A long awaited catch up

Josh had his herniotomy on the 30th July. Sam went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for the day while we drove on to Werribee. It was quite surreal being back there, with all the memories of when Josh was born coming back. (I think it was even weirder since I had Sam at Ballarat - so Werribee Hospital is all Josh memories). Josh did well with the fasting. He never once asked for any food or drink. It turned out that we had the same surgeon and aneathatist as last time. And the other weird thing was that according to their records Josh was 10 months old when he had the first operation... which is exactly the same age as Sam is right now.

We were at the hospital from 12pm. We went into the operating theatre at about 2pm. It was about 3pm when I was called into recovery. I remember recovery from the first operation and that was pretty bad... but this was much worse. Josh kept coming in and out of the general aneathetic. He was out of it, and didn't even open his eyes. But when he 'woke up' he was crying and trying to sit up, thrashing around. I had to hold him down to stop him hitting his head on the bed rail. Eventually they gave him a sedative to calm him down. We found out in the end that it was the drip in his hand that was annoying him. Every time the nurse touched it he went crazy. In the end they had to take it out anyway because he had knocked it as he was thrashing around. Finally he fell asleep and the nurses said it was best to just let him sleep it off because we had to wait for the surgeon to check him before we went home anyway. Since Josh was the youngest being operated on that day he got to go first... but the surgeon still had to get through all the rest before he could come and see us.

While Josh slept, me and Kel read some Winnie the Pooh books. They were the classic books, and they are very strange! One book was about when the residents of Hundred Acre Woods met Kanga and Roo. They like the look of them, so they planned on stealing Roo from Kanga, and replacing him with Piglet. Then when she realised that Roo was gone they were going to say 'Ahah!' ????? I never did get to see what happened in the end of that book, because that is when Josh woke up properly and we had to try and get him to eat and drink something. We also had to struggle to get him to take his medicine before we went home.

Josh had a kind of epidural block, so he was not supposed to walk until the next day. But try telling him that! We had him sitting on the couch watching a movie while we had dinner, and the next thing we know he is standing in the door way. The next day he was fine though! We had to actually give him some quiet activities to do to stop him running around. A Thomas book that reads as you move the pen over the page was a big hit!

Josh already has a Santa list... every time he asks for a new Thomas train we tell him to ask Santa. He has been reciting his list... it includes "Diesel 10, Mighty Mac, Carriages and Oliver". Oh and a Coaling Plant Now that one was funny! We had no idea what Josh was saying! I thought he had made up something, and it didn't help that is sounded like "coaling plan" when he said it. We asked him to describe it, but he struggled. I asked what colour it was... he said blue, then changed his mind to black. Then we put on the Thomas DVD and our eyes nearly popped out of our head when they talked about the coaling plant!!! (It is the thing that pours the coal into the trucks, in case you were wondering!). Don't know where Santa is going to find one of those!!!

Three and a half

Here is a track that Josh built... with only a little bit of help from me. He is a seriously good track builder now!

I was greeted this morning by Josh opening the door to the kitchen and exclaiming... "Good morning!" at the top of his voice!

His favourite lunch lately has been two minute noodles on toast.
His favourite breakfast is still vegemite on toast.
And I think his favourite dinner is either Scoo-Eddie (spaghatti) and Meat Balls or Easy Mac.

My son thinks he is a train

Josh thinks that he is a train! He has been making train noises all day long... and it is very annoying! And he is a noisy train too.

We have the details for the operation now... booked in for 30th July. We can give Josh breaky and then a drink at 10:30 and that is it until after the op which is scheduled for the afternoon. We go into the hospital at lunch time.

We went to the library last weekend. Walking through the aisles with Josh behind me... he yells out in a VERY loud voice "Mum... you farted!" (and I have to make it very clear that I did not!!!!!) I don't know where he comes up with these things!

Finally post this... it has been on my pc for ages now!

Last night Kel got up to feed Sam at about 3am. He called me to come and have a look at Josh, who was asleep in the chair in the kitchen. He was even wearing his slippers! I don't know how that happened... maybe he sleep walks!

