Bah! That time of year...

bugs, germs and bacteria... all communicable and deciding to go through our kids one . at . a . time!!!

I've all but lost track on how long it has been since Aerynn became ill.  She still hasn't recovered, nor have we had a decent quarantine period to allow her back out in the public.  We were back at the GP last Friday with a middle ear infection in both ears.  2 days on antibiotics and all the hard work we have done to get her skin clear and as sore free as possible has already been undone.  Her gut appears to have been stripped and food is going straight through her again, she has developed blisters on her skin which are having the tops burned off and bleeding no matter how quickly we change her nappies.  I'm feeling jaded but have to keep pushing through... 

She has at least 2 weeks on the antibitotics in total and then we will start trying to build her up and starting the 2 weeks quarantine again.  At this stage her birthday party we are trying to plan is still another month away :/  It's so frustrating to see time race by while she tries to beat these bugs..  But at the same time the bugs aren't anything that any other child really struggles too much with.  I feel like a big phoney complaining that she has a minor cold or an ear infection, but at the same time her symptoms and recovery time are blown out of proportion compared to a regular child...  Such a hard place to be in. 

I also have had the other children coming down with their "regular" bugs that are communicated child to child at school.  Toby is cutting his bottom two teeth and clingy as a result, Dommy is currently sleeping on the couch with temps in the high 39*-40*C and completely miserable, Kahli had last friday off school with a gastro complaint, William has the same one today...  Just waiting now for Aleks to come down with something so they all can cross this week of hell off my list LOL

So if I'm quiet again it's not because we've dropped off the face of the planet, we're just busy busy nursing out children through the next few weeks of icky germs and bug infestations...

Birthdays and Tantrums

Our beautiful Miss Aerynn has turned 2 years old.  She is such a complete delight, if not a challenge.  As if on cue the "terrible twos" have arrived. We now have an extremely independent little miss who will talk the leg off a chair and I swear pick up and throw it at you if you don't agree or do her bidding when she demands it ;)

Aerynn's life so far has been a huge challenge.  We have spent most of it working through her health issues and sadly we are no closer to answers despite numerous specialist teams, hospital admissions and doctor visits, but we will never give up.  Our little one is "little" in all terms of the word.  We have been advised she most certainly is a person of short stature and she will continue to grow at her own pace.  Maintaining her quality of life and ensuring she is as reaction and health issue free is our main priority now as we look to giving her the best future possible :) 

Here's for a long and healthy future ahead.  Minimal issues and one beautiful little girl continuing to sparkle and shine in her own way

A new week, a new list...

I'm a list maker.  Always have been and always will.  It doesn't mean I cross everything off my lists but without a list I kinda lose my train of thought rather easily... You could call it being very learned in the art of procrastination ;)

So a new week has begun and it's time to start a new list on what is happening... 

Week Beginning August 5, 2013

Monday: 

• Cleaning
• Washing
• Baking school recesses that I missed on the weekend
• Preserving aging fruit and veg (jams, sauces and/or dehydrating) 
• Menu planning
• Wash Aerynn's Nappies

Tuesday: 

• Dommy at school
• Toby's 4 month check at the Dr
• Final shopping before Aerynns birthday
• Kids Hockey and Netball Training
• Wash Toby's Nappies

Wednesday: 

• Dommy's half day at school
• Baking cake for Aerynns birthday dinner
• Final sewing of Aerynns birthday present (nappy bag for her doll and some bed blankets and nappies for her doll) 
• Wrapping birthday presents
• Clean out fridge ready for weekly shop
• Kahli - Scouts
• Wash Aerynn's Nappies 

Thursday: 

• AERYNN's SECOND BIRTHDAY!!!! 
• Dommy full day at school
• Weekly shop
• Wash Toby's Nappies 

Friday: 

• Market Preparation
• Wash Aerynn's Nappies 

Saturday: 

• Kids sports + Aerynn's Calisthenics (although not attending due to being unwell/quarantine still)
• Outdoor clean-up (weather permitting)
• Veggie Garden preparation for Spring :) 
• Strip beds and washing
• Picking up new sewing desk in town
• Possibly getting to the local market and there's a church with an annual fair on in town
• Wash Toby's Nappies 

