Ants in our pants

...well, actually, in our kitchen.  Eek!

We've had the odd ant running around for a while now,  but today was something else.  The ants have been sprouting wings and today when we got back they were swarming (is that what they do?) all over the floor. They appear to have been nesting under the fridge.  Now we don't mind sharing our home with a few things (slugs for instance have taken up residence under the sink since the cold weather in the winter) and after my experiences with ants in South Africa (think long columns of ants on the kitchen worktops and ants on the patio crawling up your skirts) British ones tend not to bother me. I apologise to ant lovers everywhere, but we had to do something, so the kids and I were banished to picnic in the living room and then to Michelle's (thanks Michelle!) while Chris pulled everything out, cleaned up and put down ant powder.  So our kitchen is now the cleanest its been probably since we moved in, and I haven't done what I was going to do this afternoon, namely pack for Hannah going into hospital tomorrow.  Yep, just what we needed the day before that.

So tomorrow we hopefully take H in for the op on her palate [crosses fingers, prays, etc].  We have to phone the ward at 8am to check there is a bed for her.  I hope there is because we have prepared her as best we can (without scaring her witless) and this is good timing school- and holiday-wise.  All being well she will have the op on Thursday.

In other news Rebekah has started on solids and has taken to eating like she should have been doing it all along.  After weeks of looking longingly at our food she now has her own, and is already on two meals a day.  This means the breast pump has resurfaced (last used in those heady days of engorgement about four months ago), as the method of preparing her meals starts with 'first milk the cow'.  With my boobs rapidly becoming dispensable again I am definitely feeling that my baby is growing up too quickly.

Tools of the trade...

I just picked the baby up out of her seat to find she's been sitting on a small green plastic spanner.  Poor child, her sisters keep giving her toys to play with so she ends up surrounded by plastic fruit/magnetic letters/pipe cleaners/lego or whatever.  She doesn't usually sit on them though.

I have lots of photos to upload so hopefully I'll have things to show soon - lots of knitting has occurred, some of which has even been finished!

Finally two bits of important news - important to us that is: 1. Hannah has a date for her palate op - 28th July, which is, agh, soon [pulls scared face]; and 2. Hannah has her revised statement through and has got 25hrs support a week for school next year - yay! that's full time!

Tea party

I had a lovely time playing tea parties with Hannah this afternoon - we used Steffie's blankie as the picnic rug, and Reggie Bear came too (he was very well fed, and then washed for good measure). Hannah is gradually getting into this type of imaginative play, which is something they've been trying to encourage at nursery. That makes it sound all calculated, but we just had a good time, though she wouldn't tell me what we were eating and drinking!

We've been busy...

Wow, a whole month since I last posted - oops! But in my defence, we have been busy.

The major thing was a holiday, a long camping trip down south. Not only was there major packing to do, but I was also making this:
The reason for the trip was my gran's 90th birthday, and the appropriate family party accompanying it. The quilt was a gift for her, and my first attempt at a (nearly) full sized quilt. I quite pleased with how it turned out, and it was fun to do, just a little bit rushed. I set up the machine on the kitchen table together with the laptop and watched stuff on 4od and iplayer whilst sewing - very civilized!

But before the family stuff we camped on Hayling Island, somewhere I know quite well from my youth, and somewhere I never thought I'd go on holiday! But we had a great time, visiting old haunts and finding new ones.

Since then we have been happily surprised with the news that we are expecting a third little Goodhew sometime in the New Year. So I am now in the throes of those first trimester goodies of feeling very tired and icky. Mmmm.

This month is also busy with appointments and reports for Hannah as nursery prepare to apply for her statement. The dynavox has broken and we are missing it a lot; we don't know when it will be repaired. And we've had the Hadfield Carnival (very soggy) in which we were involved on three stalls - it went well despite the weather but was very frantic. We have the church camping weekend this weekend (most of the stuff is still packed!) and a few other bits and bobs happening as well.

So, I'd better go and do that form I've been putting off. Eeek.

Yes please!

It was one of those nights, when just as we're settling down for the night at 11pm, Hannah wakes up. So down I go, again and again, getting crosser and crosser and more and more tired. She was up till 2.30am in the end.

But the last time I went down, I was asking her if she wanted the light off, and she said yeah followed by another sound, quite deliberately. I asked her again, and then realised that she was saying yes please! I think she must have been saving it for when her mother's defences were at a low ebb. She's now saying it quite a lot, which is brilliant (two words together and all that), though you have to know it's what she's saying. But still. Such a clever girl. Just wish it didn't have to be at 2 in the morning.

