preparing for holiday

School holidays are here and we are having a lazy weekend while we get ready to fly to Australia on Monday. We had pancakes for breakfast and Isaac had a great time finger painting with maple syrup and Greek yogurt - I don't think his feeding issues are a food phobia at all, he quite enjoys food and likes to try to copy us eating but he just doesn't seem to understand how to get the food to the back of his mouth to swallow. I missed the last 2 feeding clinics because of going to the dentist and unfortunately the SLT is now moving back to her home town in Australia. Still maybe his feeding will improve after his next surgery if he is no longer in pain.




Isaac decided he'd had enough - maybe it's the yogurt in the hair and maple syrup in the eyes!




I have started my usual manic holiday packing list, - 8 purple giving sets, 4 syringes, pump and charger, 5 litres of nutrini, spare PEG button, 20 nappies, pushchair and raincoat, travel cot etc etc while Paul says "Don't know what the problem is, it won't take me long to decide what clothes I want to take"



Noah's behaviour therapist called round yesterday with a bum bag full of toys for him to fiddle with on the plane. He especially likes the little fan that spins round with red and green lights (not sure how popular it will be with other passengers though!) He's enjoyed wheeling the cases in from the garage and was very pleased when I said we coudl practice putting up the new travel cot.



This is a great lightweight cot which says on the blurb "Can be put up in seconds" I think this would only be true if it was a race between teams of trained marines! but actually this time I did it much faster than on my first attempt. Of course once it was up Noah and Isaac had to get in for a play.
you can just see two caged boys trying to escape

and now they have escaped!

We've finally sorted out where J will stay whilst we're in Australia, it's a shame that we'll be away for her birthday but when we booked we didn't think she'd still be with us - she came for a month 7 months ago! J is quite looking forward to her holiday with her former foster carers and likes packing her case. I've been wrapping her presents for when we get back and have a musical card that came all the way from Presatyn market to give her.



We are going to have a birthday tea party for her next Sunday, because we will have extra adult support around then. Her mum is having a proper birthday party for her on the birthday date itself with friends from school. We don't want to compete with that so are just having 2 or 3 girls she likes from church. J unerringly can find the kids who are not in stable nuclear family situations - when I phoned the social worker of one of the girls J wants to invite I was told she was in a bad space and likes to throw sharp objects. (Paul says lemons are sharp objects, I say knives are sharp objects)

When you also remember that we don't get back till the early hours of Sunday morning and J will have just been returned from her week of respite then you can see we may be in for a very interesting afternoon tea!

pumpkin and shoes

We were very proud of J when she took part in her school production of Cinderella. So proud in fact that Lily gave her the last remaining piece of chocolate cheesecake which Lily had bought for tea the previous day.

J was the world's best ever pumpkin!! We ended up not going to watch as we wanted it to be special for her mum (and to avoid any direct contact) but we certainly got some photos and a re-enaction of her scenes!

Isaac picked up his new shoes yesterday. I have avoided getting these for quite a while as they make it obvious he is disabled (how about that 20 years into disability living and still finding it hard to accept!!) but I am now trying to persuade myself that they are quite cute.

I chose black and red as I quite like black and red, but I had forgotten that In NZ this means everyone you meet will say "Oh you're a crusaders supporter then" - (This worked quite well once when I met Ruth Dyson, the disabilities minister, when I was wearing black and red as she is the MP for Christchurch and a keen Crusaders supporter) he has black and white laces which apparently mean he is an All-Black supporter too!

I tried to get some photos of him standing in them - but Isaac wouldn't cooperate.

this is what Isaac thought of being photographed!

Fetal alcohol syndrome or not??

I think this is very funny but maybe it's just the rather black and warped sense of humour I have developed through my unusual family.
Paul has been away doing a clinic in New Plymouth and I ended up spending even more time than usual surfing the Internet and reading blogs about people with large adoptive families. Anyway I read lots of posts on a great blog about fetal alcohol syndrome and had a sudden "Ah -ha" moment when I thought that's just like Noah's behaviour, he's probably got FAS. It was only then that I remembered Noah is not one of my adopted children, he was born to me and I never drank alcohol in his pregnancy!!

Lily's Wii

Lily has spent her birthday money on a Wii, this is an interactive games console where you actually take part in the sports you do (more details here).
We are all having great fun with it - lily likes the boxing and dances round the room getting quite out of breath. J had a go at the ten pin bowling for the first time yesterday and got strikes with her first two balls!
We have also got the game Wii fit and I had a go on that doing the step workout.
Lily has also got the light sabre and the star wars game so she can get involved in the fighting - she is waiting for Sam to come round to get that out and play it.
I will have to take some photos of us all having a go.

