Luke's 3rd birthday - so far

I'm taking a moment to load on the birthday photos from the day so far. Steve is downstairs preparing all the party food, something which he wanted to do. I've blown up some balloons and Luke keeps asking "when are all my friends coming?" I thought that was sweet, as it's basically family. I asked him "which friends are you expecting?" and he answered "Nanny, Jenny, Bevin, Jessie and Abi". It's cute that he calls his family 'friends.'

Today has been so exciting for him. This morning, would you believe we had to wake him up? It was 8am and Sam was getting ready for school so we had to waken him. I had expected him to be up at 6am, or even before. He came up to our bedroom and opened his presents on our big bed, before Sam went to school. The excitement in his face and body was lovely to watch. He couldn't contain himself and had to scream to just let the steam out!

Here are a few photos of his present opening session...




Granny Jill and Grandad John from England sent money for this present, which Luke chose in the shops last week. It is a big Thomas the Tank Engine train set.


We didn't realise that the trains and bus in this set can be played with manually, or with batteries. So Luke was chuffed to discover that they had on/off switches and will go around the track on their own too. He has played with this all day. It's a real hit. I can see that it will get many hours of use.

We bought him some dressing up outfits for his main birthday present. Anyone who reads this blog knows how much he loves dressing up, but he has never come across an actual costume before. He was a bit miffed when he opened them as he wasn't sure what they were. We got him a pirate, doctor, policeman and fireman outfits. We had such a laugh playing doctors already. Luke was the doctor, of course, and I was the patient. Then Jude played patient, then a host of teddy bears played patients. Then he put on his policeman outfit and arrested Daddy!



I have to go as it's time to get ready for our guests. But there will be more blogging later, no doubt.

In the eyes of a two year old

Luke,
Tomorrow it is your third birthday. You are sleeping now. Today you were so excited when me and Jude wrapped up your presents. You came upstairs into my room and felt them all, tried to guess what was in them. You really want some new cars, even though you have so many already. You do love cars. I think you are going to love your presents. The three years that you've been with us have flown past so quickly. It seems like only yesterday that you were born, after hours and hours of labour. You were so tiny, our tiniest baby, at 7lb 15oz. You were perfect in every way. Sam and Jude came to the hospital to see you, even though it was midnight by the time they got there. Jude did not want us to tell her whether you were a boy or a girl. She wanted to find out for herself when she got to the hospital. We all thought you were going to be a boy, and we were all right. We all fell in love with you immediately. Before you were even born we all chose a song to sing to you in the womb. Sam's song has remained your favourite song till this day.
I remember that you were a very content baby. At night we would lie you in your moses basket next to our bed, and you would stare around the room until we turned the lights out. Then you would just close your eyes and go to sleep, like an angel. Every night we would laugh at the way you did that.
In three years you have blossomed into a bright and bubbly little boy. Before you were born I thought that you were going to be the little rotter of the family, and you really are, but in a lovely way. You are confident and feisty, bossy and stubborn. You have the most beautiful little singing voice of any 2 year old. You are a huge presence in this home, and you are the most loved 3 year old little boy on the planet. I couldn't imagine life without your constant chatter, your questions and stories, and your singing. These past three years you have brought so much happiness to our lives, so many wonderful memories, so much to laugh about. You have touched each of our hearts and we will always love you.
I look forward to another year, watching you grow and blossom, sharing precious moments with you. May this next year have as many wonderful times as the past three years have. Enjoy your birthday my little Lukey, and have a wonderful day.

To remember the 2nd year of your life, here are some photos which you took yourself recently. You used Daddy's expensive digital camera and snapped images of things that are special to you. This is, I guess, how life looks to you at age 2.

A good game of scrabble

I forgot to put this photo onto my blog. A few weeks ago we had a good family game of scrabble, and we took some photos so that we could blog about it. I think the idea was that the kids would put the photos onto their blogs, but they forgot. I was just going through the photos when I found it. We had such a good memorable evening playing scrabble, having a laugh, spending quality (educational) time with the kids, that I wanted to put the photo on so that I can remember it in years to come. I was playing scrabble too, but obviously someone had to take the photo!

At the weekend I saw Jamie Oliver on TV making this breakfast on the go bread. I thought it looked lovely, and so simple to make. If Luke, aged 2, can make it then anyone can. Tomorrow we are going out for the day, birthday shopping for Luke, and so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try this out. Now breakfast is made and we can eat it in the car on the way.

Firstly I made some bread dough, with freshly milled flour. My recipe didn't come out as light and fluffy as Jamie Oliver's, but I'm guessing that's due to the heavy wheat flour. It's more nutritious anyway.

I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle, after it had been left to sit for a while. Then placed pieces of parma ham along the length of it.

Then Luke decided to help, and he placed 6 boiled eggs along the length, and some fresh basil, which we picked from our herb garden. It was the last of the basil.
Luke rolled the dough around the eggs, and kept rolling until we had a sort of long sausage shape.

Then we squeezed it into a circle loaf, and tucked one end of dough into the other end of dough, to make a sort of ring.
Here is the ring, after I had rounded it off from Luke's attempt to completely squash it.
We let it sit for 20 minutes, and then baked it for half an hour in the oven.
And here is the final loaf of breakfast bread. We had to try some just to make sure it was edible. It was a big hit, and so simple to make. We'll be making this one again, but next time I will add more white bread flour to my wholemeal flour, to help the bread lighten up a bit.

At the weekend I saw Jamie Oliver on TV making this breakfast on the go bread. I thought it looked lovely, and so simple to make. If Luke, aged 2, can make it then anyone can. Tomorrow we are going out for the day, birthday shopping for Luke, and so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try this out. Now breakfast is made and we can eat it in the car on the way.

