Linc's 3-4 yr old checkup

Linc passed his routine checkup with flying colours. The health centre consultant thought he was very clever and couldn't believe he had only just turned three; she was sure he was almost four. She said he appears to give short, but very descriptive answers to questions, was very cooperative and very charming and had beautiful manners; definitely ready for school. Unfortunately the eye test identified a potential issue with his left eye which will get further investigated this friday by an Orthoptist. Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious. Linc is just over 101 cm tall (90-97th %) and 18 kg (90-97th %).

A rare moment of brotherly love

He also got stung by a bee for the first time. Although Dad told him it was just a splinter and the little guy just shrugged it off... pretty impressive! We didn't find the bee, so we're not sure if it was already dead, as the stinger didn't seem to be pumping venom when Linc showed Dad... maybe it had already done that. Either way, apart from some swelling and general discomfort, it didn't seem to faze him.

Cute. We're biased, but he's cute. Really cute.

Bee sting

Carter's new teeth

Aren't they fancy! The molars are also coming and must be very painful for him...

Trouble...in little Carter town

The poor little guy just can't get a break (although I probably should rephrase that, as that will be next, I'm sure!)... while his arm now looks like it's fully healed, he's had a fever all week, which peaked at over 38.5 deg. We took him to the Doctor who couldn't work out what it was, and Dad took Thursday off, and Mum took Friday off to look after him.

Yesterday morning he broke out in a rash which was the final clue to identifying his ailment! What we initially thought was related to his entire set of teeth coming down at once (well at the top and bottom front teeth at least), now looks to be baby measles (Roseola). Considering Linc had exactly the same thing happen to him, we expected Carter to start feeling much better once the rash had developed; thankfully we appear to be right, as Carter was much happier today.

But lately things have been a little tougher than usual - the family is still getting used to Mum working (where she worked three out of the four-day Easter long weekend - so we hardly saw her), again with the lack of sleep, dealing with a Lincoln who has an amazing amount of energy (and who is having day-sleeps less and less), and Dad acting as Director for the last couple of weeks.

For some reason we tried taking the kids shopping yesterday as they are in desperate need of new shoes; big mistake, as it was very busy and the kids like shoe shopping as much as Dad does (i.e. not much). Linc's foot is also HUGE, so it's quite hard to find something that fits him for both length and width (see photo!).

Linc requires a size 13 shoe. That's big. Very big.

We had the boy's cousin Lizzy's 2nd birthday party on Monday and Carter threw his typical wobbly on arrival (too many scary people, including Uncle Dave with the beard!) but calmed down when it was time to hunt for eggs! We also had a mega-easter-egg-hunt on our street (with another Carter-wobbly just to make sure everybody knew we had arrived)... and Carter was very interested in the puppy dog that was dying to join in!

The boys hunt for Easter eggs. Carter isn't sure about the man's hairy legs behind him!

Carter attempting to feed the dog yummy Easter eggs. How grown up does he look!

We don't seem to have a decent photo of Carter's new teeth; but I'll endeavour to get one on here ASAP as he looks so different with his pearly whites!

No dummy and a dislocated elbow

Tonight will make it the 6th night since Lincoln last had a dummy! It just happened one night where we gave Linc a teddy bear saying that he could have the 'special' bear if he left his dummy on the bench; he grabbed the teddy bear, and off he went! He did ask for it a couple of times in the next few days, but now doesn't ask for it at all. A huge load off, as we weren't looking forward to the battle of dummy hill.

The dummies look better in the bin than in Linc's gob!

On a sadder note, Linc and Carter were wrestling on Friday night, and things got a bit rough, with Linc wrenching Carter up off the floor by his wrist. We didn't know it at the time, but this action ended up in a mild dislocation of Carter's elbow which was the result of the lower arm (forearm) slipping out of its normal position at the elbow joint. To make matters worse, Mum and Dad didn't work out that there was something wrong with his arm until Saturday afternoon. This was mostly due to the fact that, unless we touched his arm, he wasn't displaying any obvious signs of pain. We only noticed that he wasn't using it at all, and had trouble getting up off the floor. So, on Sunday morning we headed off to the hospital.

Firstly there was the initial exam. He screamed. And then it was off to x-ray. He screamed as the x-rayologist took a number of scans; and then came back for more scans. More screaming. It's worth adding that in the meantime, Dad had tried to get us some coffee as we had gone to the hospital early to avoid the rush and hadn't had our morning coffee (power was out from 7.30am to 9.45am). No luck with the coffee.

Then the doctor called us back in with the results of the x-rays. Carter screamed. No break to the bone, which was good news; however, all signs pointed to a dislocated elbow. Doctor brought another doctor in, who ran us through what he believed the issue was - he also explained what he had to do to fix the problem. It didn't sound pleasant. And it wasn't. Go to YouTube and search for pulled elbow - it shows some poor kid having his dislocated elbow put back in place and gives a good idea of what we (and Carter!) went through. Carter screamed, and screamed and screamed as he wrenched and manipulated his arm, wrist and shoulder to firstly pull the joint out, and locate it where it should've been. After he finished, Carter couldn't move his arm, and was shaking all over. But of course the doctor wanted to see if Carter could move his arm any better than before - with Carter screaming, it was a useless objective. The doctor prescribed some Nurofen, but of course Carter had to be weighed first to ensure the correct dose was given; scream, scream, scream. Then scream and choke and choke as we tried to get 6ml of Nurofen down his gob. The doctor then asked if we could wait around for half an hour to see if his arm improved at all. Mum went to get coffee, but the line was huge. So no coffee, still.

The doctor finally came out to see us again, and as soon as Carter saw him he screamed; it was very difficult to hear what the doctor was telling us as Carter was hysterical. Anyway, the doctor couldn't be sure that he had properly relocated the elbow as there was no click; however, as the injury was on Friday evening, there may have been substantial swelling which would hide the clicking sound.

Anyway, back home after what seemed like hours at the hospital and we finally got to have some coffee. This evening Carter seems to be using his arm a bit more, but it is still obviously very sore, and certainly not back to normal yet.