The big hip surgery for Jack

The 3rd May saw us finally come to the day we'd been expecting for a few years now.  Jack had bilateral hip osteotomies where the surgeon cut the top of the femoral head, rotated it to sit in the hip sockets at the right angle, then joined the bone back together with metal brace.  His hips were dislocated prior to this surgery so there was no avoiding it.  Here he is with his Dad, early that morning - as much as I tried to explain to him what was going to happen, I knew he had no comprehension of the surgery which I guess is pretty normal for a 5 year old. 

And here he is, just before they took him in for the surgery - even gave the surgeon a hi 5!

And sleeping like a baby, post surgery the day after.  This is with the help of some serious drugs including a pretty lousy epidural!!

And of course the bad times, there was plenty of this which was extremely frustrating for me as I felt so helpless - not even being able to cuddle him.

But by day 4, he was finally able to get out of bed and here we are having our first family cuddle.  Short and sweet but lovely nonetheless. 

And here is his most excited visitor. Lucy was so pleased to see him as she really adores her big brother, and I think he was just as pleased to see her.

And one of my least favourite Mother's Days - spent in the hospital but at least it was with my little family! 

And our brave little champion, even managed to find a smile before we left.  It must have been incredibly painful but he is just an amazing kid.  Even asked me on the Saturday with his book, 'when is Jack going back to kinder?'. 

And lastly, here is the finished product.  He has 2 great big dirty scars on either hip which have healed quite nicely but a constant reminder of this time.  We seriously have the best doctors looking after us at the Royal Childrens Hospital and his surgeon, Abhay Khot, did a wonderful job and is a lovely guy.  I couldn't help but hug him for taking such good care of our boy. 

Jack's 5th Birthday..

Unfortunately Jack's 5th birthday was spent in the Angliss Hospital.  We had such a lovely day planned with kinder friends and family all coming on Puffing Billy with us only for Jack to have one of his whopping big seizures that lasted for an hour!  This obviously resulted in a ride by ambulance to the hospital and he slept the day away recovering from it all.  The doctors were even keen for him to spend the night in there but as Craig and I have experienced this too many times before, we know our boy and a good nights sleep in his own bed was all he needed.  He didn't even get to open his presents which was pretty devastating, even though he didn't really seem to understand what had happened.  Anyway, a morning tea at Judy's house the next day with a few presents to open slightly made up for it!!  Here's hoping that never happens again on another birthday (or at all would be even better!!!).

Nan's 70th Birthday

This April brought about Craig's mum's 70th Birthday and we offered to make the cake as we did for her 60th Birthday when Craig and I first got together.  In fact the exact same cake only I'm a little better at baking then I was 10 years ago!  Anyway, it was a team effort and Jack and Lucy were happy to help with licking the bowl!       

And the finished product was a success, thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and not a crumb left!!  We had a lovely day to celebrate the birthday of a lovely lady. 

Easter in Yarrawonga

Every Easter, the Mullan family pack up our campervan and head off to Yarrawonga for a camping trip with the best bunch of people going around! It all started when Craig started going up with Simon's family and friends who started the tradition when Sime was just a little tacker. Now our family joins the Newnhams and friends to make it our tradition as well. It is basically 'kid heaven' as the kids all play together all day, every day and the weather is always perfect! This year we ventured off to the local mini golf and fun park where Jack & Lucy had a go at mini golf and Lucy tried her hand at the dodgem cars with her Dad.

It also involves a bit of creative thinking on the bathing front so here's Jack squashed into an esky for a bath!! As did Lucy, in front of the fire .... life is good! And some how, the Easter bunny is always clever enough to find us when we're camping! Here's the gang of kids that get to hang out and play together every day as well take part in the Easter Egg hunt ...Lucy with her find...And a very proud Jack with his! Yet another successful and enjoyable Easter holiday!

Jazmyn turns 18!!

The end of March also saw Jazmyn turn 18, which also makes me feel terribly old!! (especially being at the party, no carving up the dance floor with the best of them anymore!)

Also a good chance to get some photo's of the family - here I am with Robyn, Dad, and Judy.

And 2 cousins who just love each other!! They're the same age apart as Jaz and I are.
We love you Jazzie!!

The amazing hail storm!

I'm very behind in my posts (obviously!) but back in March, we had a horrendous hail storm that was the most amazing storm I've seen ... maybe ever?! These hail stones I collected from out the front door about 3 hours after the storm, and still, look at the size of them?! My poor Outback car got written off from all the damage it suffered and our campervan roof now looks like the surface of a golfball!