Firstly I made some bread dough, with freshly milled flour. My recipe didn't come out as light and fluffy as Jamie Oliver's, but I'm guessing that's due to the heavy wheat flour. It's more nutritious anyway.

I rolled out the dough into a long rectangle, after it had been left to sit for a while. Then placed pieces of parma ham along the length of it.

Then Luke decided to help, and he placed 6 boiled eggs along the length, and some fresh basil, which we picked from our herb garden. It was the last of the basil.
Luke rolled the dough around the eggs, and kept rolling until we had a sort of long sausage shape.

Then we squeezed it into a circle loaf, and tucked one end of dough into the other end of dough, to make a sort of ring.
Here is the ring, after I had rounded it off from Luke's attempt to completely squash it.
We let it sit for 20 minutes, and then baked it for half an hour in the oven.
And here is the final loaf of breakfast bread. We had to try some just to make sure it was edible. It was a big hit, and so simple to make. We'll be making this one again, but next time I will add more white bread flour to my wholemeal flour, to help the bread lighten up a bit.

3 year old Egyptian belly dancing poser...

The many moves of belly dancing Luke. My new Egyptian shimmy shaker arrived yesterday. It makes lovely jingly jangly noises and I've practiced my moves all around the kitchen whilst cleaning today. Luke's little eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw this gleaming, shiny, jingly scarf like thing. I tied it round his waste and he danced around the living room to the Egyptian music which was coming from the kitchen. He's quite a little mover, and wiggles his hips in time to the music. Never one to be camera shy, he was happy to pose, and to pose, and to keep on posing. I got 58 photos in all! Luke also took a few of me, dancing, but they are, ahem, not really suitable for public display.

After a little dancing Luke was still feeling the need to pose, and so we had a little drama session. It's never too young to start home educating, right? We concentrated on expressions, facial expressions mostly, and I discovered (well, I kind of already had a clue) that Luke possesses Sam's thespian talents. Have you ever seen a 2 year old (yes, he's still 2, until Friday) express so many emotions, so naturally? In order we have; happy, hysterical, sad, annoyed, sneezing, blowing raspberries, dejected, amused, aggressive, shocked, and entertaining. (And that's the shortlisted version).

At the end of the day he is just cute and adorable, and he can't help it.

So, there's been lots of photograph taking today, amongst other things. But if you'd like to see what culinary delights Luke is making in this photo, then please visit my food blog.

The torture of pulsatile tinnutis, and neurofibromatosis.

I was just having a lie down in bed, but the pulsing in my ears is unbearable and I can't stand to be in a quiet place. It is driving me insane. Although I've been referred to a specialist (months ago) I have no sign of an appointment yet. It seems I could be waiting indefinitely. It's really starting to get to me.
And it's getting worse. It started months ago. A faint pulsing sound in my right ear, which would come and go and which I could only hear at night when it was very quiet. I used to almost have to 'listen out for it'. Gradually over the year it's got worse, louder, and into both ears. Last week it had got to the stage where it is a loud gushing heart sound, which I can hear during the day. I can even hear it with the sound of the TV and kids in the room. It is my heart beat, there's no doubt about that. I can hear it get faster when I'm stressed. But the sound is in my ear drum, not my heart, and it's clearly audible, not imagined. The doctor said it was unusual for someone so young to suffer from it, and so she referred me to the specialist. It is different to normal tinnitus, which can happen for no reason. Pulsatile tinnitus is usually caused by an underlying medical condition, and can be caused my small benign tumors in the arteries in the neck. I now have the sound in both ears, although worse in my right. But this week I am also hearing new noises. Electrical noises. They can last for anything between 5 and 30 seconds, these new noises, but they always stop, and once again I am left with the pulsing. It's almost as if my brain is an electrical circuit that is sparking and malfunctioning, in an audible way. My fear is that the electrical noises will become permanent too, and then I shall go mad, for certain.
When this first started I could get to sleep and then the noises would fade and I would have peace. Now I can't get any silence at night. I can't get into a position where the noise in my ears subsides, and to make it worse, the noises have started to wake me up! This is driving me crazy. I feel like I'm going deaf. I can't hear what people are saying on the phone, above the sound of my gushing heart beat. I miss lines in films because my ears decide to play a little electrical tune for a few moments. I can only describe it as torture, and if it gets any louder or becomes a noise other than my heartbeat I shall certainly be committed to an insane asylum.

Still, I should be grateful. There are far worse things that one could suffer from.

Which brings me to Steve. He went to the doctors today and had a gallon of blood taken for testing, poor guy. The doc thinks he may be suffering from an over active thyroid condition, which may or may not be caused by his neurofibromatosis, if a tumour is growing near the thyroid. He will get his tests back next week. She has also tested for a heap of other things. Steve was told that if an NF lump grew in an organ he would be ill. He has been ill, for many weeks. So far his lumps have all been in less serious places, mostly in his arm, in which he has undergone many operations. Maybe this is nothing to do with NF at all, but it's always a worry that a lump may be growing somewhere that could make him ill (his liver was mentioned by the dr). I guess we will know more next week when the results come back. He really needs a few weeks off work, to rest and recuperate. He has paid someone to run his shop this week so that he can have some rest, but we can't afford it, and he will not be able to do that again. I have offered to run the shop for him so that he can be at home, but then he will have to take care of the kids, which may well turn out to be a harder job than running a business! Oh we both need a good MOT and some new parts fitted.

I guess that's enough of a whinge for now. I generally cope well with stress, but worrying about Steve has taken it's toll on me and this afternoon I felt really quite unwell and upset. I just turned to jelly and had to lie down, only to be reminded of that hideous noise from which I can't escape. Writing things down like this is really quite therapeutic, and makes me feel an awful lot better.