X-rays and plaster.

So a few days ago my son slipped on a child's toy fry pan and slipped on our tile floor. He started screaming like I've never heard before. Nothing was calming the poor guy down so after some advice from the nurse helpline off we went to the ER. We got settled quickly in to the paediatric ER unit and they gave him some  panedol with codeine to help with the pain and sent him off to play with toys to see if we could get him side tracked playing and see if we could get him to walk on it. He was having nothing to do with our tricks. He sat and played and yelled to us when he wanted up or the ball had rolled away. It was very strange to see our very active boy just sitting playing, Or watching movies. After two rounds of X-rays of his hip, knee, and ankle. They found nothing and sent us home and told us to come back if things got worse and told us to follow up with a GP in a few days. The next day he wouldn't  even try to put any weight on it. I had decided to give it that day and if by the next it wasn't better we would head back. Well that night we got a call from his ER doctor who said it looked like they might have found a small hairline fracture and asked if we could come back in in the morning. So we did we had another set of X-rays and guess what they found. Two small hairline fractures to his tibia, which explains why he was in so much pain! My poor little man. So we got a nice little plaster cast that goes from his toes to his mid thigh. And the best part is we get it for six months. I feel so bad for my little boy who's stuck on the couch all day. He gets confused when he wakes up and he can't move his leg. But there's some up sides. One it's spring here so it's warm enough to wear shorts, my house will stay cleaner with out my little man tearing the place up. It looks like we have a long six weeks of colouring, painting, and DVDs ahead of us. I might need to Invest in more kids movies. I'm very thankful for all the friends willing to help and be there as our family lives very far away during a bit of a crazy moment.

 

Super heroes don't need six packs and capes

On a crazy hot day in  Thailand I was hiding out In my air conditioning and wasting time by looking on face book and I saw a picture on a blog that a friend liked, it was a picture of a sweet boy laying in a hospital room in his mothers arms. I clicked on the blog and read about this little boy but before I new the end I had to know the beginning. In a few short simple sentences this little boy had captured my heart. I found his mothers blog and went to the start and I read, I read every blog, looked at every picture and watched every video.  I watched as this little boy preformed miracles day after day. My son clapped as he watched this little boy take his first steps and laughed as he laughed and danced with his mum. It was a little strange reading a story that i already new the tragic ending and I was surprised how much my heart was involved in a family I will never meet and a little boy I will never know. 

This little guys name is Gavin,he has an amazing story which I will try and share a bit even though I'm sure i won't do it justice and I hope I can get it all correct. This little guy had the odds stacked against him since birth but if you looked in his eyes you could tell that didn't matter for him. He had amazing patience with life taking things as they came and all on his own time. He was told he wouldn't walk, or talk, or even feed himself. Well he proved most of that to be wrong, and I'm positive if he had more time,he would of proved it all wrong. His millstones looked very different from his little brothers or my sons but that didn't matter he did it all on his,own time. As I started to read this little boys story it caused me to look inwards. This  little boy of 5 was challenging this old lady. He challenged me to slow down and look at what is important in life and not to worry so much about time. The world tells us we should be doing certain things by certain times. Our milestones never seem to stop. When we are little it's rolling over and walking. Then it's tying shoes and reading, pretty soon it's being married and having kids at certain times. It's a lot of pressure for all of us. We all feel we don't measure up but Gavin didn't care about measuring up. I live a life where a lot of people think I'm behind on my milestones. People think we should grow up and get new jobs. But thanks to gavin I feel like that no longer matters. Gavin spent his whole life  persevering trying and pushing himself. How many times have I just given up? It's to hard? I'm to tired? And about a million stupid excuses to not do about a million things in life. But as I watched this little guy try time after time to do things like hold a spoon on his own, touch a screen for he wants,climb stairs, and walk, things we all take for granted I realised its time to stop giving up on who I want to be in life. So who cares if its hard or if it hurts when I fall down a few million times bruises heal get up and try again.  Gavin shared a love and a fullness to life most people wish they had even an ounce of. I'm sad and sorry ill never get to meet this amazing little boy and I hope I can teach my son these lessons from Gavin. I pray his family continues with his love for life even in the midst of all there pain and sorrow. Gavin taught me and thousands like me to be a superhero you don't need big muscles, a fancy suit,  or the ability to fly.  All you need is to try and to never stop trying.This little boy is no longer with us on earth but he is still teaching us all how to fly like superheroes. To Kate and her whole family thank you for sharing your little super hero.

Social media and why it causes me to be less social.