Boats, ducks, and Hannah

Just had the following rather random conversation with Hannah as I was putting her to bed. (Please bear in mind that Hannah is signing and I am interpreting and that this is the abridged version...)

Blue.
Blue?
Yeah. Green.
Green?
Yeah. Boat.
Green boat?
Yeah. Ducks.
Ducks in the green boat?
Yeah. Hannah.
Hannah and the ducks in the green boat?
No [stupid mother expression] blue boat Hannah.
Oh, so Hannah in the blue boat and the ducks in the green boat?
Yeah. [Sits back satisfied at finally having conveyed something to her oh-so-thick mother that vaguely resembles what she's actually thinking.]

The Voice has arrived

Hannah's VOCA (voice output communication aid, that's a computer wot speaks to you and me) has finally arrived. We had to wait for a new battery to come as the old one wasn't charging so it's taken a little while but it is now here. A very nice lady called Karen came to show us how it works, and Hannah was away, touching all the buttons and making it say things. At the moment it is limited to snacks and songs (very motivating for the average three year old) but it is almost imfinitely expandable and so can grow with her. The only downside is that it is a large and heavy model, but it will definitely do for seeing if she gets on with it.

So we have spent this evening modifying the snack buttons to things we have in the house and are happy for her to choose, and then we generally played around with it - it's very cool. Chris has managed to reprogramme most of it already. We have been focussing on getting it, but tomorrow we'll start to use it and find out if Hannah gets on with it and how to fit it into family life. Sounds like a long process to me, and at the moment it is feeling quite daunting.

A Very Excited Bean...

We finally got what has turned out to be a long term project launched last night. This is the highly technical linking of two households by video, over the web, so that Hannah can 'talk' (ie sign) to her grandparents 150 miles away. (Phone conversations are a bit limited when you can only say 'yeah'.) This has taken about two years and involved several steps:

1. get broadband at our end - a big issue for some years due to the length of line between us and the exchange. don't get us started. still causes problems, but we do (obviously) now have it.
2. persuade parents that the purchase of a webcam is useful, nay vital for this process (not difficult).
3. set up webcams on computers - required waiting until we visited, but otherwise straightforward.
4. teach parents how to use skype - still in troubleshooting phase.
5. work out why internet speed is so low at our end that video won't work - turned out to be a dodgy router but delayed us for a couple of months - grr.
6. arrange time with all present to try out system.

And it worked! We (three - Steffie was in bed) spoke to Granny, Grandpa, Uncle Stuart and Auntie Kerry (and bump). Hannah signed. It was GREAT! Hannah was so chuffed at seeing them, and seeing herself, on 'telly', and quickly got the hang of staying in view of the camera. I can see her spending a *lot* of time signing at Granny and Grandpa.

One plus was that she was also able to show them her certificate for being 'Hedgehog of the Week' at nursery (my big girl! - proud mummy moment) - you can't do that down a phone.

No sleep...

We don't get a lot of sleep round here. Hannah, our eldest daughter, has DiGeorge Syndrome, which is a genetic condition, hence my interest in special needs. She finds it incredibly difficult to settle herself to sleep and wakes up frequently during the night - she has only just stopped getting up tonight, and I am waiting for her to be fully asleep before I go to bed. We are a slightly chaotic family due to a chronic lack of sleep!

We live in a small two-up-two-down mill cottage in between the Peak District and Manchester in the UK. I say small, it's not that small really, but apparently it counts as small in the grand scheme of things. We would love more space but can't afford it, and anyway we like it here, we have great friends and neighbours, a garden and a view of the hills. What more do we need?!

I love all sorts of craft, particularly anything textile, and am currently dividing my (small amount of) craft time between knitting, sewing sock creatures, embroidery and making felt toys. I also enjoy painting, sticking and colouring with Hannah (and anyone else who happens to be around). As I say in my profile, I find that crafting helps me cope with everything life throws at me, and that's been quite a bit in the last three years. Major thanks go to my sister for teaching me to knit - I've always dabbled in sewing, but the knitting thing is more recent, and very therapeutic. I am known locally for taking my knitting everywhere with me in case I get a chance to do some while the children are asleep.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading my musings on life and attempts at various crafty things.