Book Sharing Monday

If there is one author above all others that I would recommend for first books for babies and toddlers it’s Rod Campbell. His books are brilliant.

The stories are very simple, repetition is used to great effect and both my boys have LOVED reading his books.

Even now (at the wise old age of 5) BC still loves it when I pull out our very favourite Rod Campbell book from the shelf. And little Bean loves it too.

It’s this one:

It’s a simple, yet lovely story about a little boy (Buster, who features in other Rod Campbell books) who goes to a farm to visit his grandma. He is sent in search of eggs. He approaches all different farm animals in search of eggs until he finally sources them with the chickens.

The gorgeous refrain ‘No eggs here, Oh dear!’ is one of my favourite in any book, and quite possibly why Little Bean’s most common cry of lament when something goes wrong is ‘Oh dear!’.

Definitely should be on all little ones’ first book shelf.

Camping!

Leading up to BC’s birthday each year, we ask him what he’d like to do. This year he was very definite – ‘camping near a river’. His pop and Nana W (my dad and step-mum) had given us a tent for Christmas last year and we’d yet to give it a run, so it sounded like a good idea.

So off we headed to the Kennett River Caravan Park on the Great Ocean Rd last weekend – despite weather forecasts for some of the most dire September weather on record. Freezing weather, heavy rain, fierce winds, possibly hail and thunderstorms were all forecast for the 4 days we had booked our trip. Great!

Any sane family probably would have canceled. But here’s the thing. I was more scared of having to face a very disappointed five year old whose tantrum capabilities seemed more unappealing than 4 days camping in a thunderstorm .

So off we set, as planned. It rained the whole time we packed the car. It rained the whole time we drove down there. When we arrived (at dusk!), the Caravan Park manager raised his eyebrows and said “mmm. We thought you’d probably cancel”.

Turns out we were the only tent campers who HADN’T canceled. The caravan park was flooded in several spots so they’d moved us to the highest ground they had.

Wasn’t looking like such a promising start to our hol!

But then, miraculously, as we parked the car at our camp site, the rain stopped. It stopped long enough for us to to set up the tent, organise dinner and batten down the hatches for the night.

The boys were totally unperturbed by the cold and the wind. They were just very, very excited. BC said several times that night ‘I am so happy to be here!’.

The wind was pretty wild that first night and not long after we went to bed, the rain started again – in earnest. My brave husband had to get up several times to check the tent pegs and make sure we weren’t able to blow away.

In the morning, it was still raining. And cold. And windy. And I was very grateful that I’d remembered to pack the raincoats and the gumboots (they turned out to be much more useful than the bathers and buckets and spades!). The boys amused themselves playing in the big puddles on the path in front of the tent. They thought it was great.

Later, there seemed little point staying at the camping ground, so we took off for the long drive to the 12 Apostles further down the Great Ocean Rd. I had never seen them before and hadn’t realised that we’d actually need to get out of the car and walk to the viewing site.

It was still raining a bit when we got there and the wind was very strong, but there was no way we were going to have driven that extra 2 hours and not seen them, so we bravely left the car and headed to the viewing point.

They are magnificent. It’s an amazing sight. Would love to go back another time when we’re actually able to sit back and take in the view for longer than the 5 minutes we endured in the wind before our joints all began to freeze and we raced back to the car.

Next stop was Fish and Chips at the quaint nearby town of Port Campbell – and a chance for me to inadvertently flee the scene of a car accident.

I was driving our new bigger car (which I am still getting used to) and as I was reversing I didn’t see a car parked on the other side of the road until we were VERY close. I slammed on the brakes. I thought I felt a slight impact, but then again thought it may have been the impact of my foot on the brake.

So, I got out, checked both cars, saw no damage, breathed a sigh of relief, got back in the car and we headed back to our camp site.

It was only about half way back that I remembered the new car has a TOW BAR. I hadn’t looked down that low on the other car and of course there wouldn’t have been any impact on our vehicle.

I am no saint, but I felt awful. I’d hate to come back and find my car damaged. I wanted to turn around and go back, but my husband pointed out that we were one hour away, the car would probably be gone AND anyway, there was only a small chance I’d damaged the car anyway.

(Fast forward to us arriving home a few days later to a card from the police wedged in the door….the car did indeed have a damaged lower panel which is now being assessed by insurers. Someone had seen the incident and had a keener eye than me. Ooopps).

