November 9, 2010

Well. What a manic few days this has been. I've been meaning to update the blog properly, but things have been so busy round here!

I'll have a quick recap, just to get you all up to date!

Last Thursday was the conference on antenatal diagnosis, at which I had been asked to speak, in order to put over a mother's point of view.

Any of you who know me in real life will know that talking is one of the things I'm best at, so I didn't hesitate back in July when our cardiologist asked if I would speak.

However, I was a little nervous when the day arrived... after all, it's been about twenty years since I last did any public speaking - but I am so glad I did it.

I'd pulled out a few key photos, and Pete put them into a PowerPoint presentation to run as I was speaking.

I have to say, it went really well! My main aim was to get through the whole 10-15 minutes without bawling my eyes out, and I was hoping to have at least some of the audience reaching for their hankies!

Let's just say I was successful on both scores!

I could feel my heart pounding as I started speaking, but I got into my stride after the first minute or so, and I was just so proud to be able to stand there, in front of all those important people, talking from the heart about my two precious boys.

The feedback I was given by the delegates and organisers afterwards made it all worthwhile. It was so good to be able to give something back to the people who have helped us so much over the years.

I've been asked to speak again at another conference (fetal medicine this time!) early next year, so I guess I must have done something right.

Apparently the whole symposium will be uploaded to YouTube at some point in the near future, so when I get the link, I'll post it here so you can watch it and have a good laugh! (Or maybe even a cry....!)

So, once we got home after the conference, it was all systems go for Charlie's birthday celebrations!

Charlie wanted all five new daleks on his cake, so rather than making one big dalek cake as I have done the last couple of years, this year I made a cake and topped it with fondant models of the daleks. Much easier, but still lots of fun! Charlie decided he wanted the cake bit to be silver, so it looked a bit like a dalek space ship... cue lots of edible metallic spray paint.
It looked very shiny and nice, but I'm still wiping silver sparkles off all the surfaces in the kitchen. Doh.

Anyway - as I mentioned in my last post, Charlie had a brilliant day on his actual birthday, and was SO excited about his party the following day.

The party didn't start until 4pm because we wanted it to be dark enough to have some fireworks after tea, so Charlie had a LOOOONG time to wait on Saturday!

He entertained himself pretty well though, by zipping round and round the downstairs of the house on his new Doctor Who scooter!

The party went really well - although it was pretty chaotic! We had ten children and a toddler crammed into the house, and kept them all on the go with non-stop party games.

Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, and other than a loose tooth falling out during pass the parcel, there were no calamities!

Here's a pic of my big seven-year-old preparing to blow out his candles. Don't you just love the excited grin on his face? Makes me smile just to look at it!

He really had a fantastic birthday weekend, finished off, of course, with the traditional Bonfire Night/Birthday Party sparklers!Now that's out of the way, he's already gearing up for the Christmas festivities! He's been 'auditioning' today for the Christmas play at school. I don't think they're really auditions as such - more a case of the teachers lining all the kids up and making them sing a bit, to see who is the best (or least awful!) at carrying a tune! He should find out in the next few days who he'll be in the play - so I'm praying that, whoever it is, costumes are readily available in the festive aisle at the supermarket! (You know me and needlework...)

Life really is frantic from now on - we've got something on every weekend (and most weekdays too!) But it's all good, fun stuff - it's so nice to have an approaching festive season, without having the looming dread of the Fontan to worry about!

One final thing - Charlie came home from school today with his new reading book... Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl.

Waaaaaah.

I remember crying my eyes out when I read that book as a kid.

Nothing's changed.

I don't know how the teacher expects me to check that Charlie's reading the right words when I can't even see the pages for tears. Such a sad story, albeit Charlie saw things a bit differently from me.

Me (sniffing and wiping eyes): Don't you think that's a really sad story?

Chas (scootering round and round the lounge): Hmmm. Well, a bit sad, I suppose.

Me: But the little girl had nothing - she was cold, poor, hungry, her father was mean to her, she had a horrid, dirty home and nobody to look after her, except her Grandma - who had died. Nobody in the town took any notice of the little match girl. Don't you see how sad and horrid her life was?

Chas (still scootering...): Yes, but that was only for a while. She really missed her Grandma, so when she went to Heaven to be with her Grandma again, she was happy. And that was forever. So even though she died and it was meant to be a sad ending, it was a happy ending really.'

What could I say to that? Sometimes I just want to hug him forever.

That's all for now, folks.