The boys - photo update

Settling in, and Linc back to normal

A month and a bit has gone by since moving in; still loving the house, and have done a few things already to make it our own (tinted the front bedroom windows, half way through the installation of security screen doors, built a small garden shed, bought a couple of Red Star Cordylines for the deck, fitted bamboo slat fencing, and dug up and repaired some of the in-ground irrigation system).

But more importantly, Linc's hearing seems to be back to 100%. Only proper testing will tell us if it is back to normal, but he can definitely hear a lot better than before.

Carter is still in underpants full-time; we do need to watch his water intake before bedtime, but we have also been waking him up most nights before we go to bed and taking him to the toilet as he has had a couple of accidents during the night.

We ended up going back to our old street for Halloween; the kids had a reasonable time - to be honest I'm not sure we could say that they had 'heaps' of fun, but they got lollies and got to mix with a bunch of other kids, so that's the main thing...!

Carter out of nappies!

It sure has been a while since the last blog update - seems so long ago that we were living in our old suburb, getting under each other's feet, and on top of each other's nerves...! Not so in the new house - it's huge, and it's great, and we have discovered the level of fittings (tapware etc.) is unbelievable - try $485 for the water fountain outlet in the main bathroom... or $329 per mixer (two in the bathroom and two in the ensuite) as they are some fancy Methven brand. Nice.

The letdowns - well, there are some little things (like the lack of flyscreens on the windows, and rubbish locking hardware) some bigger things, like the position of the house means it cops the worst of the storms that come in from the Northwest, and abysmal water pressure throughout the house (including all external taps as they are ALL plumbed into the 4000L rain water tank), but all in all, nothing that has made us regret our purchase - yes, we're even slowly getting used to the busy road/walking path, mere metres from the main bedroom (tinting is going on the windows in the next week or so). My new favourite thing is having breakfast at the breakfast bar with the sun streaming in the huge full height window...

But more importantly, Carter is out of nappies. While he's been wearing underpants throughout the day for at least the last four weeks, and has been doing no. 2s for about 2-3 weeks, he has still had a nap during the night.. so tonight will be night three with no nap...! He did wake up halfway through last night quite distressed; we think he'd been crying out for us to come to his room to collect him to take him to the toilet... luckily he eventually gave up and made his way to our room. He was so upset as he thought he had already weed in his underpants - but he hadn't, and we were so proud of him. It's just so funny that he won't leave his room... even in the mornings, either Lincoln or us have to open his door so he knows it's okay to leave his room. We sure wish Lincoln was more like that; I just had to install an external blind to Linc's window as the sun was waking him up far too early, every day. He's now back to a more reasonable 6.45am to 7am...

Enjoying a stunning day at Floriade

Update: Linc's hearing loss

Life is full of swings and roundabouts - like winter in Canberra makes you appreciate the first warm days of spring; so do bad things make you appreciate the good things. What is all this babble about? Well, we had Linc's audiologist appointment this morning and we are feeling very relieved, after an extended period of intense worry...

Linc has 'mild hearing loss' in both ears (don't be fooled by the 'mild' descriptor - it's enough that he can't hear us from a couple of metres away). However, this hearing loss is only because the sounds aren't getting through the ear canal to the inner ear properly - i.e. the ear drum is not vibrating as it should (a cool little test where pressure is put on the ear drum identifies this as the first issue)... the second test was to determine the extent of the hearing loss; the third test sent sound through his skull directly to the inner ear; Linc passed this test with flying colours which meant that there isn't any issue with his inner ear (which can be a sign that the hearing loss will be permanent)...

So, diagnosis: Medically known as otitis media with iffusion, it's commonly called 'glue ear'; a lovely condition that can sometimes result from an ear infection which leaves a build up of 'gunk' in the middle ear, thereby preventing the small bones in the ear that transmit sound from vibrating. Imagine what it would be like trying to hear a conversation from underwater. Apparently it's very similar. It sounds innocuous, but it's the most likely reason children under five will end up on the operating table... The reason young children are most vulnerable to glue ear is because their Eustachian tubes (the passage between the middle ear and throat) are short and narrow, so can get blocked easily. Fluid secreted in the middle ear is trapped, rather than simply draining into the throat.

Treatment: nothing really 'medical' i.e. no medication; instead, he has to do blowing/sucking things...

Outlook: Very positive; although it could take months to clear up. He will have another hearing test in three months to determine whether it's improved; if it hasn't, they may leave it for slightly longer before the only option is surgery, where, under general anaesthetic, they make a slit in each ear drum and manually drain the fluid.

