November is a very special month in our house. It is Grace's birthday (she turned 6 on the 14th ) and it is also the month that we received our referral for Daniel (almost three years ago now. Where does the time go???). Granda Hayes also celebrates his birthday in November. Grace loves that they have the same birthday month.
Anyway, we had been home a few months with Grace when Mike said to me "she brings colour to my life" I thought it was quite a beautiful thing to say about our precious girl and I knew exactly what he meant. Looking back on life before Grace and Daniel is like black and white and colour only really came in when they arrived. I'm not trying to be melodramtic and say my life before them was all misery. It certinly wasn't. I've experienced many wonderful things - the Heiniken cup final in May 2006 springs immediately to mind:), but all of the previous joys in my life are nothing compared to the gift of these two children. I'm so conscious that others - including Grace & Daniel, have suffered terrible loss and how much I have benifited from that loss. I like to think that God saw two sad situations - Mike and I unable to have children and Grace and Daniel's parents unable to raise them, and decided in his wisom that we would all be a good fit for each other.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Head banging
Grace and Daniel have both ended up with split foreheads this year - not at the same time, as if that makes it any better.
Daniel fell first. We were in the park on Jan 2nd and I was talking to a girl I knew about how he makes my heart go cross ways when I see him on the slide. He was climbing the steps for the slide as I spoke and managed to tumble off the bottom step and hit his head on the corner of the step. I'm not sure whether he or I was more hysterical. We went to the car and I cleaned the blood from the half inch long wound to see how bad it was. I rang Elayne to say I was on my way (where else would you go except to your sister, in a crisis???) Anyway the bleeding stopped fairly rapidly. He didn't lose consciousness or seem drowsy so I didn't take him to the hospital. I should have, but I was in shock. He was fine, thank God and only has a small scar to show for his troubles. We are rubbing bio oil on it to make it fade as much as possible.
Grace fell on April 7th at creche. She was running, slipped and banged her hear off the corner of a door. One of the minders rang me and said she had a small accident and they were taking her to a doctor in the same complex as the creche. I could hear her screaming in the backround. I shouted to my boss that I had to leave and then raced out the door. I don't know how I obeyed the rules of the road. When I got to the doctors Grace was outside with the lady from creche. the doctor said Grace's wound was too deep for him to stitch so I took her to St John's hospital. She ended up getting an inch long gash in her forehead glued and then held with paper stitches. She was frighted but very brave. She's getting the bio oil treatment now too, so hopefully it will work as well for her as it did for Daniel. Thank God this is the worst accident that either of them has had, and hopefully this will be the worst that happens to them. I don't think my heart could take it.
Daniel fell first. We were in the park on Jan 2nd and I was talking to a girl I knew about how he makes my heart go cross ways when I see him on the slide. He was climbing the steps for the slide as I spoke and managed to tumble off the bottom step and hit his head on the corner of the step. I'm not sure whether he or I was more hysterical. We went to the car and I cleaned the blood from the half inch long wound to see how bad it was. I rang Elayne to say I was on my way (where else would you go except to your sister, in a crisis???) Anyway the bleeding stopped fairly rapidly. He didn't lose consciousness or seem drowsy so I didn't take him to the hospital. I should have, but I was in shock. He was fine, thank God and only has a small scar to show for his troubles. We are rubbing bio oil on it to make it fade as much as possible.
Grace fell on April 7th at creche. She was running, slipped and banged her hear off the corner of a door. One of the minders rang me and said she had a small accident and they were taking her to a doctor in the same complex as the creche. I could hear her screaming in the backround. I shouted to my boss that I had to leave and then raced out the door. I don't know how I obeyed the rules of the road. When I got to the doctors Grace was outside with the lady from creche. the doctor said Grace's wound was too deep for him to stitch so I took her to St John's hospital. She ended up getting an inch long gash in her forehead glued and then held with paper stitches. She was frighted but very brave. She's getting the bio oil treatment now too, so hopefully it will work as well for her as it did for Daniel. Thank God this is the worst accident that either of them has had, and hopefully this will be the worst that happens to them. I don't think my heart could take it.
