Suttons Beach

Yesterday was payday and as Dad had to wait for a tradesman I took myself off for a wee easter shop at the local shopping centre. I couldn't resist this Love 2 Dance dress for little brat. And she couldn't wait to try it on - and dance along to Hi5!
When the two boys are together Hannah gets left behind a lot. I even stooped to bribing them on Daniel's second day here - they could have their dses back after they played with Hannah. I am not sure it is a tactic I want to use regularly but seeing how much fun she had squealing and running about with them. I think it was ok as a last ditch effort. Her favourite games at the moment are duck, duck, goose and Hide and Seek. Needless to say Kit, Gra and I have also played a lot of these games.
Hannah and I drew a Hi5 for dancing on and then a swimming pool...followed by some digging in the sand for a tea party in honour of my birthday, complete with lolly bags.
I told little brat not to sample the salt water - but she went back for seconds...then had the nerve to complain to me on the way home that she had sand in her mouth!! A nice cool drink of milk fixed that.

Here Kit and his cousin Daniel are engaging in that timeless sport of children at the beach. They found a hermit crab and were helping to 'protect' him. Lol! I think we left before they'd killed him with kindness!


There has been quite a lot of this for Kit and his cousins. Daniel is one year older than Kit and they get on like a house on fire. SO Daniel has been over a few times for a sleepover and to play. I get themt o turn of the technology at various points in time and as you can see from the above pictures - it works a treat and they have a blast.

Our roadtrip

Buladelah






Forster at sunset


Forster in the morning
Any kid who has ever travelled the east coast of Australia will have childhood memories of this place. It is indeed an icon. It is part of the shared cultural history my husband and I have for example - even though our childhoods were quite different both of us remember the family car, hot summer days and stopping at the big banana. Well it is smaller than I remember and inside it is no longer a photographic display but it is being renovated and a couple of videos were playing - the theme of the display was the same - the growing of bananas! The icecream sundaes at the cafe still seemed enormous and the gift shop was filled with tacky yellow souvenirs. We had a blast - a trip down memory lane for me and a memory making visit for the twins.


Jumping for fun

It was about 4pm and the beach was almost deserted. Just beyond was a lovely playground. The twins loved these parts of the holidays.



Before the dunking we were all having a ball - although it was a little cold so we simply paddled at the edge of the water.
Hannah got a dunking in the shallow waves - in some ways I think that is worse - cos she was absolutely coated with pretty harsh sand. She got a scare but trooper that she is managed to get back up - I took her tot he car to change her clothes - sat her in the boot to make it easier - she loved that idea (our poodle normally travels in the boot) and wanted to ride in the boot as the family dog when we went to go home too!! Imagine what my pals at DOCS would say about that!!lol.

How cool is the Bunya nut tree? I love them!
The food and service at Phoen Wong in Coffs was very good. Every time we eat out somewhere Asian the twins have a go at using chopsticks - they weren't able to eat using them but they did improvise and entertain Dad and I with them

We stopped at Ballina to meet in real time a virtual friend from the Aussie DS forum I am on. It was lovely to chat with Trish and her daughter Jodie who is almost 21 is a lovely young woman.
We got to Dad's and the twins obviously felt right at home. They immediately found a box of mobilo that I had sent up for my nephew's stepdaughter - and got to work building.

5 years old

Well, well, well it appears that the shamptons is 5 years old this month. The only reason I noticed this was because I decided to go back to my first year of posts and reread them - it was such a wonderful stroll down memory lane. I really must try and keep a copy of these posts for the twins to read one day. Sometimes I feel so silly - the things I write I wouldn't necessarily ever say in real life... then if a family member or someone I know in real life reads my blog I feel like an embarassed teenager who foolishly published her personal journal and was then surprised to see that someone she knows read it...at other times the vanity that is me wonders why this isn't the most popular blog in the blogosphere - after all - how exciting is my life??? and aren't my twins just adorable!!

