Matthew's Birthday

  

  

  

 

 

Today Matthew turned 8. At 12:18pm 8 years ago he joined the world and has made his presence felt ever since! We celebrated this morning by meeting his Walsham teammates in Abbey Gardens for a kickabout and then met Granny for lunch at Pizza Hut.

Uncle Skott and Beth met us in town and we shopped with Matthew's birthday money before heading to see Grandad at the pub!

Back to Grandad's house for a bit and then home, exhausted and filthy with the marks of a day very much enjoyed, bath and bed were called for.

As I sit here enjoying the quiet I look back on the last 8 years and realise it truly is a blessing to have him, no matter how much I might forget that occasionally!

What the Butler Saw

On Friday night I had a rare opportunity for a night out. My wonderful friend Cathy invited me down to stay with her in Ilford and go to see the Woodhouse Players production of What the Butler Saw, directed by Cathy. I decided I had better go Friday as Matthew's birthday is Sunday and in the past I have come home rather late from staying at Cathy's due to the amount of alcohol consumed after the show! The necessary complicated childcare arrangements were made and I arrived in Ilford at around 6:15pm.

The production itself was brilliant. Utterly hilarious and even the slip-ups just made it funnier. I was lost in places where my brain struggled to keep up with fast dialogue but that's just because I get the treat of going to the theatre so rarely that I'm not used to not being able to pause and rewind ;-)

I am extremely pleased that I made the effort to go, I've always enjoyed going in the past but haven't been able to with Joe being ill and I now realise how much I've missed it. Will definitely be making the effort to go in future.

When I arrived I remembered (rather too late!) that Fridays are curry night. After the show the cast and crew all head to the nearby Star of India for dinner. I do not eat curry. Cathy finds this rather amusing and somewhat bewildering. I think it gets put down to my being from the country and away from proper civilisation! So I had plain boiled rice, which suits me fine, and they tried hard not to tease me too much. This was followed by 2 complimentary shots of Tia Maria and cream, something I have not tried before but downed quickly anyway!

Alcohol consumed we decided a trip to the pub was called for to increase the intake. Once vodka had been added to the mix I was well and truly sozzled. By now it was somewhere after 1am and most wandered off to get some sleep before the double performances next day. But not everyone. I was relishing the enjoyment of drinking and laughing for the first time in ages, Cathy was willing to indulge me, James and someone who I think was called Jamie but I honestly cannot be sure! In the absence of anywhere to continue drinking that didn't have very loud music it was decided that a trip to the off-licence before returning to Cathy's was by far the best idea. So we did!

Back home we drank some more and talked lots more. The boy I think was called Jamie annoyed me immensely with wandering hands but finally fell asleep first. Cathy gave in and decided sleep was required somewhere around 5am and nearer 6 James and I finally stopped chatting and slept!

After 2 hours sleep we chatted some more, drank juice or tea and after 10am I had to head home for an afternoon of watching Westbury lose. Meanwhile, poor Cathy and James had to return to the Welsh Church Hall for 1pm and attempt to Direct/Perform in both the matinee and evening shows! I hit my brick wall at 4pm and suddenly felt very guilty for allowing them to entertain quite so late the night before!

All in all I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. I got to spend time with old friends, meet new people, experience a show I've never seen before and consume more alcohol than I've had in several years! I've been invited back next week for the end of show party and I'm really hoping to go but this time I might just stay sober! 


for some reason I cannot work out how to reply to comments yet.... but this was my response to lovecat....
ah yes, I could remember the J part but had other things on my mind next day and the rest was a blur! am also only just coming out of the haze, slept very well last night! have permission for saturday, thought maybe dave might like a hand getting the house ready?

Joe is fixed at last!

Just over 3 weeks ago we came home from a longer than planned stay at West Suffolk Hospital.

Joe's operation to remove his tonsils and adenoids was arranged for Thursday 11th August and I expected us to come home same day. FOOL!

The operation itself went well, Joe was very cross when he came round and again required several nurses and me to hold him down, and even then we failed miserably! He refused medicine because it wasn't from home - appeared to think they may be poisoning him with calpol! With many more bruises we got him back to the ward where after a while he picked up and played on the ps2 happily all evening. They said we had to stay in just incase so Uncle Neil very kindly stayed with Joe to play FIFA (not one of my many talents!) while I went home to get supplies. All was well.

Next morning Joe was still asleep when the docs did ward rounds but they said overnight stats had been good and he could go home so long as he ate breakfast ok.
Joe finally woke up and was not happy. He wouldn't eat and was really drowsy. I left him with the lovely Leigh in the playroom when he requested smarties (by now I'm not caring what he eats, just want him to eat!) and when I returned less than 5 minutes later he was in bed. Leigh said he was just so lethargic he didn't want to play. Joe then refused smarties (never heard of!) and his temperature started to rise. Without eating he couldn't have ibruprofen so when his temp got scarily high he was given morphine which allowed him to sleep and then he felt well enough to eat. Weekend cover at WSH does not stretch to ENT department so after a worrying few hours where Addenbrookes was threatened (I cried when the doc told me, was like April 2010 happening all over again) they agreed that as the operation side of things seemed to be healing as expected and xrays were clear of chest infections, this may be just a virus and the paediatricians would take over Joe's care for the weekend. PHEW!

Friday night came and food was eaten, more ibruprofen given, the night passed well and come Saturday morning we were clear to go home - so long as he ate breakfast! Given the experience of the day before I told Joe he HAD to eat breakfast, I didn't care what but he had to eat as we couldn't go home if he didn't.
Joe informed me he had no intention of going home, he would like to stay at the hospital and play ps2 actually. After being told that mummy was going home whether it was with him or not he decided perhaps eating breakfast would be a good idea after all!!!

We were discharged Saturday afternoon and the change in Joe has been amazing. He has had his follow-up and been discharged.

For the last 16 months we have had very little fun, Joe had been tired all the time, he couldn't breathe properly if he exercised, he couldn't cope with pre-school and it's been pretty miserable.
Now, Joe has cycled over a mile on his little bike with stabilisers to Granny's house, we have been out lots picking blackberries and geocaching, he no longer sounds like darth vadar and we can have FUN again!
Of course, he still has his stroppy 4 year old moments but I can live with those, because they are just moments and they show how much we have all missed out on over the last year when those moments lasted all day, every day.

Matthew is thrilled to have his brother back properly, without the boring constraints he had before, although he says he often has to check on Joe at night because (like the rest of us) he is so used to Joe breathing very noisily that he worries Joe has stopped breathing now that he can't hear him!!!

The doctors said that Joe's tonsils met in the middle and his adenoids blocked his nasal airway entirely. It's no wonder he struggled so much and brilliant to see the difference it has made to him.

Here's to Joe's first day at school on Wednesday and to a happy and healthy end to the year!

Sarah & Leo's Wedding

We were really pleased to be invited to the wedding of Sarah Traylor and Leo Saunders at Woolpit Church. Matthew and Joe dressed up in smart trousers and shirts and I even wore a dress! Debbie came too, with Henry, and Claire brought Sarah along.

In the evening just Matthew, Joe and me went off to Jokers in Stowmarket for the reception where they had fun running round the dancefloor with their friends from school!