Sunday: 

• BAKE DAY!!!  
• Wash Aerynn's Nappies 

In and around everything I have market preparation, trying to get as much of Aerynn's afghan for her birthday completed (no way it will be done by her birthday unfortunately) nursing Aerynn through still being unwell and of course daily grind stuff like general cleaning, meal preparation and kids routines to work around.  And no doubt I've missed or forgotten something altogether and will be in a mad panic - am thinking there was something else on Thursday that needed doing :/

 

Right now I have a clingy almost 2 year old hanging off my right arm and a 4.5 year old complaining I brought him the wrong rice cakes :/ Guess I'd better start hitting these lists and work on getting things crossed off ;)

Daily Drudge

Oh the joys of running a household.  But I do have to admit it has become a little easier since we bit the bullet and purchased a thermomix - Bernie has pride of place in the kitchen and has been made earn his keep every day since he came through the doors 2.5 weeks ago ;) 

With Aerynn so sick these last 3 weeks I've not menu planned or done a decent grocery shop so we've been relying on Bernie getting us out of a hole and using what we have in the house to get through - and he has done magnificently! But I do need to get organised now...  so menu planing Monday will be coming back.  I shop on Thursdays, but menu plan on Monday so I can get organised and know ahead of time what I'm doing in case a chance to get into town earlier in the week presents itself and I can kill two birds with the same stone and reduce trips into the Mt.

Menu Plan Aug 2 - Aug 7

Fri: Stuffed chicken fillets with garlic sauce and steamed veg

Sat: Soup (from freezer supplies) Fresh bread rolls

Sun: Roast Pork with fresh veg and apple sauce

Mon: Quiche and steamed veg

Tues: Lamb Sausages with potato bake

Wed: Meatloaf and steamed veg + mashed potato

So plan done, recipes sourced and shopping list written up :)

Back to the daily drudge now, Toby is waking and wanting a feed, Aerynn has just jumped out of a bath and needs drying and dressing and Dommy as per usual is running around naked.  Kahli and William will be walking through the door any minute from school and Nathan is in town waiting for Aleks to finish school and then they'll toddle off and do the shopping I just texted through to Nathan... Hopefully the well oiled ship is running smoothly tonight so there are no hiccups with my plans ;)

Breathing Life Back Into The Beast

I've been so slack with blogging and recording the mundane that is our lives this past year and a bit  I know we've been super busy but I also know that in a few years time I wont have a record of these times and that saddens me.  Only as I've been looking back over the past 10 years that I have been blogging and realising I've captured so much that I'd forgotten.  I don't want our lives to dissolve into nothingness should anything happen to us.  I want my children to have something to look back on and be able to see that life was good, we may appear to be dysfunctional and nuts but we are happy and have achieved so much in life.  So, here I am..  going to revive this old blog and start documenting the challenges, happy time and difficult times (although hopefully not many of the latter)

So, a quick re-introduction and where we are today...

I'm going to be rude and start with me, Katrina.  Mum to 6 beautiful kidlets who's main objective is to send me grey (honestly I swear!!!)  I'm currently on maternity leave from my one day (hopefully) super busy photography business (yeah, yeah, a gal can dream) Katami Photography.  Hubby is Nathan.  He's going greyer much faster than me (so happy I have something to tease him about hehehe) We're both Tassie born and raised and trying to find our feet whilst raising our family now in regional South Australia.  We moved over here 3 years ago when huby was offered a management trainee-ship position with his current employer.  It's been a tough time, lots of growing pains but I think we're much stronger for the move and despite the negatives it has been a positive move for us :)

and our kidlets...

