Landed

We spent most of June sorting, packing and cleaning as we moved out of the house in Salem.

The last few days of June were spent in some Disneyland fun, and now we are sorting and unpacking back in the Wellington house.

We've been in since july 19 and it feels quite like home now, I'm getting on top of the school run over to St Marks, where Liam and Madeline spend their days.

Seals and lobster

Mostly we hung out at Sarah's today, but in the afternoon we drove to Boothbay and went on a Lobster and seal boat trip, we saw seals and harbor dolphins and there were lobster in the trap they pulled up. Liam enjoyed the lobster part the most, he also enjoyed dissecting the lobster Richard and I ate at dinner, he was NOT interested in eating any, but he doesn't like crab or shrimp either so I wasn't very surprised, Izabel was quite keen on it.

At the other coast

Yeasterday we went to Coast with Sarah and Ethan, Pemaquid Lighthouse, in fog and lobster dinner, in the rain. It did clear in between and we had a look around Pemaquid point.

There are new pic's in the sidebar, click on it to view them.

Back Down Under

The kids and I flew to NZ on Friday last week, without Richard who has some work to complete before he's allowed to join us. The prospect of flying with three children by myself was stressful, but the actuallity of it was mostly unevently. Our friendly airline concierge introduced herself to us at Vancouver Airport and helped us onto the plane. Mostly the older two were entertained by the onboard service, but I had enough other colouring books and things to fill the time. Most of the flight all the children slept, myself not as much but Izabel was on me as she's a lap traveler still and with nine infants on the plane, didn't manage to get a bassenet. Getting off the plane I did manage to leave the passports in the seat pocket but again my handy concierge was able to retreve tem for me and we were still out (through some extras special lanes) to the bags before they were on the carosel. Murray met us in Auckland which made the trasit easier, we had breakfast then continued to Wellington where we were met again and driven to Wainuiomata. The kids were excitted to see all the welcoming partys, Madeline had fallen asleep traveling to Wellington so she was still sleeping in the backpack to get of the plane.
So far since we've been here I've mostly collected the things we needed, undies, pj's togs, that weren't worth bringing and the kids have constructed and adventured around the Wainui yards.
I have joined the evening walk that mum and Ruth do, my knees don't think it's that great an idea but the rest of me feels better for it.

Today was the first venture out and the kids and I saw Cathie before a trip to some Wellington Parks and a Cable car trip for them and a Cafe lunch with Mere's antenatal group for Iza and me.

Days you can do without.

We (Christine, Liam,Madeline and Izabel) took a trip to Denver. We left Victoria on Good Friday and meet Richard at the Denver airport, where he had flown to from Texas. Saturday was a good day, set up things for Sunday, when Liam and Richard had skiing lessons. We went to Loveland which is about an hour out of Denver. They both enjoyed their lessons, Liam was worn out after his full day of skiing.

Monday we went to the downtown aquarium and the children's museum with friends from Santa Fe who have moved to Denver. Both places were great and the kids all enjoyed playing together at the park in between too. It was nice to catch up with their move and set up in Denver.

Tuesday morning was fine really, we did some shopping, got some activities to do in the hotel room the problems started with the scissors, Liam wanted to cut the game pieces out for one of the ladybug games, he is not clear about how, but the sicssors went into his right leg,behind his knee,so I think he was standing and sat down on the chair with the sicssors in his hand and sat on the sicssors. After he screamed in a more screamy way than normal I put Izabel down ( she was feeding) and walked around the couch to see Liam's trousers colouring with blood,I pulled them down and the blood was pumping from his leg, I automatically got him lying doiwn and put my thumb over the hole,too hard according to Liam, but I stopped the bleeding, then needed a phone. I couldn't reach the room phone but my cell was on top of the stroller next to me so I called 911 and spoke to the operator who put me onto the ambulance operator and dispatched some paramedics. Once they arrived I called Richard, he met Liam and the team downstairs once they had decide where to take Liam. Which changed from what they discussedwith me so they went to Littelton Adventist Hospital. Richard went in the ambulanceand I stayed with Madeline and Izabel planning to follow for the pick up once we knew where and when. The surgeon at Littelton decided that it needed the specialists at Childrens hospital, as it was now rush hour it was decided to take Liam in a chopper, Liam really enjoyed this, he wasin pretty good spirits most of the time.
The surgeon at Childrens called in a Specialist Vascular surgeon from University Hospital and they operated on Liam's leg at about 10pm, it took until midnight and they sutured his artery. Richard stayed with Liam, the hospital is really well designed for parents to stay with children. There was a foldout couch bed in the room and shower facilities and toiletries in the hospital, there is also accomodation for families to be able to stay,but out of the patient rooms.
Madeline, Izabel and I went up to the hospital the next day. Izabel wasn't allowed in PICU, (Pediatric Intesive Care Unit) where Liam was so Richard and I swapped who was with Izabel or Liam. Madeline missed Liam alot, she woke up in the night worried about where Liam was, so once she was in his room and they were drawing or watching tv together she was happy, she didn't really want to go back to the hotel that night. Liam spent two nights in PICU, but the second was because they were short of space on the regular floor. He keep the nurses entertained, they all thought he was delightful, especially as they are used to much sicker children. Thursday afternoon he moved to the sixth floor where his room even had its own full bathroom and xbox system. Each of the regular floors have an activity room with all sorts of games and toys and craft activites. We had visited the one on the eightth floor earlier in the day. Richard and Liam tried to play baseball on the Wii which was amusing. Liam's physio had given him a walker, like a mini zimmer frame and a leg brace. Thursday night Richard stayed again and friday morning we returned again and the kids played in the activity room on the sixth floor until about mid morning when they said we could take Liam home, mostly they were organising follow up care in Victoria.

