What a hectic week! I was really expecting things to slow down a little given that the weather is cooler now with the onset of winter, but no, it feels that I need to cram even more stuff into the shorter hours of daylight. Monday morning things seemed really topsy-turvy in the house. Dad went through my usual routine of morning cares and, only seconds after saying goodbye, was back in the house, somewhat grumpy. His bike had a puncture. Plan B was put into place, which was for Dad to take Mom’s car to work. We all crossed our fingers, wondering if it would start, since the last time Mom’s car was used was more than six weeks ago. Dirty and dusty, it sprang to life (you see Mom has adopted Dad’s car, and Dad practically only rides his bike nowadays)! Then as Dad was leaving, he realised that the car hadn’t been used for such a long time that the licence disk hadn’t been replaced since it expired in April. Back into the house we all went and frantically scoured through piles of filing to find the disk. Success, it was found and adhered to the windscreen of Mom’s car and Dad was off.

After the mayhem of the morning, things settled down, and Mom took me off to see Di for some physio for me. After an intense session Mom and I left and popped in at Granny’s to say hello. We couldn’t stay too long, as Dad had arranged for his bike to be collected to have the tyre repaired. Much to Dad’s amusement, Mom had actually offered that if Dad could take the wheel off the bike, by laying it on its side, she’d take it in to be repaired. Dad was extremely appreciative, but did explain to Mom that with the shaft drive, the brakes and the weight of the bike we’d rather leave that to the experts. We arrived home as an LDV pulled up. I watched with interest as a ramp was placed from the road surface into the loading bay of the LDV, and with great strain, the two fellows wheeled, tugged, pushed and dragged Dad’s monster up onto the LDV.

Dad got home too late on Monday evening to get to the bike shop to collect his bike, so he opted to rather collect it en route to work on Tuesday morning. So, as Dad was about to leave and walk up to the bike shop on Tuesday morning, Mom and I took pity on him and gave him a lift. It was a nice difference to my morning routine to drop Dad off before my day’s agenda started.

Mid-morning we headed off to Shelley’s house for Mom’s club. I was really excited to get there, as Chloe was there. You’ll recall from last week’s blog that I’ve really taken a shine to her. After an exciting Mommy’s club we headed back home, where Mom had a surprise install for me – a fully textured meal! You’ll remember that from my last procedure I became a little sensory defensive and that gave us a bit of a problem as I had to go back to eating mush, but Mom has reintroduced me to it slowly so now I’m back up to speed. It does help to have four (yes, 4) molars. As soon as I have a big piece of protein, I push it to the sides of my mouth with a finger and give it a good chew.

Wednesday got off to a musical start as I headed off to class to see my little friends. It was photograph day in class and we had our pictures taken doing our exercises. You’ll have to wait till next week to see them as we only collect them on Wednesday. We did stop at Baby City for an electric toothbrush for me to help with my oral defensiveness. All the experts find it really strange that I eat so well, because usually if you suffer from oral defensiveness (from having tubes in my throat for more than four months), you really don’t eat well. Mom and I did a little shopping for the afternoon, as my Mommy was hosting Mommy’s club; soon my little friends were arriving. It was a lovely afternoon, although I was desperately tired. There was no way I was going to miss out on everything that was happening so I forced myself to stay awake. All the Mommies had tea and some cake and my little friends explored all the toys that my Mom had categorised into boxes for me.

That evening, when Dad bathed me, I tried my new electric toothbrush. Dad and I have quite a good arrangement when it comes to the brushing of my teeth – he preps the toothbrush for me with toothpaste and then I stick it in my mouth myself. Dad also has to turn the toothbrush on for me; I can’t seem to get the brush switched-on on my own. Once I’ve run the brush around my mouth myself, Dad helps by directing the vibrating bristles to all 11 of my teeth (yes, I now have 11 teeth).

On Thursday we headed off after my morning sleep to Di and my physio session. We had to leave there a little early to get to Dr. Nicoletta. Mom just wanted a check up as I am nearing a year old, but it would appear that I have a little cold, but I’m not acting sick so Mom was just playing it safe. Of course there is the PEG as well and considering what Prof. Beale said, Mommy also wanted an opinion on it. It’s always so nice to see Dr. Nicoletta, she first gave me some cuddles which was really cool, and then she checked out everything. It would appear that I’m in a good way so to speak. I am allergic to elastoplasts so I got tons of creams for that; a special super-duper moisturiser. Dr. Nicoletta warned me that even Mom would like it, so I was to be careful not to share.

I found out later that morning that Tammy (my cousin) was playing netball in the afternoon at St. Stithians, so Mom and I decided to go see her play in the semi-finals. When Tammy saw me, Olivia (her friend) and Tammy, sprinted all the way to the top of the hill to see me. They spent some time entertaining me and I obliged by laughing at their jokes and funny faces. Unfortunately they had to get to their game which was starting. They played really hard, while they were playing Mom, Granny, Aunty Kim and Uncle Garth shouted and shouted for them. Eventually I just couldn’t take it any longer and needed to sleep, so Mom popped me in the car and off we went home.

On Friday morning Mom and I went for a walk with Granny for some exercise, and stopped by the sugar and cake shops. As my birthday party looms on the horizon, Mom has grandiose plans to make allsorts of sweet goodies, so there’s lots of shopping and gathering of ideas in lieu of my party. I can hardly wait!