Back on the road, we decided to stop at the Cape Otway Lighthouse on the way back. The road to the Lighthouse is home to hundreds of koalas. In literally every second tree you can see koalas snoozing or eating leaves (pretty much all a koala does!). The boys (and Aunty J!) were thrilled.

Kudos to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, they allow cars with disabled permits to enter the main grounds and avoid a long walk. Unfortunately though, just as we parked it started to pour rain again, so BC didn’t use his walker anyway. Dad carried him to the Lighthouse and up the many stairs.It’s a fascinating place and the views were amazing. Again.

Back at the campsite, the boys spent the late afternoon playing in the puddles again.

Another cold, wet night followed. Lots more rain and wind (but thankfully no thunder or hail. Glad we managed to avoid that!).

Brave DH was out checking the tent pegs again in the night, but amazingly not a drop of water entered the tent. I am just about ready to do TV endorsements for Wild Country tents!

The next day there were a few speckles of sunshine, but only a few.

We drove to the nearby tourist resort of Lorne for a look around. Much better known for outdoor activities (beaches, walks to waterfalls etc), we parked at the tourist info centre to get some ideas of any indoor activities we might do. We returned to the car. It wouldn’t start.

Great.

Rang the RACV for roadside assistance. LOVE the RACV. But unfortunately had forgotten to pay for the new car to be added to our service. Oops. Fortunately, they are a kind mob. They allowed me to be tranferred to Accounts to pay the money I’d forgotten to pay and THEN we’d immediately be covered. Phew.

In the time it took to do all this, the car decided it would start after all. Yay!

We drove the short distance to the Lorne Pier for another cold, windswept walk. None of the family would believe me that once a year this is the sight of the famous ‘Pier to Pub’ swimming race. I could see their point. The waves were huge, it was freezing. I tried to convince them it wasn’t always like this. But no-one looked much convinced.

We returned to the car to discover (you guessed it), it would not start. Bum.

Back to the RACV. This time we did need their help. Seems the starter motor is dicky. The mechanic gave it a whack with a spanner (very high tech) and got the car started, but warned that there was no guarantee that would work again. Great.

We drove back to the campsite and decided we’d best stay put for the following day, JUST IN CASE the starter motor had only one more start in it – figured we’d be best to save that for the following day when we were due to drive home.

On our last day, the SUN CAME OUT. It didn’t rain at all and the wind disappeared.

We also woke to discover a mum and baby koala living in the gum tree right outside our tent. And the beautiful native birds, famous for being in the area but of which we’d only seen a few, arrived in droves and would feed right out of our hands.

We (finally!) took a walk to the beach and imagined what a glorious place this would be in the summer time.

The next morning when it was time to pack up, BC declared ‘I don’t like this day’ and was already asking when we could go camping again.

Fortunately, we DID get the car to start and made it home safely. VERY fortunately as it turned out, because once we were home there was no starting it again. Even the RACV couldn’t get it started and we ended up having the car towed to the mechanic to get the starter motor replaced.

Although it sounds like a total disaster, all in all, it was a surprisingly enjoyable trip. We haven’t been away as a family for a very long time and spending time together was really special.

We’ll definitely be going camping again! I figure if we can have a good time against the odds on this trip, a camping trip with good weather will be unbelievably good .

Thinking Back Thursday

This photo was taken at the Grampians National Park in 1996. That’s me .

In 1996 I completed my Diploma of Education and got involved with the Mountaineering Club at the university I was studying it (and quite involved with one particular member ).

We did quite a few overnight hikes, camping and LOTS of rock-climbing.

I was particularly keen to try rock-climbing because I wanted to work a little on my fear of heights. And fell in love with it. It’s an incredible sport that involves great concentration and determination (and lots of finger muscles).

I got reasonably good (meaning only that I stopped being terrified!) at fixed rope climbing over the year that I did it, regularly going to indoor climbing centres to hone my skills and frequently heading to the hills for climbing trips.

Alas, as my year of study ended, so did my relationship with my fellow rock-climber and I moved away to teach in a small country town and I’ve barely been climbing since.

I came across my harness and climbing shoes as I was looking through camping stuff in preparation for our trip away this week and got very nostalgic about those great trips away – packing for camping in those days was a very simple affair. Everything (aside from climbing gear) pretty much fitted in one backpack.

They were fun times and there was nothing more exhilarating than completing a climb and being able to sit somewhere up high and taking in the amazing views.

I have heard that rock-climbing can be great physio for kids with CP and just the other day, I read about a guy with CP becoming a climbing instructor in the UK. I hope I can take my boys climbing one day .

Tulips!