The rest of the time in Denver was good, we visited with people and went for a drive and looked around Denver and its surrounds. Monday we got up at 4AM!!! to get to the plane for a 7am take off. They had to deice the plane which Liam found amusing. Then he, Madeline and Izabel all slept till about the last 30min before we arrived in Seattle. We had little cart meet up off the plane so we got to our connecting gate really easily and were on out flight to Victoria at 10am The local Ice hockey team, The Salmon Kings were returning after playing Frezno and were on our plane. Liam didn't realise until we were all leaving customs and hestarted asking about what was in the big bags (hockey sticks) then he was asking then all kinds of questions about sticks and asking everyone if they were a Salmon King, most of the team said hi to him I think.

So today is tuesday again and I called the pediatric surgeon who we'd been referred to,since they hadn't called yesterday, and those were my instructions. She saw us today, 11.30 was the appointment at 12.30ish we saw her and she was concerned about the strength of the pulses in Liams foot, Sooo we went to Victoria General for a CT scan, and the vascular surgeon. He was not pleased with the results, there appears to be a connection bewteen the vein and artery, so tomorrow we go for ultrasound to confirm that finding then we see him again to decide how to proceed.

Mostly some pictures

Well the trip is well and truly over now, it feels like a long time since we left for Bristol at the begining of December.
I enjoyed it while we were away but I have thought since it was rather an undertaking, it never felt like we couldn't manage but we didn't get much in the way of time to stop and think about it.
Since we've been back in Victoria we've got back into all the normal activities, dance, gym, sportball, and LLL for me. I lead my first series meeting for my new group on friday and everyone seemed to think it when well. There was a good numberof mum's especially since there's not been a meeting since November.

This weekend we visited the BC ferries open day on their new ferry there were long ques, longer than the organisers expected. I thought it was OK, we got to see the bridge and some staff areas, but mostly it was just showing everyone what the new ships looked like.

Today we watched the Chinese Communities celebration of Chinese New Year with the Lion dance.
Here's a collection of Pic's I've just put up they cover a range of stuff, there must be more on Richard's machine which I'll have to find.

January 2008

Where are we??

You might have noticed that my brestfeeding and typing skills are not up to scratch and I haven't been very good at practicing.
We've started our world tour. We left Victoria tuesday 4 December for Heathrow headed for Bristol for two nights and Oxford for one. We attended the exor Chritmas party and award dinner, Richard got an award, everyone admired Izabel who hada pretty dress for the event.
Now we're in Sanat Fe for a couple of weeks and it's snowing!!! So the kids are pleased.
We head to NZ leaving here on the 22nd Dec for a month. So you can all use your powers to make sure that the airports we need (Albuquerque, maybe Denver, San Franscico) are not closed by the weather at that point.

Planes and hurricanes

We have survived two of our three plane flights with all our baggage intact!
Walking onto the air new zealand plane and hearing all those Kiwi accents was strange, I've never been aware of kiwi's sounding different before, but they understood me, and my children without repeating myself!
Liam was wearing his Hurricances shirt and it was commented on straight away.
The flight was uneventful and the children watched movies and slept most of the way. Generally I think the shorter flights are harder for us, two hours from Alberquerque to San Franscico was tiresome for Madeline who'd not had quite enough sleep in the afternoon.
We arrived in NZ at almost exactly time change time so everything fell back an hour, we only spring forward last week! It changed the line up of international to domestic flights but we've been able to move up to the earlier plane so don't have to wa it an extra hour in Auckland, Though now we're in the koru lounge and the boys are watching the Hurricanes v Sharks, they probably won't want to get on the plane 'cause the rubgy's not finished!