November 23, 2008

Wow - the visitors to Charlie's blog have topped 6,000 since I first put the visitor counter on! That's pretty incredible, don't you think? It's amazing that so many different people from all over the world have dropped in to see what Charlie's up to! I know I've said it before, but please feel free to leave a message for Charlie via the 'comments' link at the bottom of each post - he really loves to hear from all of his friends!
We've had a nice, quiet weekend, with nothing much to do, which has been nice. We've been pretty busy at weekends for ages now, and after next weekend (which is also fairly quiet) things are really hotting up for Charlie!
He's off skating at the Winter Wonderland in Cardiff next Friday night, then he's off to collect the school Christmas tree and meet Father Christmas with all his classmates on the 1st, then preparing madly for his school Christmas show - the first performance is on the 5th, then we're off to see the Lion King in London, plus a festive visit to the Natural History Museum, then it's Pete's birthday, a trip to the SnowDome, a visit to the CBeebies Show, a Christmas trip to Clearwell Caves, a festive breakfast with Father Christmas, school Christmas lunch, a children's party with Pete's work, several carol services - one at the church where Will is buried, and another at Nanny and Grandpa's church.... and that's just the things I can think of off the top of my head!
Needless to say, there should be plenty of chances for me to get some new photos for his blog over the next four weeks!
I think I mentioned on Twitter, but for those of you who haven't checked the Twitter updates in the sidebar - Charlie's going to be a shepherd in the school play, which should be another lovely event! He has his costume all ready, along with his cuddly sheep - although the school has requested that the shepherds have no crooks, as they're liable to beat each other up with them! Charlie's costume came with a crook (no, of course I didn't make him a costume, don't be silly.) and he's decided it looks rather like a question mark without the dot at the bottom, and has been prancing around the house with it, saying it's his 'riddling stick'. Batman Lego on the Wii has much to answer for!
Not much more news really - just felt I ought to update the blog because it's been a few days, and I know how much I hate clicking on blogs day after day, only to find they haven't been updated!
One other thing - we had a letter from the hospital here in Cardiff last week, and Charlie has to go in for another 24-hour holter monitor on December 3, to see what's happening with his intermittent heart block. The amount of episodes had decreased considerably last time, so we're hoping things have improved further, although the ecg when we were at the hospital at the beginning of the month showed that it is still happening. I don't like it when Charlie has to have these holter monitors - although they don't hurt him at all, he's aware of the stickers and the wires all the time, and they just make him feel like something's not quite right. He'll also have to wear the monitor to school for the whole day, which could be a challenge. I'll have to explain it all to his teachers. Fortunately it's not a PE day, or the day of his school play, so he won't have to change his clothes around the stickers and wires. We've asked that the hospital provides him with a monitor in a little bag or on a lanyard this time - normally it is like a pager which clips onto his belt, but the clips aren't particularly strong, and I have horrible visions of this expensive piece of kit falling down the school toilet.
I really can't believe it's December in just over a week. This year has really flown by. But I'm sure I said that last year, and the year before. We've already had our Christmas Carols CD on - so we're starting to feel a bit festive now!
Like I said at the beginning - please feel free to leave a message for Charlie if you'd like to. We have so many visitors, it'd be nice to put names to the red dots on the map!