AUCKLAND

For Oscar's birthday he wanted to go on an aeroplane and decided the destination was to be Christchurch. Unbeknown to Oscar I had booked us flights to Auckland and we suprised him last Friday. At this point he thought we were off to Christchurch still until he read his ticket!
Oscar is aviation mad, particularly big planes so being at the airport seeing the planes close up was so exciting for him.
Getting on the plane and taking off was way more exciting though!
The weekend consisted of a fire alarm at 1.30 in the morning, going to hotel pool four times, visiting the zoo, Motat to see all the planes, and going up Sky Tower. .and a trip to Smiggle!
The highlight for me was seeing Oscar having so much fun in the pool. It's a rather extravagant birthday present but for us it was more than that. Providing Oscar with lots of fun opportunities to try and make up for lost years is so important for us. The smile on his face was worth every cent.

He came back exhausted and ended up having Monday off and Tuesday because he had vomiting and diarrhea. My guess it was something he had eaten as his symptoms were consistent with all the other times of him being unwell through something he's eaten. Then to top it off another round of Impetigo. This time I used Manuka Paint and it's done a great job of healing it. Not sure why I didn't think to use that previous times!

Looking forward to lots more fun adventures with all of our wee men.

SLEEPOVERS

The boys have never had sleepovers before - away from home or at home. This has been attempted many times but it would always end up with Oscar getting itchy and ending up in our bed.
On Saturday Oscar asked if he could sleep in Charlie's room so I made a bed up for him and they had their first ever sleepover. It was so lovely listening to them chatting and giggling away before falling asleep. They even made a plate of cherry tomatoes and carrots for a midnight snack!
Once they fell asleep Andrew and I watched them at the door taking in yet another first.  Of course I had a few tears! It's overwhelming seeing the boys enjoy these special moments.

This week Oscar has been having swimming practice in the bath!  He's confidently putting his head in and under the water and is also blowing bubbles.
Yesterday Charlie and Oscar had a bath together and Oscar taught Charlie how to put his head under water.
Andrew and I always said our children would have swimming lessons at an early age and be water confident - hasn't turned out quite how we thought!
Oscar got a birthday invite this week but it's at the swimming pool to go hydro-sliding.
Obviously with Oscar not being able to swim he won't be able to go. Thankfully he seems ok with this but it's sad that he has to miss out due to no fault of his own. Initially we hoped Andrew could go so that he could be in the water with Oscar but it's not going to work with the timing.

Harry's had an itchy week this week and completely all my fault. Oscar has been having a couple of teaspoons of yoghurt a week and so far so good. Harry on the other hand got wind of this so I caved and gave him some too. He's been itchy all over, particularly on his thighs and bum. It was a pretty decent reaction so It scares me to think how bad it would have been if he wasn't on the immunos! He ended up sleeping with me one night as he was so uncomfortable. He kept saying "Itchy itchy, ouch it hurts". So angry at myself for giving him yoghurt... it will be quite some time before we do that again!

Swimming in a pool again... after almost 7 years

Well after almost seven years of not being able to get into a swimming pool due to the risk and challenges presented by chlorinated water, Oscar and I headed to the pool for some fun while we were in Dunedin. Moana Pool is a place that Oscar had only been to once when he was about 1 year old and since that visit only a couple of swims to another pool around the same time. This means he has had an almost seven year absence from pool swimming and learning to swim and become water safe/smart.

It was a really quite emotional time taking him along to the pool. The buzz of him being able to go to the pool was fantastic and in the same experience the excitement and anticipation form Oscar was pretty special. Oscar didn’t have any memory or previous experience to draw on of what a pool was like, asking questions to get in his mind what the experience would involve. He asked if we have to make a booking and where do we pay and where do we go after we pay! Once we were at the pool it was great to see such excitement on Oscar's face, enjoying the pool and cautiously splashing around before we got onto the Hydro slide and had some fun riding down the water slide together. I felt pretty stoked that we were finally able to share these experiences together after such a void of swimming for him. He had so much fun and was absolutely buzzing and his most powerful quote to me was saying “This is like dreamland” Almost a tear to the eye and a jerk on the emotional strings seeing our little man enjoying such an experience.

After this swim it was a good wash down of all the pool water and some moisturiser to keep his skin hydrated and wait and see that there was no reactions….. There wasn’t, his skin is looking so good at the moment.

So after the time at the pool and all the excited sharing of the experience it was back there again for another swim the next day! Oscar had so much fun it was such a buzz to see him enjoying the water and having this fun experience he has missed out on for so long.

It really is a great milestone to now be able to look at getting him water smart and into some swimming in a pool in the near future.

I feel proud of his achievement getting in the water and look forward to seeing him share many more water experiences with us all as a family in the future, next for the water testing out is Harry in the near future all going well...

Our trip to Dunedin was also aligned with an appointment with the specialist at the hospital who has his scheduled appointment check ups with Oscar. He had a medical student working alongside him and described Oscar to his student as one of his longer standing patients who had come through a long line of severe skin challenges. The appointment was the usual messages of prescribed care and treatment but more so focusing on his now ‘almost perfect’ skin. Oscar was told at this appointment that we did not need to come back as he was now all better and on track to living a well managed itch free time ahead with his skin, providing we kept things all in line with what in the past has sent him into the itching and red skin problems. So all up a really positive trip to Dunedin for Oscar. Harry at this stage will still remain on  the immunosuppressive treatment but is really making solid progress towards perfect skin also.

We are so happy for our little men finally feeling a lot better and Charlie is now enjoying more time playing with them as opposed to what used to be time spent waiting for them to feel less itchy and ready to play.

written by - Dad-Andrew :)