Not keeping on top of things these days

A whole lot of good stuff has been happening lately, and some bad stuff too, but all of it combined means I’ve been a little quiet on the blog lately. It’s not that I don’t love you all, it’s just that life is kicking my ass!

First off, we’re moving. And it is so, so wonderful scheming and planning our new house. But to get to the wonderful we have to go through a whole lot of un-wonderful, like packing boxes at night when the girls have gone to bed, and phoning moving companies on your cellphone when you’re waiting at the bank. Who knew that mortgages would require so much paperwork? Well, I think I did know that, but it’s still annoying. Also, last time we moved I wasn’t working 3 days a week. It’s all pretty much under control…. I think.

But the bad news is that Tess has had two hospital admissions in the last month, with several doctors appointments. We saw her pediatrician on Tuesday and he told us that Tess has renal scarring on her left kidney. Which isn’t good. He has referred us to a pediatric urologist, who will probably recommend surgery. The difficult thing is that surgery is controversal. I did a bunch of research myself and there are a whole legion of urologist who don’t think UTIs or VUR cause renal scarring. Consequently, we’ll probably ask for some second opinions to hear both sides of the argument. Her pediatrician agreed that it would be reasonable to do so, but he also cautioned that he thought most urologists would recommend surgery for Tess because her case is so bad. We’re handling this all in a pretty matter-of-fact way. Just one foot in front of the other. One day at a time. Making the best decisions for Tess that we can. Not stressing about things we can’t change.

There’s been an awful lot of smelling the roses, too. The last 3 days have seen Tess really take off with her walking. Today she was staggering around in the shopping centre with one eye patched and her arms in splints. She’s really gaining her confidence! And she’s so cute, staggering around like a drunken sailor.  I’ve got a few videos on my camera, I’ll try to upload them soon.

And she did her first painting! She came home with it from day care. So adorable.

Rose has been both wonderful and a little monster lately. She’s decided that she doesn’t want a daytime nap any longer. Which is okay, except she gets absolutely shattered by 5pm and starts crying hysterically and making difficult and conflicting demands. She had a lovely time with her Granny Anne recently when she came to visit. She really enjoyed the one-on-one attention. Granny and Rose did lots of special things like going to cafes and drinking fizzy water and eating cupcakes. Granny picked her up from day care early one day and they went to the park. It was just magical.

We also all went to Fairfield City Farm on the weekend. Rose had a ball feeding the goats and the kangaroos. Such a special mothers day.

There are a whole lot of other photos – just click through to flickr.