Florida March 2011
We went to Florida on March 17th. You have never seen two more excited kids. We held off on telling them until the end of January, and we only told them then because Mike couldn't wait any longer. He then spent the next few weeks showing them clips of Disney and Shamoo at Sea world. He also taught Daniel to bob his up and down like Shamoo does. Seriously cute.
We flew from Dublin with Geraldine, Neilus, Neil & Mags. David, Rebecca, Eve and Fiona met us in Orlando airport. It was our first time meeting the beautiful Princess Fiona, who was born the previous October. We rented a fabulous five bed roomed house in Kissimmee, just one mile away from Disney. It had its own pool and all the kids spent many happy hours there. A little lizard used to sleep beside the pool. Daniel would send ages watching him. Both he and Grace loved getting to spend time with Eve and Fiona. Daniel calls Fiona "Fuowna"
We went to Disney World on Monday 21st. When we went in Grace saw Snow White - who's her favorite, and said "oh Mommy, she's a real girl living in a real place." That set the rest of the day up nicely. Mike did have to tell me though that I couldn't keep crying everytime the kids expressed delight over something or I would dehydrate myself. I couldn't help welling up though. Anyway, he's the sucker who insisted they needed matching (expensive) Mickey and Minnie hats. Grace & Daniel had their picture taken with Daisy Duck and then we headed down to Cinderella's castle to see all the MickeyMouse clubhouse gang perform. We saw Mickey's orchestra in 3 D. It was so funny watching Grace trying to bat the flying instruments away. We went on loads of rides like the carousel the tea cups. We danced in the parade with the Toy story guys much to Daniels delight. It really was a fabulous day.
We also went to Sea World. The gardens there are beautiful. So many flowers. I think this was Mike's favorite day, as he loved seeing the whales and dolphins close up. After all the kids previous excitement about seeing Shamoo they weren't really bothered by it. They did love the huge climbing frames and sand boxes.
The other park we went to was Busche Gardens. This was my favorite. I liked everything about it, from the animals, to the gardens, to the rides, to the you get the picture. There were stilt walkers dressed as plants and insects. One pretended to bite Grace's head off, which she thought was so funny. We went around the park on a train. Grace and Daniel got to see Big Bird. Grace got her picture taken but Daniel wouldn't go near him. There was a couple of areas where the kids could splash around which they also loved, but apparently the best bit was when they got to stand in the splash area for one of the adult rides and get soaked as the people whizzed by. It really was a brilliant holiday. We will have to win the lotto before we can go again though :-)
We flew from Dublin with Geraldine, Neilus, Neil & Mags. David, Rebecca, Eve and Fiona met us in Orlando airport. It was our first time meeting the beautiful Princess Fiona, who was born the previous October. We rented a fabulous five bed roomed house in Kissimmee, just one mile away from Disney. It had its own pool and all the kids spent many happy hours there. A little lizard used to sleep beside the pool. Daniel would send ages watching him. Both he and Grace loved getting to spend time with Eve and Fiona. Daniel calls Fiona "Fuowna"
We went to Disney World on Monday 21st. When we went in Grace saw Snow White - who's her favorite, and said "oh Mommy, she's a real girl living in a real place." That set the rest of the day up nicely. Mike did have to tell me though that I couldn't keep crying everytime the kids expressed delight over something or I would dehydrate myself. I couldn't help welling up though. Anyway, he's the sucker who insisted they needed matching (expensive) Mickey and Minnie hats. Grace & Daniel had their picture taken with Daisy Duck and then we headed down to Cinderella's castle to see all the MickeyMouse clubhouse gang perform. We saw Mickey's orchestra in 3 D. It was so funny watching Grace trying to bat the flying instruments away. We went on loads of rides like the carousel the tea cups. We danced in the parade with the Toy story guys much to Daniels delight. It really was a fabulous day.
