Grade One

First day of Grade One was a big success. He apparently made lots of new friends, helped the new boy find the toilets, learnt sight words, made an Australian flag (he's dictacting here, by the way..) and counted to 108.

They also drew pictures of their family. Please do note my fetching orange skirt:

The first line apparently says "My little brother is small". Ryan is not amused.

17 hours...

before my holiday ends and I'm back at work. Dear God 4 weeks goes quickly when you are having fun. T has also been off all this time so we've actually managed to spend the time with the kids productively, rather than just bludging around the house. I can probably count on one hand the days we had at home - mostly we were out & about having fun. We kids were probably bundled in to bed in the clothes they spent the day in a few too many times but that's what holidays are all about, right? We did a day trip to Somerset, the beach (both north & south coasts), Montville & Maleny, had a round of mini golf, spent time playing games in The Parlour & learning to balance spinning plates in The Circus to name just a few.

Out to dinner with the lads.

Gadding about the city

An inpromptu stop at Kilcoy for lunch after Ryan decided car sickness was back in Vogue.

In Montville, smelling very much like vomit.

Golden Beach, Caloundra

K-9 Flyers Frisbee dogs

Appointment #1 - Opthalmologist

I had hoped that 2009 would be a year of fantastic news, instead we've been dealt a blow first up. Results of his latest eye exam are:

Left eye– 6/6 (perfect vision!)
Right eye – 6/24 (dismal)

This result from his right eye really floored me. I was keen to see how well he was going after his last appointment as he'd gone very well with his lens these last few weeks. He has worn it almost non-stop and it seemed so settled. I wasn't quite expecting 6/6 vision but I had hoped for pretty close. 6/24 is barely the third top line on the eye chart.

Dr D was also stumped and after examining him thoroughly, discovered Matthew is retaining fluid at the back of his eye. Again. This isn't the first time - almost 12 months ago he experienced the same problem after we dropped his steriod dose and he recovered quickly once the steriods were increased. The problem this time is that his dosage hasn't changed since that last increase. She has now doubled his dose of Redipred and we now cross our fingers and hope. If this intensive burst of oral steriods doesn't work, he will need steriod injections in his eye.

Meds- Drops unchanged. Naprosyn unchanged. Redipred - 2ml for one week, 1.5ml for one week, 1ml for one week.
Follow up – 3 weeks.

He rides

Teaching Matthew to ride a bike was one of the hardest, most frustrating & nerve wracking experiences of my life. There were days when that bloody bike threatened to tear the very fabric of our family to pieces and we all came home in foul moods, grumpy from the heat, frustration & skinned knees. But today we watched him ride around the path at the river and down the slope (that only yesterday afternoon had him in a panic) and discovered that it was also one of the most gratifying and rewarding experiences as well. Definitely a proud parent moment.

Well done, Boy. xx