What the padeatrician said

This morning Matthew had his appoint with the pead...an hour and a half later we have some answers and some more questions..

Firstly he definaltly does not have any form of autism, thats the only definate...
Matthews problem solving skills and comprehension are at age level which rules out most of the nasty stuff and that is a relief, he can problem solve, listen and follows instructions and has a willingness to try at most activities.

If asked he can point to most items but is unable to verbalize which is probably due to his poor muscle tone. Which is another reason for his delay in fine and gross motor skills. The mind is willing and more than able, just the poor little body cant keep up.

So the paed wants a blood test to check the levels of muscle enzyme and iron levels (so we went and did that....poor little mite struggled a bit and now has a nasty bruise...) and he will be seen for OT, physio and speech.

The paed wants a review in 6 months to see if all the swimming lessons, gym and play group are making a difference...we will have to go on wait lists for the therapy.

He is also signing the forms for carers allowance for me, to help pay for all the swimming, gym and extra stuff that will help...

So thats where we are

A visit from the tooth fairy....

Eloise is very excited after weeks and weeks of a wobbly tooth it finally came out...yipeee.....she looks sooo cute and even sounds funny...Talia never sounded funny due to her always missing a front tooth and she learnt to talk with it out...so weezie sounds great..the tooth fairy gave her $1..

Well this morning I drove Darian to work as he is bringing his new work ute home...its only a 2 door a step down from the 4 door 4WD...but it will save us a heap in fuel...this fortnight has cost a heap running 2 cars... he is really enjoying his new job so that is good

I finally sent off all the documents to renew his passport/ duel citizenship yesterday as well as a request for an emergency passport, which if accepted will come back in 14 days. Darian received some very worrying news about his brother back in SA, he may have cerebral meningitis....they are waiting on tests...hopefully things can be confirmed soon and they can get the right treatment started for him...I cant even imaging how Darian is feeling with all this going on with his brother and father and being so far away from them...

The only other news is that the girls have a new brother, Marcus Scott was born on Tues....they are very excited and cant wait to see him, which I am not sure when will be as their dad canceled this weekends visit.

Matthew's Assessment

Well we have just returned from Matthews assessment with the Joondalup Childhood Development Team. Today we were seen by his case manager, physio, O.T, and speech therapist. The Paediatrician was off sick so will be seeing him on Wednesday...

So after Matthew got to play lots of games and running, jumping and all those fab things. I recieved some initial feedback from the group...

Well basically Matthew needs help, he is at the level of a 18 month old with his speech, gross and fine motor skills and his social skills....he has a vocab of about 25 words. The speech therapist wants him to do speech therapy.

The physio is concerned about his lack of muscle tone and his balance, she couldn't tell me more until after the pead has seen him, but suggested that we get him into swimming lessons to strengthen his core muscles and agreed that some kind of kindy gym would be good for his gross motor skills.

The OT want him to be seen as well as his comprehension and social skills are delayed ...

There was so much information was thrown around the room that my head is still reeling. But now that he has been assessed he can now go on the appropriate wait lists and he will get some help..

So starting tomorrow Matthew is starting swimming lessons (yes I have to get in the pool with him) and next term he is starting gymbaroo, I went and spoke to both and booked him in explaining that he will need to go into groups developmentally not by his age...so we are going into the 18 month old swim group and the 16 -24 month old gymbaroo group...but we always have the option of moving him...

So now its just up to the pead and then it will be a waiting game....

Happy Birthday Talia and A wedding Update

Today is Talia's 9th Birthday....happy birthday love....cant believe my baby is 9.... we are having a party on Sunday. This is my first effort with planning a party at home....I am stressed...I don't know how people do this every year....

My passport arrived the other day.....very exciting....not only can I leave the country but they will let me back in!!!!
We are still waiting for the 20th March for Darian to get his fingerprints done by the federal police so that he can re-new his South African passport. So until then we are on hold for the wedding date...we are pretty certain it will be in August sometime...

Also some very exciting news, Darian has a new job, he started this morning. So my thoughts are with him. Hopefully he will be much happier and he still gets a company car. So this will also affect when we go overseas, though his new boss knows we are planning for Aug and he is OK with it.

So things are on a roll.

A white dress.....

Well I went and put a deposit on my wedding dress today.....YES a wedding dress....Ironic really that this has gone from a little no fuss ceremony to a church wedding with a white dress...

I still have to pinch myself sometimes that it is all real, if someone had said to me this time last year that March 2007 I would be in love, engaged to be married I would of laughed out loud....I was still in Vic saving madly to move, hating ALL men..

So anyway back to the white dress, I went into the shop to look for a elegant cocktail dress that could pass as a wedding dress. As it is a second wedding for both of us we didn't need all the fuss and ho hum of a large wedding...and any way we are getting married in South Africa.....

Yes another shock to the system. Darian is extremely close to his family (and all of them are over there). He wanted his parents to be at the wedding and since all of my family cant be in the same room as it each other most of the time I don't need the stress of it all....so eloping to South Africa sounds perfect to me....

So since we made the decision to get married over in Port Elizabeth, Darian would really like to be married by his family pastor, so a few inquiries by his parents and its all OK for the church.... So in all reality a cocktail dress isn't really appropriate (yes I could get away with it..but) I saw this dress while trying on certain cocktail dresses and thought why not....so I did...I fell in love with it... its nothing fancy as we have a 20kg weight restriction on the plane...

So the only sad thing is that the kids cant come and be part of it...but we have spoken and they are fine...we are going to do something really special when Darian and I get back.