Aleksandir.  Aleks is our 15 year old going on 42 ;)  He's a wise old man at times in a teenage body.  Loves mathematics, computers and if anyone plays World of Warcraft he's looking for new members for his horde guild. I believe he is currently playing on Saurfang - may be rather wrong there though, Hubby and I play on Saurfang so may be getting beyond ourselves to think it's cool for teens to play on the same realm as their old decrepit parents :P

Kahli is our big princess (oh she will hate me for that bwahahahaha) she is 13 going on 24... seriously!  Teenage girls - something I wasn't really prepared for and probably the main reason for the grey hair I am trying hard to ignore sprouting on a daily basis :/  Kahli has just joined Scouts and is fresh back from her first campout.  She is loving high school and especially the opportunity to express herself in creative writing.  She certainly likes to keep us on our toes but despite the challenges she likes to throw our way we do love her (she'll hate me saying that too!!) and are waiting for the day the firestorm settles into a toasty welcoming fire :)

William is now 12 years old... my how time flies!!!  Our Mr Popularity is loving sports at the moment.  When he's not kicking a footy around or riding his bike up to the swamp looking for the elusive yabbies he is laying on his bed playing minecraft on his iPod.  Wil is cheeky and mischevious and I think will be our little rebel...  I might be wrong, but the potential is there... 

Domenik, our little man about the house is about to celebrate turning 5 in a couple of months time!!  I remember him being so tiny and charming getting his casts put on his legs for correction of his metatarsus adductus!  Dommy certainly is a little character.  He only has one volume (LOUD) and once speed (SUPER FAST - his term)  Dommy is in his last term of kindy and will be starting reception (SA equivalent of prep) at the beginning of next term!  Oh my - our little school boy!!!  Dommy's favourite thing at the moment (other than toast with butter & jam oh, and icecream) is minecraft as well...  Since he is sharing a room with William I blame William for that LOL  He apparently can hold his own with the big boys building maps apparently - I've been advised that's a very prestigious thing...  I'm so out of touch with modern games lol

Our littlest Princess Aerynn is only a week away from turning 2 years old!  And boy have those two years been a journey!  Aerynn is still very tiny for her age and we have been told she most certainly will be a Little Person, but not to expect a confirmed diagnosis of what form of dwarfism she may have.  I've been trying to keep up with documenting Aerynns journey on her blog HERE.  She is a real little delight to have around.  Full of hugs, kisses and conversation - yup, both our girls are chatter boxes!  Aerynn is currently recovering from a viral illness which has left her extremely flat, so I'm trying to update blogs and the likes around her needs at the moment.  Having a dodgy immune system meant that she had 2 weeks with really high temps and listlessness from a bug most people would shake off in a few days.  She's still up and down but we can see big improvements over the past few days :) 

And last but certainly not least...

Our little Toby is now 18 weeks old.  He's no longer a little newborn and is already on the move!!  Rolling and doing butt scoots in 360*s all over the living room floor.  He's a little smoocher, always has something to say and has the most divine molten chocolate brown eyes you can just drown in - or that could just be me and the hormones taking over ;) Other than some reflux and a bad upper lip tie Toby is perfect - I'm not biased at all :P  much hehehe

So that is our skin family quick update.  We also have a feathered, furred and haired family.  Feathered are our chickens, furred are our two cats (Portia and Kahli's cat Lacy) and for the moment we have mums 60th birthday present (a 9 months old ragdoll kitty) boarding with us, he's having a small holiday on his journey over to Tasmania.  "haired" is Williams rat Ozzy and we have 2 cows (Scotch and Rump) on adjistment at a friends property - they're not so much pets though but food.  Yes, living in the country is the perfect oportunity to teach the children about the circle of life and where food comes from.  Speaking of which we have 2 wooly members too... 2 lambs (Blinky and Bill - thusly named by Dommy) that we are currently still bottle feeding.. they're rather spoiled and should already be weaned but I'm a sucker for them bleating for their bottles and need to develop a thicker skin...  **Sigh**  one day I'll get tough ;) 

So that's it for now.. a quick update...  I'm determined to get back on track with recording things here, building our lived in words and photographs so no matter how small we feel we are we will always have a place in this world and will never be forgotten - be that good or bad mwahahahhaa

Welcoming Tobias Oskar

I know this is very late.

Tobias Oskar Bricknell

Freebirthed at home March 25, 2013 at 1.51pm
weight: 3525g
length: 52cm
head circ: 48cm

We welcomed little Toby to our family just after lunchtime Monday March 25th.  He was another quick, uncomplicated home birth and has settled in beautifully :)

He is such a cutie!  He already had chocolate brown eyes at birth!! 

