Finn Henry

mountain-climbing by marcin_kalina

For a few months now Finn has been interested in the little rock climbing boards they have in parks these days. He’s seen other kids scale them and been keen to do the same but never got all his hands and feet working together.

Until today.

And all he needed today was a little help from me to climb over the edge at the top of the little wall and onto the play equipment.

I am just amazed how quickly he learns new thing and how was seemed distant yesterday simply zooms up today.

Finn freaked me out a little by throwing up every half an hour while my parents were looking after him on Friday. I was really wondering for while whether he was getting worse. On Saturday, though, he was fine.

He’s been back to his usual self since and has even been asking for food, which is unusual. He’s off to childcare this morning, which I’m particularly pleased about - for both our sakes. I need him out of the house to get things done and he needs the stimulation and company of the other kids.

The Melbourne Aquarium by Notnek

While we were on the train yesterday Finn saw the Melbourne Aquarium complete with whale mural on the side wall.

“They sell whales”.

It’s not a bad guess since the hammer shops sells hammers.

You wanna come and take my ball? by Nicky P

Today my parents are coming over to look after Finn while I attend a couple of appointments at the hospital. It’s the first time they’ve looked after him since he was tiny.

I’m really grateful to them for doing this, since I would hate to have to drag an unwell Foozle to the hospital with me. But I can’t help feeling just a little concerned about how it will go.

Mum and Dad are 79 and 80 years old. Neither is exactly in tiptop health and they are both the kind of people who are very patient right up to the point at which they’re not. Finn has been a complete pain in the butt for the last couple of days as he recovers from his exploding bum - which, by the way, is still exploding a bit - and has been testing every boundary he can find. I have a suspicion that each is going to try the other’s patience and I will come home to either broken parents or broken boy.

Of course, as is the way of these things, I am just as likely to come home and find that they’ve all had a wonderful time…

Finn’s home from childcare again today as his bum is still prone to explosions. He’s obviously feeling better because he has the energy to steal lollies, but he’s still feeling unwell enough to be reluctant to eat much.

I’m abandoning any major plans for getting out of the house today, although I do want to go to the supermarket for some white bread that is totally lacking in any fibre. Fibre contributes to exploding bums. We also need some more nappies because Finn prefers to wear them at the moment. I don’t blame him after the incident we had yesterday afternoon.

My parents are supposed to be coming to mind Finn tomorrow while I have a couple of appointments at the hospital. I’m tempted to ring them and tell them not to bother because I’m not sure that a 79 and an 80 year old need to be crawling around on the floor like I was yesterday. And the house is a mess, which will bug The Mavis, and I don’t think I have the energy, inclination or time today to clean it up. Having a sick Foozle at home tends to suck the whole day up.

Well I took The Foozle to the doctor this morning and the diagnosis is pretty much what I expected. It’s not serious. I should stick with lots of fluids and bland foods and I should take him back if he’s not better in 3 or 4 days. The doctor also recommended some chewable vitamin tablets since he’s not getting the chance to absorb much from the little he is eating and that will be making him more rundown.

We duly went to the supermarket to pick up these, some biscuits and other bits and pieces, then got a cooked chook for dinner and headed home. We also grabbed some cheap stickers that seemed like they would provide a good activity for the afternoon. Mr Foozle was almost asleep when we got home and agreed with me that a sleep would be a good idea. Once inside, though, he remembered the stickers and wanted to play with them immediately.

I explained that his options were to have lunch or to go to sleep and the stickers could wait until after the sleep, but that was not acceptable. A mega-meltdown ensued which ended with me placing him on his bed, turning on his bedtime music and telling him he was not to come out until it finished. The music runs for just over an hour so if he stays put there’s a pretty good chance he’ll fall asleep before it finishes.

There was initially much wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from his room and I was surprised that he hadn’t come out to remonstrate with me. All went quiet about 3 minutes ago, which could be a good sign. If there are no mysterious thumps and other interesting noises in the next 15 minutes or so, I’ll assume that he has gone to sleep and go and lie down myself. He’s not the only one feeling a bit tired and emotional…

{explosive simian} by RoRRo

Finn seemed pretty much recovered from his illness yesterday so he went to childcare.

When I picked him up at the end of the day one of the carers mentioned that he’d had little bit of a pooey accident late in the afternoon. I thought it might have just been the last little bit of whatever bug he had.

Once we got home, though, it was obvious that he was exhausted. He rarely sleeps at childcare these days, so he’s always tired when he gets home, but last night he was so tired that he had to be convinced not to take himself to bed at 7 o’clock. I would have let him got to sleep, but he hadn’t had any dinner and I didn’t want him to wake up hungry in the early hours. In the end he barely ate anything and the most I could get into him was his pre-bed milk. When I took him to the toilet there was still a lot of exploding going on, which was not good.

He did wake up at 4.30 wanting a drink of water and had 2 cups. A trip to the toilet resulted in more explosions. He refused to eat anything and went back to bed and stayed there until I got up at 8.30.

He’s still reluctant to eat, so I’ve resorted to bribery. While he keeps eating his toast the telly stays on. As soon as he stops eating I’ll turn it off.

I’m keeping him home from childcare because he just doesn’t seem up to it today. If the explosions haven’t stopped by tomorrow morning I’ll take him to the doctor. I don’t know what they’ll recommend other than keeping fluids up and offering bland foods, which I’m doing, but it can’t hurt to see.

The Foozle is unwell. All day yesterday and through last night he was bedevilled by an exploding bottom and a sore stomach. We’re not sure why or how.

I hate it when Finn is sick like this. He goes pale and his eyes become bloodshot. He feels warm to the touch, but doesn’t actually run a temperature - we treat it like a fever anyway and give him a dose of paracetamol. He doesn’t want to eat, which always worries me since he doesn’t eat a huge amount normally.

He was up at least 4 or 5 times during the night needing either to go to the toilet or to be given a drink. It’s been about 3 hours since he last got up so I’m tiptoeing around he house, hoping he sleeps for ages and will be brighter when he gets up. Mark dealt with most of those requests during the night, so I’ve left him to sleep too.

The only positive is that he is rarely ill for more than 24 hours, so he should get better today. If he doesn’t, of course, there’ll be no childcare tomorrow and we’ll be off to see the ‘little doctor’.

The Sun Hiding Behind a Humming Giant by Pixel Packing Mama

It has been a couple of weeks since I had taken Finn to childcare or collected him. However when I picked him up on Thursday he just seemed to big and grown up when I saw him surrounded by all those other kids.

Since he is one of the youngest kids in his room it’s not the reaction I expected to have but there you have it, he’s well on the way to being a big kid.