No, this isn't an April Fool joke...

...I really am updating the blog!

Yes, yes, I happily accept the 'World's Worst Blogger' award. I don't really know why March has been such a diabolical month as far as blogging is concerned, but I'm here now, and I'll try to update you on all the (not really very interesting) stuff that has been going on.

You'll have to forgive me if I tell you stuff I've already told you - such are the perils of not updating regularly - I forget which snippets I've already passed on!

So. What have we been up to?

Well, the weather hasn't been brilliant, so we haven't been able to be outside as much as we'd like - it's still pretty grey and chilly - but we did have a few nice sunny days, which meant we could hit the park with Charlie's scooter and have some fun on the swings and slides.

School is going well for Charlie - we had his parents' evening last week - and his report was very good indeed. He's doing really well across the board - maths, English, reading, science... even Welsh! According to the teacher, he's bright, mature, eager to please, happy and still quite the organiser! He's always keen to participate in class discussion (tell me about it...) and is very sensible with regards to his heart and pacemaker restrictions.

To be honest, we knew most of that already, but it's always good to have someone else sing your child's praises!

There have been quite a few sickness bugs flying around school - Charlie had a couple of days off two weeks ago because he was sick in class, and then I had to go and collect him early on Wednesday afternoon because he was feeling sick again.

Fortunately this time he wasn't actually sick, just a bit nauseous for the afternoon. I was glad about this because his INR has only just stabilised after the last vomiting bug hit him.

I kept him off school yesterday, but he was fine to go back to school today, and was looking forward to it because he loves Fridays... it's fish for lunch, and science in the afternoon!

He's also being very secretive about his purchases from the school's Mother's Day shop. He loves taking his money in and doing his own shopping! I can hardly wait to see what he's chosen this time round! There's something really lovely about having a present from Charlie that he has chosen and bought all by himself, with no adult input. (Even if it does mean I end up with lots of teddy bears and strange-coloured lipstick!)

Not too long now until we go to Crete - we're pretty well organised with everything - just need to get some new prescriptions for Charlie, pick up the tickets and buy our Euros. He's really looking forward to it (and so are we!) - it'll be nice just to chill out on the beach or by the pool. Hopefully, even though it's still quite early in the year, it should be warm and sunny.

We're off to the hospital on Monday for Charlie's cardiac outpatient appointment. I'll be glad when it's over, because I'm starting to stress about it.

Even though he looks fabulous and is full of the joys of spring, I can't help but panic that something is going awry beneath the surface. Mind you, it's reassuring that we saw his pacemaker doctor in December, and all was fine then.

It is crazy to think that this time last year, we were still in hospital, Charlie was pushing his drain buckets around in a shopping trolley, and we were waiting to get those stupid pacemaker problems resolved.

Talking of Fontans - Charlie's heart friend Thomas (his blog is in the list on the left) has had the date through for his surgery. He'll be going in on April 26, for the op the next day, all being well. We feel for them so much - it's such a daunting prospect, but the results on the other side of the surgery are SO worth all the worry.

Pete and I are plodding on, as normal. Pete had a nightmare seven-hour journey home from Halifax last night. Trains were delayed, which meant he missed connections, so he was exceedingly fed up by the time he eventually got home at about 9.30pm.

Well, I think that's probably about it for now. I did warn you that you hadn't really missed out on anything exciting! If I remember anything I've forgotten, I'll tack it on the end later! And I'll try to be less useless when it comes to updating the blog next time!

PS Apologies if the spacing is strange on this post - Blogger seems to be having a funny five minutes...