I’ve got a lot to say about our camping trip, but not much time. So for now I will share a few quick pics from our day out yesterday. I will be back with camping stories tomorrow!

We had a wonderful day out at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival in the Dandenong Ranges yesterday where we caught up with some lovely friends that I’ve met online through a CP support network. It was great to meet in person and at such a beautiful location.

Lots of other people had taken advantage of the good weather to head out for the day, so we kept very much to our own little spot for most of the time (and yes, Belinda, I know I can get a little overprotective of having space, LOL!) until the crowds had mostly gone and we spent a good hour wandering through the tulips.

The boys had a great time. Bean was very busy racing through the tulips, chased by his ever-energetic Aunty J (thanks Aunty J!). He came home with a big tear in his jeans and brown dirt all over his body, but a very big grin.

BC also loved wandering through the tulips, and he had some fun joining some other kids rolling down the grass slopes. He also sat up on stage and played along on a shaker with popular children’s entertainer Paul Jamieson.

And of course we couldn’t leave without buying a tulip for the boys to take home and watch grow (I will post some pics later when it goes into flower).

Now BC is determined that we’ll go to the Netherlands to see a REAL windmill .

It was a very special day out with a great group of friends! Lovely to see you Bron, Belinda, M, your lovely kids and  ’support teams’!!

Thinking Back Thursday….

I know last week I said I was going to start using Thursday blog posts to ‘think back’ about life BEFORE motherhood.

However, given that today is BC’s 5th birthday, I have been reflecting a lot this week about life in those  very early days AFTER becoming a mum.

I’ve reflected enough here on what happened when BC entered the world without needing to go into much detail again. But, every year around this time I find myself thinking a lot about those early days. Every year it can still bring me to tears, but every year it gets a little bit easier to think about.

This year has been interesting because it’s been the first year that I’ve had quite a few long conversations with BC about his start to life and time in hospital.

He’s been fascinated to hear about the ambulance, the nurses, the machines that beeped and zinged and especially all the tubes and wires that were all over his body helping him stay alive. We looked at some photos and he insisted on me telling him what each wire and tube was doing (I had to wing it a bit ). He was particularly amazed when I showed him the tiny little scar on his foot associated with one of these tubes.

He’s spent a lot of timemarvelling at that little scar since I showed it to him. I won’t tell him that I remember vividly the two doctors trying to find a vein they could use in his tiny foot. How much he screamed and cried and how desperately I wanted to push the doctors away and rip all the wires and tubes from his body and hold him to my chest. Thinking about that is bringing me to tears, even now. Like I said, it gets easier, but it still hurts.

It’s been healing talking to BC about his time in hospital. I am really hoping that next year, his birthday will just be about celebrating. We’ve come a long way together and like that little scar that will just keep fading, so I hope will the memories of those scary early days.

Today we celebrated BC’s birthday with a small group of family and friends (was great to see you Bron!). We had a wonderful time.

And tomorrow we are off on a family camping trip – our first (BC’s birthday wish). The weather forecast is not promising, but I am sure we’ll have a great time (gumboots are packed)!

Happy Birthday BC. You’re a beautiful boy!!! I love you so much .

The Show.

Every year at this time, there is a large annual show in our city – the Royal Melbourne Show.

We went 2 years ago after I won tickets to a special Bananas In Pyjamas Birthday party. The boys got to dance, wriggle and shake with B1, B2, the teddies and Rat-in-a-hat. They even sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to BC once they learnt it was his birthday. It was a special day out.

The Melbourne Show has special place for me because I worked there, selling junk food for about 8 years, through high school and Uni. It was always a full on, but very fun 10 days.

This year, however, I just couldn’t quite come at the expense of the Show. It’s a lot of money to get in and then once you’re in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is expensive.

Keen to find an alternative, I discovered The Doveton Show, held at Myuna Farm – a farm at the edge of the city where you can go to feed, pet and learn more about farm animals.

We’d never been there before and my expectations of the Show itself weren’t particularly high, I was just hoping that it would at least get BC off my back about ‘going to the Show’.

BUT it turned out to be a fabulous, fabulous afternoon out!

For a start, they had allocated loads of disabled car park very close to the venue, so BC was able to walk from the car to the farm. Yay!

And the activities were fab! BC and Bean got to climb up on a Fire Truck – BC even had a go of driving.

There were side show games – the boys loved putting the balls in the clown’s mouths, and ‘catching’ a boat to win a prize. And there were rides. A wonderful car merry-go-round which they both adored and a great train ride around part of the farm.