We've adjusted to being a family of 8 with relatively few hiccups and can't imagine life without any of our wonderful kidlets.

L-R: William, Aerynn, Aleksandir, Kahli and Domenik.  front: Toby
June 16, 2013

Quick 2012 Wrap Up...

And yep, it WILL be quick LOL  Apparently it's dinner time :/  Kids want feeding - funny that :P

Anyways I know this blog has been a wee bit neglected (ok a LOT!!) and I apologise.  Our life has been thrown upside down and turned inside out throughout the year that has been 2012..  So much has happened, and we've been through a lot, but we are happy to see the end of the year and be able to say "We Survived!!!!"

So in brief.....

Aerynn has been very ill :(  We still have no diagnosis despite 6 weeks as an inpatient in the Melb RCH and 2 other weeks running all over the lower SE of SA and western Vic for tests and the likes...  We are however slowly piecing together what may be happening.  The current suspects are not what we first thought.  We are actually looking at a form of dwarfism called Russel-Silver Syndrome along with suspected Paediatric Crohns Disease.  Neither we could have foreseen and all we can do is wait for the formal diagnosis and roll with the blows as they come.  I have been blogging about Aerynn's health and journey to diagnosis and beyone on a separate blog here:  Aerynns Journey

We moved to Victoria, into what was meant to be a cosy little cottage, only to discover it was far from that... imagine a neglected shack with no floors (well huge holes to through to the earth below that were covered with chipboard if we were lucky), no insulation, mouse and mosquito infested, constant earth faults with the electricity, plumbing that didn't work and the landlady from hell...  Far from cosy!!  We moved there on the understanding all work would be completed on it within 3 weeks of our move in date - pfft... nothing done other than receiving excuses and in the end abuse :/  We stuck it out there for the 6 months of our lease and then moved back to SA where we have a great home now in Nangwarry :)

The kidlets have become chicken breeders!!!  Yup, they breed a bantam breed of chicken called Pekin.  They are the most friendliest little birds out and they love their new hobby, and I have to admit the free-range eggs are a HUGE bonus ;)

Aleks has settled into highschool really well and is looking forward to studying more to do with computers and possibly looking into IT as a future career path.

Kahli has graduated primary school and will be starting year 8 high school at Penola next year :) 

William is still our prankster...  Nothing new there!  He'll be in year 6 next year and our oldest at primary school **gasp**  where does the time fly!!!

And Little Dommy has started school already!!!  He had 3/4 a term of kindy after we moved back to SA and has LOVED it!!  He really has thrived!!!  That said we will be getting him investigated for possible aspergers/autism spectrum disorder in the new year at the request of the kindy.  We suspected this may be the case, but having his quirks highlighted in a class of other students of the same age make it a widdle bit obvious ;)

And Aerynn is our little Aerynn...  She's still little (only just moving into size 00's at 17 months old) but hitting all her milestones right on track or even a little early with some of her fine motor skills!!  She's talking, babbling, running, jumping, climbing (oh my grey hair!!!) and well, just being a delightful little toddler :) 

What else... ummm  Nathan is still at kmart, still umpiring and driving us all insane :P  I'm allowed to say that cos I live with him bahahhahaa   

and me, well nothing much changes here... still working on building my photography business, trying to find time to craft when I can :)

I guess I should admit that along the way of working through the year we discovered that despite our best preventative measures our family will be expanding again by 2 little feet :/  Little Toby will be joining our family sometime late March.  We have no definite due date as we found out too late to be exact but it's a surprise that we were NOT expecting!!!  PS:  this is still not common knowledge, if you have mutual contacts (in particular certain family contacts - and you should know what I mean if you are aware of said contacts) we would appreciate this not be gossiped about...

So all in all 2012 has been a bit of a challenge, a lot of surprises and quite a bit of frustration.  We're hoping that 2013 will be a lot more settled and bring with it a few more smiles, answers and positivity :) 

Well, it was kinda short :P