Sequoia can reach her for an almost pat, but cant really do any damage. Sequoia is hilarious, she toddles down the hall, arms outstretched yelling "puzzy, puzzy, puuzy", and upon seeing the cat, finishes with a huge "meeeooooww" (which she learnt in the exact tone and phrasing from puss herself as she travelled down from Katoomba in the cat basket in between the two kids in the back seat of the car, meowing the entire way), the Sequoia's hands move together as far as they can reach across the bed and she then says "tiggle, tiggle, tiggle" as her chubby baby fingers waggle back and forward. The cat looks up, and must think, 'at least she cant climb up here yet'...

Jasper is back at preschool, which he loves and is also playing with his lego every day. He has started making up vehicles and planes and all sorts of interesting contraptions. In the early mornings (he is always the first one up these days) he makes something new then brings it into us to show us the next progression in his building. I bought some fishing tackle boxes last week and we sorted the all of the lego into various sections but colour and size (though Z ended up doing most of it - Jaspers attention span lasted a while but not that long) - and he has been threatened with giving it away if he tips it all out - it has become the first thing he is actually really neat and tidy with.

More later,
Txx