I have a lot on my heart and mind tonight. We live in a tough world. There's a lot of big controversial stuff out there and thanks to the Internet and social media its all in our face. We have become a generation that freely and openly slings hate at each other and calls it our opinion and uses that to justify it. We make fun of each other via YouTube and twitter and say its ok because they put it up there. We are seeing a generation of kids who put all there self worth in how many likes they have on a picture and judge there beauty on comments received. We allow our selves to judge each other based on a snippet of ones lives we see. As a mum this is easily done. I see the other mums in all there Pinterest birthday parties and homemade laundry soaps and I get down on my self, I see friends on family Holidays and I get jealous and angry.  These things cause me to second  guess who I am and hide away, when in reality that glimpse of a perfect child is simply that a glimpse. We all have those perfect moments where our kids are quiet and cute, or playing nicely with their siblings, or doing the darnedest  things for the whole world, but it's the moment after we never see. The moment when the little sister pulls the hair, or the child throws that toy one second after we snap the picture. Those are the moments are lives are made up of that we never allow the world to see but the ones people really need to. I have a friend who is the mum of 5 amazing, crazy, gorgeous, funny, and very real kids. She is always posting the funny, awkward, and not so perfect things they do. You see photos of the smiles the hugs and the tantrums. And I love it! Why because she is real with real children and she embraces all the crazy! She shows true love to her kids and that love spills out into her everyday life. I want to be  her, well minus the 5 kids but I want to be that real and ok with it. Social media is handy for our family. We live on the other side of the world from many friends and family so thanks to blogs, and FB and such they have been able to watch my son grow up. But I have a hate side to social media, like I said before Its brings  out an ugly  side to most of us. It's allowed us to all stand up on our soapboxes and scream at one another with out having to really listen to each other. It's become a place where are publicly abused for our ideas and beliefs if you are brave enough to state them. Honestly I would love to say what I'm always feeling and thinking about where I see other people have it slightly or very wrong but that would make me no better than them.  Your not going to agree with everything everyone says and your not always right in what you think you know. we have based to much on glimpses. glimpes from the media, FB, Youtube, And twitter but none of that is the whole story. This is where love comes in, get to know people out side of social media, hear each others stories, stop judging on what you see it's not the whole story. Sit with peopel of different, cultures, beleifs snd religions, find out what they are really about. And just because some one uses different words or calls something by an unfamiliar  name doesn't mean it's not what you know, love, or believe in. I'm not perfect, my families not,perfect, we don't get it right with each other, our son, our friends, or our neighbours. I judge, I put people in boxes but I'm trying. I'm trying to ask more questions before I form an opinion. And my opinions are never written in stone. You never know when someone just might change your mind. So my friends be real with each other don't be afraid to be social with those you don't understand. And don't forget to be confidant in who you are. Don't hide because you do things differently,  Thats what makes this world amazing,. if we allow or selves to get out of our hiding places and sit with others you never know who you might encourage because they do things a bit different as well, or who might encourage you. 

The small stuff can make you sweat

I have a crazy but cute 23 months old. He spends his days exploring his surroundings by dumping every toy, block, wash cloth, and anything else he can get his hands on all over the floor. This isn't a malicious act its just him exploring figuring things out and just being a boy. Now to some this could get really annoying and trust me it does, but I decided when I  became a  mum to not sweat the small stuff. He isn't hurting any one or anything. He has his own room that most of this happens in so if people drop by we can always just shut the door. Don't get me wrong he has to clean up, well help as much as he can, but for me it's about what really matters. Does it really matter he prefers to dump his blocks all over the floor  and then put them in bags or tea cups and bring them to me to buy or eat? Nope not really. Or that his face washers or probably never actually clean due to the fact that they are mostly on the floor. Nah they are usually just used for his boogers. Now don't hear this and think I'm the most laid back non stressed mum ever cause trust me when you are folding laundry and he's unfolding it with his sticky fruit snack hands it gets a bit annoying. But those are the moments I try my best to clean off his hands and give him his own pile of laundry to fold well to more or less ball up and throw on top of my neat piles. My crazy little blonde haired boy loves to be by my side. He really just wants to help and learn. He loves doing anything I do. To bad he's not a little more coordinated with a broom.  There are defiantly days when the little things, the constant messes and cleaning up and constant string of words that nobody can understand gets to me. But I'm trying. Aren't we all to let loose and have fun with our kids. Give them memories of being allowed to be seen and heard and to be who they are. So if that means I have to cheers a hundred cups of tea, or step on a few pointy blocks then that's what I will do. Today I moved his little table out to our tiled living space and we played with different textures from our kitchen cupboards. First we smeared flour all over and drew shapes and our names. Well ok I drew his name and he drew well who knows. Then it was the grainy texture of corn meal. I don't think he was a fan of that one because it instantly got piled up in to the little holes he uses as cup holders in the table. Then came the oats which surprisingly didn't go straight into his mouth. Halfway through this adventure he went into the kitchen and brought out the whisk to help with his master piece. By the end we had flour on us, the floor, the coffee table, and some innocent utensils in the drawers. He loved it, we loved it, and after a few minutes of clean up the house was normal again. So this is me trying to not get all hot and sweaty over the small stuff. I'm not perfect but I'm trying.