Three days till we get the keys to the new house. Very exciting. Also exciting is that we bought a king bed on the weekend; luckily the bed (although, not the frame) will arrive before the mattress we are using goes into storage. We have managed to do quite a bit in the past couple of weeks; we badly underestimated the amount of 'junk' that needed disposing of (including a clothes dryer, BBQ, and six massive van wheels/tyres which I eventually took to a scrap metal place in Fyshwick as they couldn't be disposed off in a skip).

Our new bedroom furniture (although we got the king size!) - they chuck in the child for free

We also bought a new TV since the negotiations for the sale of our existing house came down to a request for the inclusion of our wall-mounted Sony TV!

Yes, that '70' means inches (or 177 cm)...

Happy Birthday Carter!

Monday was Carter's third birthday. We had a bunch of Mum's family over for birthday cake after work where Carter enjoyed getting stuck in to his 'smash cake' - a huge chocolate crackle filled with lollies...!

Meanwhile Linc's virus has resulted in severe hearing loss; we are all REALLY hoping that it is temporary, but it's still very upsetting to know that he can't hear us properly when we're trying to talk to him. He has an audiologist appointment first thing Monday morning.

Six nights until we're in the new house... and only half-way through changing several thousand addresses online...

Sick, exchanged, and conjunctivitis...

I guess we should be getting used to it by now; the inevitable long periods of sickness during winter. But you don't. It's always stressful and puts a strain on relationships - especially when Mum and Dad are crook at the same time as the kids...

Carter appears to be over his ear infections (for now) but Linc is still trying to battle a virus; at least the fevers are gone, but he got the first signs of conjunctivitis yesterday - the classic gunky eyes etc. so we went to the chemist and administered some Chlorsig - which he hated - we literally had to physically restrain him just to get the cream into his eye. He woke up this morning with no gunk, but his eye is almost closed over and very, very red; back to the chemist who advises he needs to go to the Doctor. Which is fantastic, as we were only there YESTERDAY as Linc has been coughing so badly at night that he vomits everywhere. And that is just so much fun for everyone, not least of all poor Linc...

And onto the youngest member of the family - Ollie the ragdoll cat. Unfortunately he's a nightmare of a cat; and while the feeling isn't shared amongst the family, he's a pain in the backside, making life even more difficult than it has to be. He has periods where he just turns into a monster - generally only with Dad; his pupils dilate and his ears go back, right before he leaps at my face, claws and teeth bared ready to sink into flesh. And then at night if we don't let him into the bedroom he continually scratches on the door - and then when we finally let him in he proceeds to destroy the doona when trying to bite our feet... if he wasn't so damn cute, and hadn't managed to build a trusted circle of powerful allies, he would be long gone by now...

Anyway, now for the exciting news...: we exchanged on the new house after a period of heightened uncertainty; it's a relief, but it still hasn't sunk in yet - I'm sure it will soon though, considering we move into the new place in TWO WEEKS! The mortgage has now gone from very large to absolutely terrifying, but we aren't Robinson Crusoe in that regard (something not right about still paying off a house when we're 65 years old)... but at least we will have a house we are genuinely happy with (we hope) and that gives us the room to have our own space, and much bigger bedrooms for the kids to play!

Our new house (outlined in red)

Coast trip, house sale, house purchase

On 9-12 August the family made the traditional mid-winter trip to the coast; and boy did we need the escape from all the goings-on at home. We had a wonderful time, went to the beach every day, and enjoyed the 18 degree sunny days! We saw a whales, seals, stingrays and even an eel and octopus (the last two were sleeping on a rock)...

As I mentioned, it was just what was needed at a very stressful time in our lives - yep, nothing like the stress, worry, uncertainty caused by moving house. First step obviously to sell our place; this has now happened and was actually quite quick (one month from listing the house to an exchange of contracts - can't complain about that). And on the same day that we had an acceptable offer on our house, we had also put an offer on another house; the next day after a bit of back and forth we had our offer accepted on the new house - luck and good fortune meaning we had found a wonderful (huge - 218m2 of living) house to buy (that we could move straight into from here), rather than having to rent and hope something suitable came along in the lease period!

How exciting. Only, while we have exchanged on our house, we haven't on the new one due to waiting on the finance company's valuation... so we are, in a manner of speaking, homeless, having sold our place and not officially exchanged on the new one - with the risk of losing it to another couple who are very keen on buying it... we have everything crossed that the valuation happens quickly so we can gain some certainty with regard to our move (which is due to occur in less than FOUR WEEKS! as we will rent the new one for the week before settlement on our current house)...

Throw in the fact that EVERYBODY has been sick: Dad having had four days off work; Carter on his third round of anti-biotics; and Linc with a fever that lasted days and didn't respond to panadol - and it's just been an absolute barrel of laughs...