We also went to Sea World. The gardens there are beautiful. So many flowers. I think this was Mike's favorite day, as he loved seeing the whales and dolphins close up. After all the kids previous excitement about seeing Shamoo they weren't really bothered by it. They did love the huge climbing frames and sand boxes.
The other park we went to was Busche Gardens. This was my favorite. I liked everything about it, from the animals, to the gardens, to the rides, to the you get the picture. There were stilt walkers dressed as plants and insects. One pretended to bite Grace's head off, which she thought was so funny. We went around the park on a train. Grace and Daniel got to see Big Bird. Grace got her picture taken but Daniel wouldn't go near him. There was a couple of areas where the kids could splash around which they also loved, but apparently the best bit was when they got to stand in the splash area for one of the adult rides and get soaked as the people whizzed by. It really was a brilliant holiday. We will have to win the lotto before we can go again though :-)
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
CNY & Tet
This is the Chinese year of the Rabbit and the Vietnamese year of the Cat. We celebrated in Cork this year. We stayed two nights in the Silver Springs hotel for the IGGC CNY event. We met up with Gennie, Kai, Sonia and Dave so the kids were in their element. On the Saturday morning myself, Grace, Sonia and Gennie went to the life book workshop. It was a really lovely expereince to work with Grace on her book. She is so proud of it.
At the afternoon celebrations Grace and Gennie had their face's painted and Daniel and Kai had to be prized away from the rabbit hutch. The girls also spent hours at the arts and crafts stand. They glittered and glued and coloured to their hears content.
We sat at a table with another family for the meal. They have two little girls from China. Strangly, Gennie had a nose bleed at the meal, as did one of girls from the other family and then Grace had one later that night. There was dancing after the meal. Grace danced the legs off herself. She knows some seriously freaky dance moves:)
The following morning, after saying our goodbyes, we headed to the beach in Cobh. It was cold, but the sun was shining so we had a nice walk there before heading home again.
At the afternoon celebrations Grace and Gennie had their face's painted and Daniel and Kai had to be prized away from the rabbit hutch. The girls also spent hours at the arts and crafts stand. They glittered and glued and coloured to their hears content.
We sat at a table with another family for the meal. They have two little girls from China. Strangly, Gennie had a nose bleed at the meal, as did one of girls from the other family and then Grace had one later that night. There was dancing after the meal. Grace danced the legs off herself. She knows some seriously freaky dance moves:)
The following morning, after saying our goodbyes, we headed to the beach in Cobh. It was cold, but the sun was shining so we had a nice walk there before heading home again.
Christmas 2010
I say it everytime, but I really can't believe that it is 5 months since I last posted. Chirstmas has been and gone and now it is almost Easter. We had a great Christmas. Grace and Daniel were so excited. Everytime Daniel passed someone with a red hat or beard he shouted "it's Santa" after them. Baby Jesus was also a big feature of our preperations. Grace had Daniel singing all the Carols she knows. They sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus on Christmas morning which was really cute. . They both got so many presents as usual. Daniel got a ride on car and lots of Mickey Mouse toys like the club house and the campervan. He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse. Grace got a new bike, tatoo gun (I know), loads of make and do bits and pieces and a make up set. She is quite a girly girl, but I also suspect she will be tatooed from her head to her toes when she is bigger. We bought a Wii as well. Grace and Daniel killed each other to get a turn on it. We gave Daniel a controller that wasn't plugged into the console and he was as happy as Larry thinking he was playing the game.
We had dinner in our house with Pam, Sophie and Jake, Mam, Sarah, Stephen and Jonathan and then did the visiting rounds. We finally got them to bed at around 11:30PM. A brilliant day, all round.
We had dinner in our house with Pam, Sophie and Jake, Mam, Sarah, Stephen and Jonathan and then did the visiting rounds. We finally got them to bed at around 11:30PM. A brilliant day, all round.
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