For a while the shams felt the blow that is fb. No fun memes anymore either... when I started there were a whole group of fantastic blogs - all of us with young kids with ds. There weren't many with older kids. Now I know a few with older kids with ds and some teens with ds with their own blogs - it is a more diverse collection of reading. It still has an important place. In the busy day to day the shams is a place I can come to and relax, and try and organise my thoughts, maybe do a little advocating on the side and overall gain a whole lot of worthwhile advice and share an awesome amount of joy with other people. I wonder what the place of the shamptons will be in another 5 years?

So - happy blogiversary to us and thank you to those kind enough to read sometimes too. Here's to the next 5 years....

Easter celebrations

Hannah got new glasses - 2 for 1 - so it seems a good time tot ry and get her to look after them more carefully - and put them away in a Little Miss case each night - so far so good!

Not all of Phils family will be here at easter so we all caught up yesterday for an easter lunch. It was lovely. Here are some pics:

Can Do!

It's autumn and holidays have just begun. I love the 'can do' feel - like we are going out for lunch today and I have made the rainbow jellies and am planning on making a persimmon pudding too. Last night we had 2 curries complete with Naan (Hannah's favourite bread). I have 2 quilts to get done by Wed, some school work due then too, a bunch of other stuff booked in - like getting new tyres for the car, lunch with friends, dinner with other friends, ST for Hannah, a playdate for Kit while Hannah is at ST...and yet I still have that 'can do' feel.
Dads and daughters went to Hi5 yesterday - cos my girlfriend and I didn't want to go. They had a blast. Phil says Hannah was a bit overwhelmed at first (it has been a while since she has been to a concert) but then settled quickly. I asked if she and her friend did much dancing (cos they did heaps at the Wiggles last year) but he said mostly they sat transfixed by it all. tHere had been some gags about the dads popping into the pub before the show for a beer and one of them (not Phil!lol) ogling the young blondes in the band but in the end it seems no beer was drunk and the only ogling was Hannah announcing loudly that Tim was "My boyfriend'. She was obviously very tired from all the excitement though. She also brought home a heap of Hi5 paraphenalia some of which will be going up on the walls of the twins' newly clean room.

Friends

I sent an email to the partygirl's mum - just thanking her for a great afternoon. I mentioned how great it was to just drop Hannah off and not have to let the staff etc know that she had Down Syndrome - for the first time! Here is her reply:

Thank you so much for your beautiful email Shelley. Since the start of
Kindergarten Axxx has always said that Hannah is her best friend.

Just between you and I, when Axxxx was putting together her party bags
she made sure to gave Hannah and Kit the best gifts. If you still have the
silver boxes, you will see the no. 2 and no. 3 sticker underneath, the no.
1 sticker went to Axxx (of course) for her own party bag. As for
everybody else it was random.

How sweet is that? Axxx Mum is lovely too... I am sure it helps cos the parents of Hannah's friends really support their children in including Hannah in their lives.

Hannah's family - and her glasses

After the visit to the opthamologist last week I called in at the shops. Hannah really didn't want to go but I had to get a couple of things. We were at a toy shop looking for a gift to take to the Fairy party when Hannah spied the DOrothy the dinosaur costume. She wanted it. I gave in - and then of course she wanted to wear it right away. 'Now Mummy' so we got the the car and given the synthetic material and her long sleeve top and the heat I took her glasses off, placed them on the roof and took her top off before helping her to put the costume on. Then I drove off to get Kit from his friend's house. I was just about to pull up outside the local butcher to grab something for dinner - wut to no avail. Then I looked around and saw that Hannah did not have her glasses on and then I remembered. Well the air turned blue and round we went back to retrace our steps from the shopping centre car park. No luck. I was buggered. You wouldn't think that waiting around all day at the eye doctor would do that but Hannah and I were both tired. And I was stressed - those glasses aren't cheap. I got the specsrus from the US that are meant to be designed with the facial shapes of down syndrome in mind. Other parents swore by them and we had found them to be great too.

I got home and rang all the optomertirists in the centre as well as centre management but to no avail. Specsavers were the most helpful taking my details and promising to ring if anyone did hand them in.

