the dinner time battle is OVER

I am chucking the towel in so to speak!
Mikko can only sit down to eat dinner for 5-10 minutes and is very very fussy. Actually he likes really basic easy dinners which is one plus. Favourites are fish fingers, lamb chip thingies, broccoli (yes broccoli!), baked potatoes, rice, roast chicken, sausages etc. But when he's done, he's done and no amount of negotiation will convince him to keep going let alone keep sitting with us.
The other evening he left the table and snuck off  to play outside. Big brother snuck off after him and then little brother wailed to join them. I gave in and we ended up having fish fingers outside. It was a bit cold but boys don't really feel the cold do they!

a smile while eating!!!!

Kasper just loves waving this flag

always the poser ;)

Squirrel!

Glue eye

Finn was playing outside with Kasper yesterday afternoon and managed to smack his head into our outdoor bench. I was vacuuming and didn't look up till I saw Colin rushing outside to him as he was doing the huuuuuuuge inhale before the mighty scream.
I rushed him down to the doctors and it was decided that gluing the wound would be less traumatic than stitching it. Bad decision. The nurse who was gluing him accidentally dropped glue into one of his eyes. Poor boy totally freaked out when he realised his eye was glue shut - there was a lot of screaming and a lot of tear (some were mine).

Today the patch is off and tonight I even managed to pry his eyelashes apart so his eye can open again - hooray!!!

Cycling Sunday

Today we went for our first family bike ride. It was such fun and the boys all loved it.
We've been working on a way to go cycling altogether for a couple of months. We ruled out a bike trailer as we wanted to be able to transport the bikes on the car enabling us to cycle different tracks around Auckland. I really REALLY wanted a Scandinavian style cargo bike (okay I still do want one) but we would still have had the problem of transporting it.
So after many hours of trawling webshops and trademe we finally came up with the following solution.
Colin's bike plus weeride on the front for Kasper and a tandem attachment on the back for Finn. My bike plus a seat on the back for Mikko.

And voila! It worked.

You can just see the shadow of Mikko and I in the bottom of the picture. Like millions of mothers worldwide I am always behind the camera!


And I felt guilty yesterday saying that Friday had been a complete write-off as actually something super awesome happened. Finn got a Principal's award for perseverance in learning. He didn't know he was getting it (though I did luckily so had a camera) and he looked so surprised and pleased with himself!

shaking the Principal's hand

I had to get a teacher to hold Kasper and I had Mikko crying on my back but I made it and got the picture - yay me and yay Finn! You make me proud every single day!

a long week

It's been a long week. Mikko's been up and down and his brothers have joined him. Last weekend Kasper had bronchialitis and possibly pneumonia so he has been on a barrage of drugs to get him back on track. He's also teething which doesn't help but we are very lucky that throughout it all he continues to sleep 11 hours a night.

I lost Mikko after school on Tuesday. I stopped to talk to another Mum (actually a Grandmum) and he and Finn dashed off to play while we chatted. Suddenly I couldn't see him. I had that awful sinking feeling of panic as I ran around the playground. I ran to the school office and asked for help. The woman there said she'd put a message on the loudspeaker asking him to come to the office and I ended up half in tears explaining that he has autism and wouldn't understand. Anyway, we found him chucking bark down the drain by Finn's old classroom almost right behind where I was when I lost him and he was happy as larry!
The random bursting into tears thing when explaining about Mikko is getting to be my signature move and is rather embarrassing. So far those subjected to it have been my GP, the plunket nurse, Finn's teacher and now the lady on reception at Finn's school. I found this article the other day read it, it's great! so at least I know I'm not alone and true to form I cried while reading it!

Finn has a developmental assessment this month and Kasper is being referred for one too. Finn's isn't worrying me too much but I do wonder if perhaps he has dyspraxia as he is still really struggling with his fine motor skills and spatial awareness but am quite prepared (and hoping!!!) to be wrong.

Kasper concerns me more. Even though I posted just a week or so ago that Kasper was "coming along nicely" he has since had his 15 month plunket check and now I am less certain. I was also reading Finn's plunket book and realised that at the same age he had 15 or more words. Kasper can say mama now but doesn't tend to make many (or hardly any) consonant sounds and doesn't really copy noises yet.
Still, he could just be a late starter but given Mikko's diagnosis we will more than likely get a referral for speech language therapy. Which is good I guess - good to get in early, but a worrying time for us.

Friday I was just about over it and at lunchtime I strapped Mikko and Kas in the car and we went for a drive thru McDonalds which we ate in the car. Well actually Mikko fell asleep but Kasper and I enjoyed Maccas in the storm parked down at the beach. I felt much better for it.

can you see him in the mirror?

too tuckered out for tucker

ssshh don't tell Colin!

Anyway, chin up and all that. If you know me personally and are reading please don't worry (I am thinking of you here Nadia!) as I writing this happily from our couch with a movie on, chocolate and a cold beer and happily looking forward to going for a family bike ride tomorrow :)

Smile for the camera please!!!

Just a few shots from last night. I asked each of the boys to smile for the camera. Kasper was most obliging...

Mikko was a bit trickier. He was happy enough to smile but not able to keep still so I was running around trying to snap him!

Then I asked the 5 year old to smile and this is what I got...