Author: Geoff

Wow…haven’t had a blog update in a few weeks so here it is all wrapped up into one. Poor little Tobes became quite unwell in early December with fevers and constant vomiting. Nattie had gone back to work at the Foresnsic Hospital as AHNM and one night Daddy put Tobes to bed and he complained of a ‘sore tummy’ and ‘need to be sick’ – soon after he was in bed he began vomiting and dry wretcthing, for most of the night. By 4am I was worried so decided to call Pa Pete and Granny Jude to the rescue…

Woohoo he is mostly pooping on the toilet now and no accidents!!

He is nearly 3 and he is growing up so fast

He is speaking in sentences and so clearly

He is singing the ABC

He knows how to have a tantrum and be upset if he is in trouble

He is as cute as ever

He is still wearing some size 1 clothes as he remains little

He has a few lovely little friends at daycare

He tells us “you’re my bestest friend in the whole world”…. melt me….

He calls us names when upset like “boobie and pumpkin head”!

He likes to help in the kitchen

He doesn’t sit at the table much for dinner these days, preferring to do his own thing

He knows he is nearly 3 and can’t wait for his party with a Thomas cake!!

And what a cutie he is!!

He is eating us out of house and home..

Blowing raspberries

Smiling and giggling at everything, mostly his brothers who he adores!

Saying “dada, bubba, mumma”

Trying to get up on all fours

Not sitting up just yet but close

Loving his bath.. his favourite thing to do after kisses

Going “ahahahah” with someone’s hand over his mouth repeatedly

Slapping anything that comes to close to his hands

Wooing anyone that looks at him..

He still has big blue eyes and is definitely a splitting image of mummy!!!

He is sleeping through the night randomly

Well hasn’t this week been a stressful adventure so far..

Toby woke with a mild fever on Tues morning, nothing a little nurofen couldn’t fix prior to daycare!! At lunch they ring and say he has a fever 38, please come and get him…

So after collecting him and getting him into bed for an arvo sleep at home following Panadol as well as dragging him to Will’s swimming lessons he starts to look better..

I head off to work for a night shift and daddy is at home to manage the boys!!

All night poor daddy is on the phone with me as Toby is beside himself, irritable and wanting mummy…

After lots of vomiting, dry retching, fevers and pain in belly and next to no sleep, Granny Jude gets the call to come over so Toby can be taken to hospital…

Long story short poor T gets worse and fevers hit hard, he is jerking when trying to sleep, continued nausea, pain and just flat…

Dr Rob Slade is the Paed, he thinks it’s Hand Foot and Mouth (EV 71) which can cause cerebral irritation due to increase fluid in the brain… MRI and Lumbar puncture will be needed if no improvement…

It’s been a hairy few days of stress as very worried for T and such a nasty virus affecting his brain…

He has been brighter this afternoon and no fever either so may have come through the worst of it I’m hoping!!

We need some positive swabs to confirm the EV71 so we are not left wondering meningitis?!!

Mummy and T are currently settled to bed and mummy is nearly asleep so night for now!!!

Will-

He started school on 31st January at Harbord Public school! He has 2 teachers Mrs Robinson and Mrs Moll. He LOVES school, has not had any tears about going and is eager to learn… his class is called KR and his class colour is green..

He is also attending OOSH 2 days per week morning and afternoon, loving this too!!

He is currently really maturing and has the cutest giggle… he is tired though for the first month only attends 4 days…

Attitude is common though he is also easily sadden when he knows he has done wrong..

We have tried weaning night time nappies and he went well though commencement of school and being so tired it was having a few accidents regardless we were toileting him 3 times overnight so back to pull ups for a while… we will try again maybe April!!

Toby-

Toby and Jack started a new daycare Explore and Develop Freshwater at Harbord diggers on 7th January. They attend 2 days per week and absolutely love it… it is a lovely place and space, Toby is always happy when we pick him up and has had fun days!!

Toby can count to 10, sing the alpahabet, dress himself, put his shoes on(with a little help at times) and is talking very well and speaking long sentences… he isn’t riding a big boy bike yet but it won’t be long, the poor darling is petite and so also has little legs which doesn’t help him ride a big boy bike…

He has the longest eyelashes and gets comments most days how beautiful they are and how cute he is… he can also be firey and cranky, having a good tantrum when he is not happy.. those these are short lived as he is very distracted with something fun…

A couple of weeks before Christmas Toby became very sick with EV71(hand foot and mouth) that became encephalitis meningitis. He was admitted into NBH for approx 7 days quite unwell though our little trooper got through regardless that mumma and dadda had more stress than they can imagine… 😢

Jack-

Jack has recently turned 1!

He had a birthday party at our house with the blow up water park being a main event with lots of kids!!

He had a Elmo cake and loved balloons!!

He is saying mumma, dad dad, nan nan, uh oh, bye bye… he is waving and pointing, clapping and cheering.

He crawls very quickly, cruises furniture and stands unassisted at times without knowing it.. still a little way off waking!!

He has 11 teeth 🦷 with another coming through and LOVES his food!! He is eating pretty much everything, drinks cows milk now and only has 2 bottles a day and drinking water out of a straw cup..

He is just over the 50%ile for both height and weight so if growing and tracking well..

He is very much like mumma in looks and has the cheeky nature of his brothers. He loves to play with balls, cars, buttons, pier points, fans, plants, anything that makes noise and has lights! He is exploring the house and loves the boys bedroom, climbing up on the trundle to see what he can find!!!