And of course, the animals. The boys loved seeing all the animals and were lucky enough to even feed some baby goats.

We bought show bags and a very fun bubble gun and had a great day out – and all for under $30!!!! We’ll definitely be going again next year.

Book Sharing Monday

In honour of our camping trip to the beach later in the week, here’s three Aussie classics about the beach.

Firstly, ‘Magic Beach’ by one of my favourite Australian writers Alison Lester.

It’s beautifully told with divine illustrations combining the most common and enjoyable beach activities with wonderful imaginings that thrill BC every time we read it.

At our beach, at our magic beach,

We play in the sand for hours.

Digging and building with buckets and spades,

Invincible Castles and Towers

Next up is ‘There’s a Sea in my Bedroom’  written by Margaret Wild and illutrated by Jane Tanner.

It was the first book that got BC excited about the idea of listening to shells and every now and then still has him ’swimming’ around the loungeroom telling me it’s the ocean . BC has never been afraid of the ocean, but this would be a great book if you have a little one who is. And the illustrations are lovely!

‘How could the big scary sea get inside a small shell?’ wondered David….

Then he heard the sea.It was soft and growly and friendly. David wasn’t scared of this sea. Not at all, not one bit.

Lastly,  ‘Looking for Crabs’ by Bruce Whatley.

It’s a simple yet fun story of a family on a beach looking for crabs, but they cheekily hide from them all day long. We’ve been on beach crab hunts, and after reading this book BC doesn’t mind if we don’t see one because we can joke about all the ones who are hiding from us and imagine where they are.

I love going to the beach for holidays. Sometimes it’s too cold to swim, so we go looking for crabs.

Wow. I really can’t wait to get to the beach now. And yep, all three of these books will be packed in the car to read by torchlight at our campsite each night. Would also love any further beachy or camping book suggestions .

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me – 22 weeks pregnant. Just thought I would share

Happy Holidays!

September school holidays start in Victoria today – woohoo!

Enjoy the holidays to those who are starting them today!

We are looking forward to celebrating BC’s birthday this week, going on a family camping trip AND definitely looking forward to no therapy sessions or appointments (except for 2 appointments I had to schedule very early this the week).

To bring in the school hols, here’s some of BC’s kinder pics that were taken late this term. I am really happy with them!

Thinking Back Thursday

Thanks so much everyone for their comments on my last post. It’s lovely to have such cyber support . I still haven’t heard from the hospital regarding my follow up appointment with the specialist, but I promise, promise, promise I will definitely keep the appointment and take whatever advice the doctor gives!

On a very different note; recently, I’ve been sorting through old photos, and it’s made me very nostalgic and thinking a lot about ‘the good old days’ – before motherhood. It’s been nice to remind myself of times when life was a lot less complicated and responsibilities were few. I wouldn’t for a minute want to swap where I am right now with my beautiful family, but I’ve decided I’d like to give myself a bit of a regular, self indulgent trip back in time so every Thursday I’m going to write a ‘Thinking Back Thursday’ post. Fellow bloggers, I’d love to learn a little more about you by reading similar blog posts if you’re game to share .

Today I am taking myself back to Capetown, South Africa, January 2005.

This photo was taken at the end of a 2 month trip through southern Africa -a trip during which I white water rafted at the base of the magnificent Victoria Falls, parachuted (twice!) out of an airplane, cuddled up close to a 6 month old (but surprisingly big) lion cub – fortunately avoiding this recent experience of a journalist, camped in the Serengeti National Park (waking to find some  large animal footprints rather close to our tents), canoed in the Okavanga Delta, saw many amazing animals and met some incredible people. Africa really is an amazing continent.

Such is the power of travel (for me at least!) that by the time I reached Johannesburg, I felt pretty much invincible.

So much so that with absolutely no knowledge of the distance (or the danger!) I hitchhiked from Johannesburg to Capetown with a girl from New Zealand I had met on my travels. I’ve since learnt it’s a 1400 kms journey and a dangerous place to hitchhike (both because of muggings and bad road accidents).

We were probably lucky that we made the journey safely, but at the time, I didn’t really have any sense of danger. I was too full of passion for adventure. We hitched most of the way in a very large truck hauling whitegoods and made it to Cape Town within 24 hours.

The photo above was taken just a few days before I returned to Australia to finish my Uni studies. I was 24 years old and I didn’t have a care in the world. Looking at the photo, I can still remember the warm breeze on my skin and remember exactly how I felt – that the future was full of amazing possibilities.