Training Pants

William has decided in the last couple of weeks, that he is a big boy, and that the nappies are for Jack. So we have started slowly to embark on potty training. We're having more misses than hits, but we've made a lot of trips out in undies and no accidents there! So there is hope.

I decided to make it a bit less stressful on me, that I'd make him up some training pants - this is my first attempt - I'm not so sure what I think about them, I'm thinking I'm going to attempt to draft my own pattern up and see if I can't improve on the ones I've made so far.

The bonus though - 1 layer of bamboo is sufficient to hold a William wee! Good to know that.

Jack can Crawl!

I haven't blogged much this year - oops! I'll try to do better.

A bit of a Jack update for you - nearly 3 weeks ago, he got his cast changed and is now sporting a blue cast with 2 short legs! Much cooler for the summer weather.

This week he started crawling! He's getting faster and faster,  I'm sure next week he'll be going room to room - he's starting to give William a run for his money on the toys, and William's not too sure what he thinks about that just yet!

We had to take Jack back to Christchurch on Monday for his MRI, 2 weeks after the new cast went  on - good news, all looks good, and cast off date is set for March 11. He will then go into a brace for a few weeks, but that brace goes over his clothes, and can be removed for bathing, and is much lighter than his cast. He won't know what to do with himself.

A Spica Bath

Jack doesn't get many baths at the moment, and by bath I mean sponge bath. Its not very easy when he's in his cast. I put some towels down on the kitchen bench the other day and bathed him there, then turned him over and let him have a play in the water, in the late afternoon sun. He loved it!

Nappies

I've always used MCN's with William, since he was just under a month old anyway, he's 2 today. I use them with Jack when I can, his first 12 weeks he was in double nappies for his DDH, so he got a MCN over the top of a disposable, while he was in the pavlik harness for 14 weeks he was in MCN's, he was in MCN's during his 4 week "break", and he is currently in disposables - which I hate paying for, while he is in his spica cast - we're at the half way point! Cast change on Monday!!!

So knowing that Jack will be back in MCN's very soon, and a bit sick of the ones I've got, I started building up a new stash for him. Then I decided I really wanted some pretty ones with cotton prints for him, but they're so expensive (often) to buy.  I've been told often how easy they are to make, but I didn't believe anyone.

I finally started making them...and you know what? They are that easy!

William's 2nd Birthday Nappy

Nappy for Jack's stash

First nappy I made - a gift

Jack Goes Into A Spica Cast

We had to report to Christchurch Hospital at 7am Monday morning, so we went up the afternoon before and stayed with some lovely friends in Kaiapoi. Jack was allowed his last bottle before his theatre date at 4.30am, so we all woke up at 4.20am and gave him a bottle. A very  long day that was. I was already tired by the time he went into theatre at 8.30am.

We arrived at the hospital just before 7am, got to the ward and shown to our room, and by 7.15am roughly had met our nurse - Andrew. He was lovely, but my gosh they work some long hours on the children's ward! 12 hour shifts. But we had Andrew for both days we were there, and he loved Jack, and for the most part, Jack loved him.

We also met our anesthetists on the ward about 7.30am and then the second one followed about 7.40am - they were lovely guys too. Next followed a surgeon I think, then another one. They drew on Jack's left leg so they would know exactly which one to work on.

We were taken up to theatre at 8.30am - so glad they weren't running late at all! Where Jack was still full of smiles, and I then donned a heap of blue to look something like a smurf, and Daddy took a blurry picture because he was a bit nervous to hold the camera steady. I accompanied Jack into the anesthetic room, and held him while they popped the mask over his face, he was really good, just a few cries before he started snoring and got moved to the bed. A quick kiss and I was off to join Edward. We went and got coffee and food, and then up to the family waiting room opposite the theatre, where we waited for 2 hours, but found another lovely couple to chat to the whole time, until the surgeons came out and told us he was done, no real surgery - YAY! They were able to just pop his hip back in and then release the tendon. They were casting him as we spoke and waiting for him to wake up. We'd get a phone call when they were ready for us.

That was the longest half hour of the whole process! But we were allowed in to recovery, where he was fair crying the ward down out of hunger...and we didn't have a bottle with us! Edward had to rush as fast as the lifts would take him, back down to the ward and get him one...at least we'll be prepared next time! But he was happy once he got one. Then it was straight back to the ward once he finished that. A quick nap, a visit from Aunty Sonia, another nap, he pretty much napped all afternoon, refused sleep until 9.30pm that night, was woken at midnight when the nurse came to take his stats, got him back to sleep at 1am, woke at 6am for the day.

But the smiles were back about 4pm on Monday! We spent all of Tuesday waiting...for the MRI - that finally happened at lunchtime, then for the OT, she came at 1.45pm, then for the Dr to tell us he was happy for us to go. Then just to get the discharge stuff from the nurses. We finally got to leave the hospital just after 3pm.

Jack has been such a star! We picked up William, from mum's when we got home about 6pm and the two of them were chatting away to each other right from the start. I think they had missed each other, even though they'd been happy individually as well.

Water!

William is so busy these days, he's always got to be doing something. And he doesn't walk anywhere, nope he has to run! My latest way to keep him entertained for long period's of time?

Give him 2 or 3 buckets, and the hose, only just turned on. He will spend ages filling the buckets up and watering the garden, concrete and everything else, including himself. For some reason he loves to try to drink from the hose too. Good thing its Summer!

Notice Board

Every time I go to a fair or something I see these lovely notice boards. But me being me, I won't buy something that I know I could make really cheap.

The sort of notice board I see everywhere

I've been making some cards in advance for this month and next month's birthdays etc and was getting sick of sitting them on my desk, to get knocked over. I was thinking how handy it would be if I had somewhere to put them once they were done, before I gave them away.

Then, I remembered that a few years ago someone had given me this canvas picture as a birthday present - not my cup of tea at all, and even if it was my kitchen has no space to hang a picture like this.

The picture!

And...I  have so much fabric its not funny. I found some that was big enough, and just happens to be the same as the blinds in my craft room, so this will tie in nicely when its hung. Cut it to size and used a staple gun to attach it to the canvas. Then I found my longest length of ribbon - blue - and added diagonal strips of ribbon, staple gunned at each end. And to finish it off, I found enough blue flower buttons, a similar shade to the ribbon and sewed them on at the crosses of ribbon.

Here's how it turned out:

As you can see...I've already put it to work, even though its not on the wall yet. I'm pretty happy with my efforts.