His new favourite song is the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. And the CDs that Aunty Anna and Uncle Ben got him for his birthday are getting a good workout. Well to be specific, the green CD, songs 9, 10 and 13 (Daddy's taking us to the zoo tomorrow, Animal Fair and How much is that doggy in the window (sung to Eddie who just happens to be sitting in the window!))

We heard about the recall on some of the Thomas train set. After going through the recall notice, and searching through his room we found 13 things that we need to send back. Lights and Sounds James will be dearly missed. There was also a red caboose, the fire trucks and a whole heap of stop and caution signs. Apparantly they will replace the item, and send a new vehicle to compensate for the postage.

Josh had to go back to the paediatric surgeon last week. We had noticed that his left testicle was very swollen. It turns out that he has another hernia. He will have to have another operation (probably around August) to fix it. He had the right one done when he was eight months old. He was pretty good with it last time, the worst part was sitting with him in recovery while he just screamed and screamed. I can only imagine how much worse it will be with a three and a half year old.

On the weekend, Josh rode the tricycle and Grandma and Grandpa's house using the pedals! Very proud mummy there! He just needs a little push start.

We went to Werribee yesterday to see the steam train. It was the 150th anniversary of the Melbourne to Geelong line. I think I am becoming a bit of a train spotter. I think I was more excited about the train than Josh was! And actually he got scared of it. It was a bit big and noisy for his liking. He ran away from the train. We got video of it. Its pretty funny. And since then Josh is more interested in the electric trains.

Is there any cake that Josh won't eat???

The answer to that question is Yes... when Aunty Kel makes yummy orange poppy seed cake and tells Josh that it has ants in it!!!!

Trains, Trains and more trains

Josh has fallen in love with a Playschool DVD that I borrowed from the library. It is a Nursery Rhymme one so Josh is learning lots of new songs like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and a whole heap of other ones that always get stuck in my head all day! How many times can you watch the same episode of Playschool over and over? I couldn't even count how many times Josh has seen it now!A funny thing is that he has a firm favourite in Humpty Dumpty now. But he seems to think that his full name is "Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall had a great fall". He will say something like "Look, there is Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall had a great fall sitting in the car" when reading the Playschool book (see - even more Playschool!)

He has discovered the word Love. Only very special things get the word Love. Like "I love that train" "I love chocolate" And one very special moment "I love you Sammy".

I took Josh to the model train show when it came to Melton the other weekend. I knew he would love it. It was pretty good, most people would probably see everything in half an hour. Two hours later the only way I could get Josh to leave was to take photos of everything! We had been around three times and the owners of the track were getting to know us! One of the tracks had a knob that the kids could use to 'drive' the train. Josh had a go and the train went zooming around the track at full speed. Eventually he got the hang of the controls and even managed to stop the train at the station to pick up passengers.There were some tracks that he just loved. One of them was a track that had a VLine replica train. "That's your train Mum". "I love this train, its pretty good", he told the man who owned the track.
On Sunday at about 10am I heard a train whistle... but not a normal train... it was a steam train. Josh came outside with me to listen for the train to see which way it was going. We couldn't hear anything for a while, then we saw a cloud of smoke and steam go up behind the houses. We were still in our pyjammas at that stage, but I quickly threw some clothes on and told Josh to quickly put some shoes on. He grabbed his slip on 'car shoes' and we raced out the door to see if we could catch a glimpse of the steam train. We could hear it building up steam as we got around the corner but Josh's shoes had fallen off! I told him to leave them and picked him up on my back and ran across to the station. About an hour earlier I had been for a half hour run so this was no mean feat! My legs and feet were killing me... see the things we do for our kids!!! It turned out that we didn't need to run in the end, and I would have loved to have grabbed my camera because this huge black steam train sat at the station for about 5 minutes. There were other kids in pyjammas there, and other kids without shoes! There was even another family who had followed the train for half an hour when they saw it at a crossing. It built up its steam and gave a very loud whistle. We had to cover our ears it was so loud. Then it took off for Ballarat, as we waved to the passengers. Josh was so excited when we got home and he told Kel all about the train and the people in the red caboose.

I'm a man

Josh: Thanks Dad
Me: I'm not Dad, silly boy
Josh: Me not boy
Me: What are you? A girl?
Josh: No, I'm a man!