Fun at kinder

Jack and Lucy are having a wonderful time at their kinder, Len Jeffrey Memorial Preschool here in Belgrave South and have both absolutely loved their time there with no problems at all being away from Mum! Here are some recent photo's from the Easter morning tea which the Mum's were invited to attend, which brought about some good photo opportunities! Here's Jack with his partner in crime and best friend, James. Such a lovely, lovely kid this one and he just adores Jack!
Fun in the playground

Here's Jack with his aide Susan and friends, Ryan and James. They all seem to have a great time together. There's no doubt we've found ourselves at a pretty special kinder with some incredible teachers - these guys are amazing with our boy!!

There's no doubt there's a mutual adoration of each other, Jack is now blowing kisses and of course has to blow Belinda, Coral and Susan kisses when he arrives and goes home and has now adopted the new nick name of Mr Kissy Lips! There's been several times when he's asked me with his book if he's going to kinder which is very very exciting. For such a daunting idea, kinder has been just sensational!

Nothing to put a smile on your face like....

... a new dress and a bit of face paint!!

A bit scary how quick this little girl is growing up actually...

Run for the Kids 2010

A very late post here seeing as Run for the Kids was back in March but better late than never! This year we had a new recruit with the veteran team member Sam Couper bringing along her friend Kerri. Lucy and Jack also had their very own numbers for the first time this year and all of us did the 14.38 kms. Here's the gang on the beautiful sunny Melbourne morning. And we had the Team Jack picture on our backs as we did last year.
I pushed Lucy in her pram with some excellent tag teaming on the pushing from Sam and Kerri - thank goodness!! What was I thinking doing 14kms!!! But occasionally, Lucy decided to do a little running herself. See action shot below.
Kerri, Sam and I at the start line - feeling very nervous at this stage, can I even make the distance?!

Craig, Lucy and Jack at the start line, Jack did not really enjoy having to wait for the race to get underway but generally enjoyed the run. Craig has been doing lots of training and was looking forward to a good race.

And Miss Lucy on the train, very excited to be in Team Jack however is wondering when is there going to be Team Lucy???

Was a great day, in case you were wondering I did make the distance - in a very long 2 hours and 22 mins ... not too bad for someone who didn't do one training session I guess!! Craig didn't do quite the time he was hoping to but a fantastic effort seeing as I now have a new appreciation for how hard it is to run pushing a pram!!! And he didn't have anyone to give him a rest like I did!Looking forward to next year as it's always a fun day and something very close to our hearts with the Royal Childrens Hospital being a regular haunt for this little family.

TWO BIG KINDER KIDS!!!!

We've been very excited in our house this year as we now have Jack and Lucy attending the Len Jeffrey Memorial Pre School here in Belgrave South. Lucy is going to 3 year old kinder once a week and Jack is going to 4 year old kinder three times a week, for four hours at a time. He has the most wonderful kinder teacher Belinda and her assistant Coral (which is my mum's name ... seriously, where else do you find a Belinda and Coral?!). Jack has settled in incredibly well and really loves kinder. He's made lots of friends and the kids are very accepting of Jack, once they got all their tricky questions out the way. Originally I was sitting in on the sessions too but they're now doing so well that I can drop him off and pick him up, just like all the other kids. We have an aide called Susan who is looking after him until we find someone permanent to do the 3 days a week. Jack told me that he didn't want me to come to kinder ... cramping his style maybe?! Lucy is lucky enough to be able to sit in on his sessions as well if I have to stay so she has also been excelling at 4 year old kinder! This photo is their first day.And of course, poor Jack finds kinder just exhausting!! Wait til CPEC starts back, we'll have kinder Monday, Wednesday and Friday's and CPEC on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Think I'll be right next to him after our first week!

School holiday fun!

Jack & his cousin David sure love hanging out together so after a suggestion from David that we could go swimming one day, we met at Knox Leisure Works for some fun in the water. These 2 are great mates and David is very good at making Jack laugh!!
And here is Miss Lucy is her very precious 'Little Mermaid' swimsuit she got from her Grandma Sue from Utah. She just loves these and looks as cute as a button!! Looking forward to doing it again some time soon David!

Lucy turns big 3!!

We simply cannot believe it but our little tiny baby turned 3 on the 20th January. She was so excited about her birthday coming and so were we. Here is she is going to see her big present outside with Dad telling her to 'close your eyes Lucy!'

And here is the surprise ... a new swing set that well and truly put Daddy's handyman skills to the test! After a late night and an early start, he got it ready just in a nick of time.Mummy got busy in the kitchen making Lucy her butterfly cake for the day ahead. Lucy wanted to help with the final decorating.And here is the birthday fairy, ready to blow out the candles. Was a great day with lots of fun and we sure loved spoiling our girl!!