My little piano man

My son has loved music and everything that goes with it since the day he was born. He entered this world as U2 was singing about how it was a beautiful day, and it in deed was a beautiful day.at 2 weeks old he would sit and stare as opa played the keyboard and sang some song about a fly and a tree and some old lady. At 4 months old he sat behind a guitar with his dad and with his little fingers loved to try and strum. Now don't get me wrong I by no means think I have a musical geniuses.  But I defiantly have a little boy that loves music. He has his favourite songs and he loves to start singing the night night song to himself when he's ready for a nap. Which is a handy clue to me that he's sleepy. He picks up on the hand motions even when I'm pretty sure no one really taught him. Now all of this I've know since forever, and I've always known its from his daddy. Some days it seems like that's all he got from his daddy. I'm reminded everyday in his looks, mannerisms,and especially attitude that he's my little male mini me. But today I discovered something he else he gets from his daddy, his love to preform. Now we've seen him form boy bands with his cousin friend, and a microphone always calms him down, but today I saw a different side to him. We were in our local little big city with some friends and there were several decorated pianos placed around the mall area to promote our  regions annual music festival ,and even with heaps of people walking by and starring all he wanted to do was play. He stood next to his daddy and danced and played along to benny and the jets on the first piano we found. And then not even the play area could keep away from piano number two. By the time we found the third one he wanted to play all on his own. He was so cute but I defiantly think its time for some lessons. Like I said I definitely don't have a musical genius on my hands. But I also know he didn't get this boldness from his mama who would hide behind her daddy's legs well into her teens when she met new people.  All I can say is I hope he looses a little of my stubbornness and gains more of his daddy's confidence. 

I'm 30 and I know it

So this past Sunday I turned 30. I didn't melt or go have a midlife crisis, I don't feel like my life has ended nor did I sit around making a list of all the things I want to do in my next 30 years. I spent my weekend with the people I'm closest to here in Australia. I spent my saturday celebrating the first year of a beautiful little girl who I get to share my birthday with. I had dinner with friends who have become my family. And I celebrated my little cousins birthday. ( I'm 4 days older than him) I spent my first week at being 30 helping my friends and work mates get to their next adventure. Not much has changed from bring 29 to 30. But I do love saying I'm 30. I'm not sure why. I didn't suddenly become any more wise and amazing than I already was.

My 20's we're a decade of change. I left my home town and totally changed my career path. I traveled to more countries than I ever thought. I made heaps of new friends who are labeled family. I got married, changed countries, added a new member to our family and even changed my hair. It was an amazing 10 years packed with so much I can't really believe it.

If asked what my 30's will look like whoa man I can't even imagine. I hope they are a little slower going than my 20's I'm getting to old to move that fast. But I sure hope it includes adding more friends from all over the world. I would like to show my son the world instead of just showing him pictures from a book. I hope to learn to love more and give of my self more. To continue to believe in who I am and always rise to a challenge and fight for what I believe in. I hope my voice becomes louder and stronger with out having to say a word.

Thank you to all who helped me usher in this new decade!

Lessons I've learned in the last week

So this week had been one of the craziest and busiest weeks I've had in a very long time. I volunteered for the job as visa gopher for our office as we are preparing for a trip to S.E. Asia for 19 people. At the start of this adventure I thought I would take a train up to the consulate and then wait to days and go up again. I was wrong, very wrong. It ended up taking me 4 days, 16 train hours and lots of patients to get the job done. But as I look back on this fun but slightly stressful time I see I have learned what could be very useful life lessons.

#1 the train ride is long and deodorant is optional for some so breathe out of your mouth.

#2 even though the consulate tells you one thing always bring extra copies of EVERYTHING!!

#3 eating while walking may save time but it just makes you tired and sick feeling

#4 no matter how hot, a large bubble tea is never needed

#5 any bag carrying that much money,papers, and passports in the summer heat is going to be hot so just pick the one that makes you look less like a tourist and more like you belong in the business district.

#6 there are never public restrooms when you need them so just act like you know what you are doing and walk in to any place of business or conservatory and act like you belong.

#7 make friends with the security guard, you never know when you need them to print out papers for you.

#8 children are only going to be sick right before you leave so never dress in what you really want to wear. Wait till after you leave then change on the train.

#9 it takes less than 16 hours to read 400 pages, buy 2 good books.

#10 never volunteer for the visa run again
( joking I've really enjoyed my adventure)