He is loving daycare, has taken it in his stride and enjoying the environment and socialisation…

Myself and the boys enjoyed visiting Will in his class yesterday. Granny Jude and Pa Pete also came along and were very impressed with Will’s progress now into term 3 at Kindy!!

He is doing so well, reading at level 7 and writing like a champion, it is very neat and well formed.

They were celebrating NAIDOC week and so made a rainbow serpent as well as did some writing about a Giraffe.

Our baby turns 1 and is ready for all things in life!!

Jack is 15mths now, he walked at 14months and is now saying some words..

Bubble, Toby, poppy, popcorn, bye, hi…

He is sleeping through the night too!! Woohoo!!

He loves to play, is very cuddly and affectionate, smiles most the time!!

He wants to be a big boy and do all his brothers do!! Even feed himself!!

We love him dearly and couldn’t imagine life without our third little boy 💋

He is becoming quite the Mr independent!

He can feed himself in his high chair, climb, run, dance, sing, kick a soccer ball like nobody’s business and giggle!!

He is clever and really understands all he is being told. He takes the boys nappies to the bin, gets his shoes, tries to put on socks, identifies things in a picture and LOVES birds!!

Today William excitedly went off to school for his second year, going into year one. His teachers are Mrs Mol, and Mrs Smith.

Today he played with Riley and Keiran. Here’s a few cute photos of William on his first day of year one 2020.



Toby started his first and only year in Harboard community kindergarten this day. He is in the yellow group and has already made friends with Tadhh and Jordan. His teachers are Lilly , Ann-Marie and Michelle. Day one was awesome with no tears – day 2 they had to prize Toby off Mummy! The day did however improve quickly!

Jack’s words are really coming on! He’s now saying all of our names in the family, including Mamma, Dadda, Daddy, Will, Togee (can’t get the ‘b’ yet!), popcorn, puppy, tiger (and can growl with it too!) amongst others. Life is flying by – this year Will goes into Year 1 at HPS and Toby transitions from Explore and Develop to Harbord Community Kindergarten where Will went two years ago! Life at William Street is still great – we’d love some ceiling fans installed by Nick the owner but can’t see that happening any time soon – we do ask from time to time. We’ve just spent the last week with Callum here, he had a great time with the boys but his last day ended up being quite sick after Chinese (we think?!) at Brookvale Chinese. I ended up driving him down to Bowral on the Saturday morning to meet up with Dave, Tobes came with me!

We are currently looking after Cassidy’s gorgeous bearded dragon “Levi”. He’s so beautiful and we are all warming to his unique little personality.

Williams front bottom tooth has been wiggly for quite some time. we have been anticipating it falling out for a little while as well but we noticed the other day that one of his replacement tooth was growing up quite big behind it, so we thought a visit to the dentist was in order. The whole family went into Chatswood where he saw the dentist, and she decided the best thing was to take his tooth out with some local anaesthetic. He was very brave.

Now he has to wait until the tooth fairy comes, hopefully tonight… What will he get? I asked him at the dentist this morning what the going rate might be for that first tooth and he said ‘maybe two dollars’.

William had his graduation ceremony for kindie at Harboard public school on Thursday, 12 December 2019. Nanna and poppy were able to come and enjoy the celebration. Was very enthusiastic in his singing and the interactions with his classmates and receiving his certificate for graduating kindy 2019 here are some photos…

Will is thoroughly enjoying the challenges of reading and we have said that if he is able to get to a level 15 reader (currently at 13!) he will get a drone and a fish!! He’s so excited. The other day we went out early in the morning after Nattie and I had a party for the NBH staff. Here’s the note Will left. He only got a little bit of help!!

Today William had a go at jujitsu. He really enjoyed it. We now need to make the decision whether he’s gonna keep it up he wanted to bring his uniform home but we had to tell him that it was just a trial today. See below for the photos

It was the end of an era last night, I had my farewell to St Vincent’s Hospital after 20 years at the Green Park hotel in Darlinghurst. It’s quite emotional in there about 20 to 25 people that turned up throughout the evening from 4 o’clock in the afternoon was a good opportunity to chat to people and reminisce. Next week I start at the northern Beaches Hospital on Tuesday, 1 October 2019. I’m really excited about this and look forward to the new challenges ahead but also be much closer to home. I should’ve taken more photos but he’s just one of me and a few of the 8N staff.

He is a beautiful picture of Will two days of finishing term three at Harboard public school. He’s done really well this term but has spent the last four weeks overseas in Canada and Hawaii. He really is quite tall-he has grown about an inch since June and we are in the end of September right now

Then you got to see Toby doing gymnastics today which was his final day of term three he absolutely loves it. Areas with a certificate of completion which means he gets a free burger at Grill’d. He will also move up to the next class next term. Go Toby!

The day started early today with the alarm going off at 6am (!!). All three kids slept until about 0645hts which gave Nattie and I some good quiet time to finalise packing and enjoy the serenity.

We dropped our Kia Sorrento off in down town Jasper (with no charge as yet!!) and then had a yummy Canadian breakfast at Smithy’s!

The boarding and check-in process was seamless although we had to pay CND $40 for over weight baggage. We were carted all the way down the train line to our cabin in a golf cart as it was raining. Andrew was the name of the guy who was organising us pre boarding and onboard was Chris, a great Canadian with a very deep authoritarian voice – great to alert the boys to the need to behave for the next 23hrs!