Later in the afternoon, Dad came home and he and I played for sometime. A little later Opa arrived for a visit, and then, to my enormous delight, Tammy and Granny also arrived. The house was filled with laughter and chatter as everyone chatted at once with me being the centre of attention. It transpired that Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, with Barrett and Jackie, hence my being put into Granny and Tammy’s care for the night. It was agreed that we’d all have pizzas before Mom, Dad, Barrett and Jackie left, and we even convinced Opa to stay for dinner. An enormous pizza order was placed, and while they were being prepared, Dad fed me dinner under the watchful eyes of Opa, Granny and Tammy. I used the opportunity once again to show off how well I was eating – taking in big mouthfuls of textured food and then grinding it down with my newly acquired molars. I really enjoy eating!

As I finished dinner, Opa and Dad took a walk up to the pizza place and returned a few minutes later with steaming hot pizzas. Little Tammy couldn’t wait so she tucked into her Mexican without needing a second invite. Barrett and Jackie were running a little late, so while we waited for them, Dad bathed me with Opa looking on. One of my newer tricks this week during bath time is to splash so hard that the water reaches every corner of the bathroom, followed by guffaws of laughter! Since Opa was looking on, I had to show off my new skills! I finished my bath as Barrett and Jackie arrived, and Barrett helped Dad dress my wound and get me ready for bed, with Opa looking on.

The adults started dinner, with me being the centre of attention again. After pizzas and red wine, Barrett, Jackie, Mom, Dad and Opa started to leave. I was so excited to be with Tammy for the evening that I hardly noticed that they had left. Opa headed back home, and Barrett, Jackie, Mom and Dad headed to the ‘far east’ to Carnival City to see Wayne Brady’s show called ‘Making It Up’. I played with Tammy some more, and I even asked Granny to text Mom that I was still awake, way past my bedtime.

I didn’t hear Mom and Dad come home, but I figured it must have been very late. After Granny and Tammy left on Saturday morning, Mom and Dad in excited tones took turns telling me about the comic genius and legend that is Wayne Brandy. Their cheeks and faces were sore from laughing so much, and what seems to make the show evening more comical is that Wayne Brady does not do a ‘stand-up routine’, he actually makes the show up as he goes along, with inputs from the audience, very much like the show ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ which blasted him to success. More recently Dad and I have been watching him host ‘Don’t Forget The Lyrics’ on TV, which we both really enjoy – me drumming to the tunes while Dad provides the lyrics and Wayne Brady the entertainment!

After my morning snooze on Saturday morning, the three of us headed to Linda’s Bake & Pack in Westdene for more sugary goodies and ideas for my birthday party. I really think my Mom is a like ‘Bree van de Kamp’ from ‘Desperate Housewives’ in the kitchen, as she makes the most amazing things. The rest of Saturday was spent lulling around the house playing and trying to keep warm. As fate would have it, the last gas bottle ran out earlier so we had to rely on electrical heating which just doesn’t seem as effective. Fortunately, mid afternoon Saturday there was a hoot at the gate and four LPG bottles were delivered, and pretty soon we were snug and warm again.

Sunday morning Dad and I bonded as he took care of me for the morning. After my morning nap, we were on the road to Kyle’s first birthday party. Little Kyle is two weeks older than me, and we’d got to know each other really well, having spent more than four months side-by-side in NNICU during our convalescence. It was wonderful to see Kyle again, and meet up with his Mommy and Daddy, and his Granny and Grandad, whom I often waved to when they came to visit Kyle in NNICU. We spent a wonderful afternoon on the deck of their house, looking out onto the river which runs past their front yard. I was most intrigued by the geese and their little man-made island in the middle of the river and wondered if they didn’t get cold swimming in winter.

Ok, so that’s it for this week. In closing I’m happy to report that the hole in my tummy is healing, albeit slowly – food seems to have stopped leaking from it now. I’ve also been told that my motor skills and fine coordination skills seem to be brilliant for my age. Needless to say, from the aforementioned blog you will have gathered that my eating skills are up there with my progress. Much to my Mom and Dad’s amazement and absolute surprise (I couldn’t keep hiding this from them anymore), I now call my bottle ‘nana’ – i.e. when I’m in need of a drink I say ‘nana’. But it doesn’t stop there; when I’m in need of my Mommy (i.e. when I’ve just had way too much of my Dad), I say ‘Mama’. I’ve also started calling the cats ‘kah’ – I just cannot get the ‘tee’ out yet!

Love,

Jarrod

Figure 1 Getting into some textured food

Figure 2 Sometimes eating utensils are just too much effort

Figure 3 Rody looks at my cheesy grin

Figure 4 Getting to grips with Dad’s electric razor

Figure 5 Mommie’s group at Shelley’s

Figure 6 So proud of myself – this is how I eat now

Figure 7 Hole in my tummy, as at Tuesday

Figure 8 At Tammy’s netball

Figure 9 Keeping warm with Aunty Kim

Figure 10 Tammy and Olivia – ready for their game

Figure 11 Getting the splashing going

Figure 12 Building up some swells

Figure 13 And splash!

Figure 14 And more . . .

Figure 15 And sopping wet

Figure 16 And giggles

Figure 17 Followed by a marathon snooze

Figure 18 Cuddlebunny

Figure 19 Munching on a lollipop at Kyle’s birthday

Figure 20 Smiles for Kyle

Figure 21 Just chillin’

Figure 22 Kyle and his Dad share a metre long hot-dog, with puppy dog helping!

Figure 23 Kyle and I bonding

Figure 24 Goodnight!

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