[Summerlover]

Sorry guys - just so god damned busy

WA congratulations - weren't you deciding on Evie before?? Glad to hear all is safe and well. She's beautiful

Ally - so sad to hear your news take good care of yourself and I hope it all goes well. Will be thinking of you!

Occbee - I hope Ella and yourself are doing well. It must be very hard to go through all of that.


Not much about us - life goes on. Isla is a handful really and her behaviour can be shocking. Have started the naughty room as she has seen it many times for Yas. She understands it too - she won't stay there but just the fact she has been told off and put in there she comes out crying and wanting a cuddle. She is off her reflux meds now for the last month and no change in her sleeping or eating habits and she is eating a lot more foods including dairy products. The only thing I haven't fully been able to get her on to is milk but everything else so far seems to be ok except that she isn't used to foods and they are probably a bit rich for her so she doesn't eat much of it. Am trying to ween her from her bottle during the day time now too. Will continue her night time bottle - she doesn't go to bed with it but still she should be able to eat enough and its more about the actuall bottle than the milk with her because i still offer her the milk in a cup but she chooses not to drink it. Very hard she's addicted.

All good with me - DH and I have had our problems but trying to work through them. He makes it a bit difficult sometimes but what do you do???

Take care everyone - yes Easter was a lovely long break and I actually had time to get some things organised around the house!!

Take care
Helen

[forosoco]

wow, congratulations wingless!! what a great easter you must have had. she looks absolutely gorgeous! hope you're all doing well.

our easter was pretty relaxing, we don't do much at easter. my family doesn't celebrate and DH's family is pretty small, just him and his 2 sisters. so we just had them over for afternoon tea and that was it.

jesse has been such a little cutie lately, i LOVE this age! he's such a funny kid. he makes funny faces at us and laughs at his little jokes, struts around the place, he's a really little character. and he flirts with everyone he sees. he's been such a good boy and i just can't believe how lucky we are! but oh wow does he eat... these kids are gonna send us broke with the amount of food they eat! they slept at my parents house on monday night so DH and i could see a movie and i brought some fish for their dinner. my mum asked if i was sure i wanted her to cook all of it because there were 2 quite big pieces, and should they just share one. i had a look and said "no, they will definitely eat all of that!" then she watched in amazement as they ate all their fish plus a heap of veges within about 10 minutes flat. when we picked them up the next day she said it was such a pleasure to watch them each eat a big bowl of cereal and 1.5 pieces of toast for breakfast. they're definitely good eaters!

[Allymeg69]

Forgo it's great to have good eaters isn't it? My parents and my in-laws are all gob-smacked at the variety and amount that Alex eats, but then his step-siblings are good examples, nothing really ever gets rejected. Alex is growing like a weed, and MIL said she weighed him bare the other day, 13.8kgs! I think that's about a 400gr gain in a month, although he had been very steady for quite a while before that.

He had 18mth injections today, was very good apparently, DH took care of that as I am still in Sydney.

Went back for the results of my lung examination today, and the news was not great, the cause of the inflammation and pneumonia-type condition that was causing all the trouble over the last few weeks turns out to have been the body's reaction to melanoma cells moving into my lungs. The steroids I am on have dramatically improved the condition of the lungs and I feel much better but I need to stay on them, and I should be starting the targeted melanoma drug sometime next week or so. I am going back to Darwin for a few days at least though while they wait for the formal approval to supply the drug and actually get the tablets in stock to give me, I will just make a quick overnight trip to Sydney to pick up the tablets and then have about monthly trips down for reviews. Apparently having this lung problem as a sign of melanoma is very rare, Grrrrr! Maybe I can get a break and get some good long-term response to this new drug once I start on it.

Sorry for the vent, just feel quite angry at the world now.

Hope everyone else is well, especially you Wingless and your gorgeous little Evie,
Ally

[Summerlover]

Ally - oh I hate to hear news like yours. Thinking of you, you shouldn't be having to go through this at all let alone with such a little child to be away from so much - they can get rid of it and you then can just get on with your life. Its just not fair this world sometimes. xxxx

[Allymeg69]

Thanks Helen, I am back home for now which is great, just waiting on the tablets to come thru. I'm going back to work on Monday, I definitely need to exercise my brain. DH and I have had a couple of cries, but we are trying to stay as positive as possible, and we will make it our mission to enjoy every moment and as many different things as we can.

[mibi]

Oh Ally, I'm so sorry to hear your news. You're in my prayers. Let me know next time you're in Sydney and I'll try to do better about catching up.