Auckland weekend - part 2

On Friday after visiting the law firm where Beth works we had a second afternoon tea at Heather and Richard's. It was great seeing their little girl Kristy running around. She is only a few weeks younger than Isaac and like him has DS. She is also adopted and came to Heather and Richard a week after Isaac came to us. It was also nice for me to find a child who weighs less then Isaac - Kristy is only 10kg (mind you her birth mum does only weigh 42kg!)

While we were there, Jenny turned up with her four children - Jenny has recently become friends with Heather and was Isaac's foster mum for the five weeks between his coming out of hospital and coming to us. It's so nice to be able to keep in touch and see her children growing - I think they were a little disappointed that we didn't have Isaac with us though.

We went from there to a brief rest at our hotel then on to a great Thai restaurant to be part of the party of 20 celebrating Beth's admission to the bar.

Next morning, Saturday, we got up fairly late (it's only possible to do this when we don't have the boys - THANKS HANNAH!) and had breakfast in Smith and Caughey - Auckland's posh department store. I used their toilets, the best in Auckland and looked at children's clothes I couldn't afford. We spent over an hour in Border's bookshop and then I visited Lush, the lovely cosmetics shop while Paul took our shopping back to the hotel.

By then it was time for another special event and we met Rachel and Adam and Beth and James

for lunch at White the lovely restaurant of the Hilton hotel. I had never been here but Paul chose it as his favourite of fairly posh Auckland restaurants (he visited a lot with drug reps) as it has reasonable sized portions and you can still identify the food you're eating!

It is set near the viaduct sticking out right into the harbour. It was wonderful weather with the sun sparkling on the water so we got some great photos that look as if we're all on a cruise ship!

We were exhausted and had a quiet afternoon and evening back at our hotel. Then next day it was back to Auckland airport first thing and back home to Palmy with a lovely view of the mountains on the way.

Auckland weekend - part 1

So here we are with more details and photos of our great weekend.

Hannah arrived here at 6am on Friday to look after the boys and get Noah and J off to school. She managed really well although we got occasional slightly worrying texts such as "Are there any stronger painkillers than panadol in the house?" and "Are the fumes from burning plastic dangerous?

We got to Auckland at 8am and met Rachel for breakfast in Auckland airport. We hadn't seen her for over 18 months. She looked really well although I couldn't quite understand what she meant when she told me she'd put on loads of weight!

Meeting Rachel for breakfast at McDonalds and giving her her 21st birthday presents - and engraved silver bangle, a photo of Noah and Isaac and some money

When we got to our motel Quest on Mount I wondered who the very smart receptionist was, then realised it was Beth in her black suit and high heels. We walked down to her car with her to pick up her wig and gown, then up to the High Court where there were loads of people in wigs and gowns.

the proud parents and Beth outside the High Court before the ceremony

this shows more of the lovely court building

The ceremony was conducted in one of the beautiful old courts - NZ doesn't have many historical buildings and the High Court is one of the best I think. All the relatives and friends were packed in, then the sponsoring lawyers sat either side (in what I guess were the jury spaces). We were told to be silent and not take photos then the registrar said "All rise" and the judge came in wearing red robes and a long wig and all the lawyers bowed to him.

It was a very formal ceremony and in some ways resembled a wedding or church service. Each candidate (there were about 25) had to line up in turn at the side door then be announced and enter the court room and stand in front of the judge. Her sponsor had to say "May it please the court, I present Bethany Harper to be a solicitor and barrister of this honourable court" the judge then acknowledged the lawyer by name.

The judge asked all the candidates in turn if they'd uphold the law (more formal words to this effect) and each one said "I do" then they were asked if they moved being admitted and they all bowed.

Once they were admitted the judge gave an address about the law being equal for all, about this being a family celebration (there was a mum presenting her daughter, a father presenting his son, and a sister presenting her brother) and about keeping a life/work balance. Then the judge asked each candidate to speak - this was a bit like Oscar acceptance speeches but preceded by the words "May it please the court" afterwards the judge acknowledged each person and nodded his head saying "Miss Harper" At the end the judge retired but said I'll be back in a minute for a photo opportunity!

You can probably identify the judge but Beth is hard to spot - she is second in on the right on the back row

The final stage was signing a register.

There was time then for photos with friends and family - it was lovely to see our friends Heather and Richard and their little girl Kristy (who Beth boards with), Beth's boyfriend James, and her friends from uni and church.

Beth and James

We grabbed some lunch, then Paul and I were delighted to be invited to an afternoon tea at Corban and Revell, the law practice where Beth works.

Beth and her sponsor - one of the associates from Corban Revell who helped her get her job there.

Our daughter the lawyer!

Just back from a great time in Auckland

more photos to come