The next day I was driving to work and realised half way there that I still had the kids spare car seats in the back as well as their change of clothes for after school soccer training and dance - which I was meant to drop off at my inlaws in the morning. Yet another crap day I figured. Lucky for me my HOD generously offered to take one of my classes so I wouldn't have to rush so much to take the seats to the twin's grandparents. That night when I got home I saw that Hannah wasn't wearing the spare pair of glasses that i had sent her to school in. She had lost them at school - so then we had no glasses left for her.

She is so good about wearing them so I am guessing it was related tot he fact that I had lost a pair yesterday...Her teacher had written me a note to say that they had gone missing int eh infants classroom and that they hadn't been able to find them but would look again the next day. Phil and I both nagged the little brat so that when we asked what she was going to bring home from school the next day she'd say 'my glasses'. And bring them home she did. When I asked her if her teacher had found them she said no 'all my friends'. In fact the little girl we drove to the fairy party on the weekend told us she had found them buried under a tree. She said that Hannah hadn't done that. Still I took the little brat to specsavers and got her 2 for the price of 1 new glasses - just to be sure. {Edited to add: Today another mother spoke to me about the glasses - her son told her that another little boy D was responsible for burying Hannah's glasses. Now I know this little boy and he has a bit of a rep for being 'lightfingered' shall we say? Anyway I felt bad cos I blamed Hannah when it clearly was not all her fault. The teacher hasn't mentioned anything beyond that they were found. I might have a word to her - only because I don't want her to think of it as being Hannah's fault in losing them...she probably knows already with kids being kids - if they told their parents one of them probably told the teacher}

At the year 1 mum's lunch I was chatting to the mother of one of Hannah's friends. Kit and I talk about being on Hannah's team. Well this Mum said her son and another little girl talk about who in their school is part of Hannah's family. The same principle I gather as Hannah's team. This mum also said that her son reports one little boy being quite mean to Hannah. She didn't name names but did say that she had given her son permission to 'push back' if he came picking on Hannah again. There is a part of me that is unhappy that someone is being mean to her - they are such a great bunch of kids and so supportive of Hannah that you'd have to be crazy to do it really - but there is another part of me that is so proud of her friends because I know they would stick up for her, and of Hannah too because I think she has some good protective behaviours to help her manage the small stuff. I will ask my friend again next term if her son reports anymore incidents.

Fairies and Parties and Living Easy

I love this photo of Kit. He looks more like an angel than a space ranger!
Hannah loves craft. She is always making 'presents' for me or her father. Yesterday I was chatting to one of her friends from school. Claudia tells me that she sometimes helps Hannah make a cake on her ipad (cakedoodle) but that Hannah says they have to wait for me [so I am assuming it is a birthday cake for Mummy]. It sounds like after a bit the girls are allowed to 'eat' the cake regardless.
Sleeping twins
Hannah is really enjoying Dancing Hearts - her dance class for children with special needs. I can't go unfortunately but am lucky that her teacher is a mum at the twins school so I check in that way. For some children she prefers their parent or a volunteer to help out but luckily for me and Hannah Hannah is pretty self sufficient and needs little 'extra' support in this way. Lucky for us because I would hate for her to miss out on this opportunity. She goes to a regular dance school on Saturday but I can't see it lasting her that long - she won't be able to do what they want kids her age to do in a year or so at most. So this little class run by the goodwill of people like Hannah's teacher is very much appreciated. I am hoping it will allow her to pursue her passions and have a fun activity for years to come.
We took Hannah and Kit over the bridge to the more posh side of town for a Fairyland party yesterday. They and all the other kids there had a blast. In fact Kit told me when we got home that he'd like a Fairyland party for Hannah and his birthday this year. It is a place with rules that runs on a schedule. They start in the fairy garden where parents and photoes are allowed and then go upstairs to a fairy room for party games etc where parents and photoes are not allowed. Do you know how nice it was to just leave the twins (and one of their friends that we took with us)? I knew that Hannah would be fine. She would and could follow the other kids and enjoy herself - I didn't even do the 'she has DS, call me if you need to' talk. I am not sure if the party girl's Mum had or not - what I do know is that no 'extra' help was needed, beyond what you would do for any child to make them feel comfortable and part of the event. Lovely!
In the fairy garden
Hannah with her balloon puppy.
Only one week until the school holidays...when we'll be living it easy...