Catching up

We are having a busy day today(Whoop! Whoop!) We have finally got round to sorting Joel's carpet as his floor was ripped up when we got the house rewired. So it is coming this morning. We are also having the cavities in the walls filled (we don't have anything there, more issues with this house!) so it will be noisy for a while as they drill and fill but then, hopefully, our house will be warmer.

Last weekend we went to a birthday party. It was such a cool idea - it was a football party. We were asked to wear a football shirt/kit and come along to play football with the very enthusiastic Stockport County fan who was celebrating his 4th birthday. Emily had a great time and really like wearing her 'football t-shirt.

Emily has finished with Sarah, our childminder until after Christmas, and when she goes back she is going for Mondays only as Sarah is pregnant and needs some time off. This means we will have more time together. We are going to see the pantomime Cinderella with the families from Sarah's. We are travelling by train to Buxton - Emily is so excited as she has a fascination with public transport. We have 2 Christmas parties tomorrow, one with Toddler group and one with Church. Emily is slightly confused that Santa can be in so many places as she has met him at the garden centre 2 school fairs, the farm on family day and now twice in one day! It's the church nativity play on Sunday; Emily and Jamie are the host of angels visiting the shepherds. 'Do not be afraid' etc. It was interesting on Sunday at church. Josh, who was one of our speakers made the point that each time an angel appears in the bible, the first thing that is said is,"do not be afraid". Does that mean that they were ugly and scary by nature or just it was weird that an angle would visit you? Not sure but Emily and Jamie don't look scary - cute and funny maybe.

Emily's tree in her bedroom ( it has a few more baubles and decorations on it now - many have been scavenged from our tree downstairs!)

On Monday we have a play date with our friends and their kids. We are doing Christmas baking and a few games. It is a nice way to start the Christmas holidays. It should be fun with 10 - 12 children under 4 baking at once!
Jamie has 3 more days left at school, he is mega busy at the mo as the whole school has done exams and mocks and there is tonnes of marking to be done plus all the normal stuff, he is longing for a break but then again there is not much rest to be had at home!

Joel has not been sleeping very well for about a month. He was up feeding 4 - 9 times a night depending. Last night he was only up once and then at 5am, 6.45am and up and awake at 7.30! Wow hoo! Long may it last as both Jamie and I are starting to feel tortured! We had our weekly weigh in, he put on 2 ounces this past week - sadly this is not very good as the trend for such small weight gain is growing. We have 2 choices at the minute. Keep trying with his current milk and up the dosage but already he is semi intolerant to it and cries in constipation pain for 1 - 3 hours per evening, change his milk and make it from powder, fresh, every time he needs it but he needs more than 5 feeds a day as it is 20 calories per 100ml less than his current milk! Also with the new milk his weight may become more of an issue as there is less calories. So we have decided to keep a eating, sleeping, crying and pooping diary until we see our dietitian on Jan 9th. We are also waiting to hear from our cardiologist if we can fly to Belfast over the holidays to see my family. I have left countless messages on answer phones and with people but still no answers. In the meantime Joel has developed a cough, runny nose and sticky eyes. Sound familiar anyone?

Mum and Dad get home from Romania today. We are looking forward to seeing them, hopefully in Belfast, but if not they will try to visit us here. It is great to have parents as missionaries but even though they are at the end of email, phone or a moderately cheap flight away, they feel far away.

Well that's enough procrastinating - off to make tea for tonight and tidy the house.