WA - congrats on the arrival of Evie. She's beautiful. I hope everything is going smoothly for you all.

Life for us is busy busy. I've been enjoying the school holidays and not having to rush to school twice a day. But we still seem to be hectic. I was hoping Ella's daysleeps were going to be better during the holidays but they have been horrendous - I think she's had about 3 in the whole 2 weeks! She's driving me nuts!

[Summerlover]

Hey Ali whats the treatment going to be for you then if you don't mind me asking. I know its serious by the way you are talking but Im hoping its not total bad news is it?? Any form of the 'C' word is bad but people do concur to a degree??

Speaking of catching up - we head to Bali on August 17th via Darwin, I think we have a 5 hour stop in Darwin with my friend so we are going to clear customs and perhaps get the kids out and about in a park somewhere close to the airport where there is a cafe we can have lunch and the kids can play so I am hoping you can guide us to maybe somewhere good for the kids close to the airport where we can taxi it and be able to refresh in the fresh air and eat and keep the kids fed and amused before getting back on the plane to Denpasar. If you know of anywhere would be great and if you wanted to join us would be great to catch up with you and your little man???

Helen

[Allymeg69]

Helen, the treatment is going to be a tablet, which provides a chemical that targets an aspect of the genetic mutation that is active in my cancer. The idea is that it either slows or stops the mutant cells from multiplying further, and in a significant number of cases of people taking this medication in its trial phase, it is resulting in tumors shrinking and sometimes disappearing. I have a number of enlarged lymph nodes that are evidently invaded with cancer cells, a cluster of nasty looking black moles on top of my head, and now these tiny spots in my lungs, so all of those will be monitored to see what happens.

The big "what if" is how long the medication will keep it at bay - the cancer develops a resistance over time and starts to come back, and that is what the researchers are frantically working on at the moment, trying to crack the issue of how to overcome that resistance. Fingers crossed the scientists work it out soon!

A nice place for a break in Darwin - I am thinking around the East Point/Fannie Bay area, there is a popular cafe called "The Cool Spot" at Fannie Bay, and you can take a short walk to a large parkland area East Point Reserve overlooking the harbour. This would be about a 10-15 minute cab ride from the airport. I wouldn't say that there is anything really within walking distance or less travel time of the airport. Alternatively you could go to Casuarina Square shopping centre, but then that is just another shopping mall. If I can make it out to meet you on that day I certainly will! We are going to Bali in July for 8 days, looking forward to it very much.

[Summerlover]

Oh Ally Im so sorry you are going through this. I hope too they get to work in a hurry! - im sure they are working at a fast pace, things have come a long way with cancer treatments and you are one step ahead of a lot of people in that respect but it still doesn't help when you are faced with that horrible word Im sure

That place you mentioned sounds perfect - there are 2 of us adults so really to spend the money to get out of the airport and into the fresh air for 3 or 4 hours is more appealing even at the cost of a taxi ride. We had contemplated hiring a car but tbh we would then have to hire child seats and spend the money on petrol on top of the hire car so I think a taxi fare would be easier and cost effective. Thankyou for that info. We are on the count down now to the trip and so is my weight loss LOL. Where are you staying in Bali? We are staying 3-4 days in Kuta for some shopping and then heading to Nusa Dua to the Novatel which has a kids club and Im going to get Isla a babysitter while she sleeps in the middle of the day and put the kids in the kids club from lunch time and then get the babysitter to take Isla over to the kids club when she wakes so that the kids will all be entertained/looked after for 4 hours every day we are there and us adults can relax. Bliss - I don't think I have ever been able to relax since I was pregnant with Yas (4 years ago) as we have had no-one to look after the kids apart from daycare and it will be nice to have to do nothing for 4 hours and chill out.

Well Isla is bashing around an office bin - better go and save the walls. We all got woken at 6.30am by the bin men -

[mibi]

Just popping in to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. At least I hope it's better than mine - DH has been a complete twot today. It's the first time he's actually had Mothers Day off since we've had kids and thought I might get some spoiling, but no - he asked me to help him get the kids ready and then to help him get the picnic lunch ready and then to help him put the car seats in because we were running late and I said "Ummm, no. You'vr been awakesince 7am, if you had cared enough you would've had all this organised" - 2.5hrs should be enough to pack some sanwiches and get the kids ready. Grrr. And apparently I'm the unreasonable one. - but he couldn't even get his a*se into gear for ONE day.