A long awaited haircut

Joseph loves to have long hair. He is not at all a fan of short hair and as a mum, I get that, I understand and I am fine with that, as long as he looks after it.

He was not. His hair was not being washed nearly often enough. He was twirling pieces around his fingers (you can see in the pic the piece he was twirling haha) and he was certainly not brushing it! So today was haircut time.

As you can see, this is going to be much cooler (which was actually his first comment, oh my goodness mum! I didn't realise how hot it was having all that hair haha) easier to look after, and not in his eyes.

He certainly looks handsome with a nice fresh cut. Maybe we can try again with the long hair once he's ready to look after it. 

Joseph got glasses!

I am dying. Joseph got glasses this week and they are sooooo bloody adorable. I can't even deal. 

He has had a slightly lazy eye for quite some time, visible particularly when he was tired or distracted. I shrugged it off as it wasn't an "all the time" thing, but when I took some photos of him recently and it was noticeable yet again, I thought I had better do something about it and made him an appointment at the local optometrist. They were awesome and I am really glad I followed my mum intuition and looked into it.

He does indeed have a lazy eye, his left, and his right eye had just been doing everything. His eyes were working perfectly well, he had great eyesight, out of one eye. When they tested them singularly, all he could see from his left was a big old blur. He needs to wear his glasses full time for three month at which time they will reassess to see what kind of difference the glasses are making - and we made need to patch his good eye to allow the other one to be strengthened and catch up over a period of time. That's great news, totally fixable, no long term issues.

The hardest part was finding a pair of glasses that fit his face. He doesn't have a kid sized face, so none of the kids ones were working for him - there was some tween ones, but there was only two that actually fitted his face and both of them were a bit meh - and were $149 and $199. Eek. We had resigned ourselves that we were just going to have to go with something that was average, until Doug found these "slim fit" adult ones in their "affordable" section for $39 - that included the lenses!!! I couldn't even believe it! PLUS, they looked absolutely adorable on him. Perfection!

He asked every single day after they were ordered how long it would be until they arrived - and when they did, he was thrilled to pieces. He LOVES them and doesn't even want to take them off. Talk about winning! Thank you Aunty Dom for being his favourite human and being a glasses wearer. Made my life so damn easy. ❤

Joseph's twos-day party

This year there was a really cool day in the calendar. Twos-day. 22/2/2022 which fell on a Tuesday, so it was affectionally dubbed TWOS-day all over the internet. Joseph's birthday is on the 20th, so he decided that Twosday was 100% his and he was having his birthday party that day.

We had the party after school and knowing it was going to be hot, we organised with the parents to send some extra clothes and started the afternoon with a big waterfight. I spent the last half an hour before everyone arrived filling water balloons so they could go wild.

They had the best time! There was so much laughter and squealing in the street while they had their waterfight and funnily enough, Maddie ended up being the one who copped it as all Joseph's friends ganged up on her and soaked her, then grabbed the buckets and tipped the rest of the water on her too.

The best was yet to come though, as we headed inside once they dried off and came inside - we had hired Joseph a mini claw machine! When it got dropped off, he nearly died with excitement and I'm pretty sure it was the absolute highlight of his life. My friend's boyfriend owns three of them and hires them out for parties and events and oh my goodness was it a hit. The kids spent all afternoon playing it and refilling it over and over until it was time for pizza and cake.

Joseph has been on about wanting the duck cake from Bluey for months since he saw the episode where Bandit makes it for Bingo, so he insisted he needed it for his party. So, I made it happen and his face was so worth it. I have never seen him happier in his life than when he walked in the door and the duck cake was made and waiting on the kitchen table. Life, made.

Made every single second that went into it, worth it.

Joseph declared that this was by far the greatest day in his entire life and did not stop smiling once. I feel like we absolutely nailed this party. He and his mates had a ball. ❤

 

Joseph's baptism

We had the most beautiful day yesterday being a part of Joseph's special day as he was baptised a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by his father. In our religion, children are baptised at age eight, allowing them to be old enough to make that decision for themselves and know what is expected of them. It's one of the things I love the most about our church! 

Our normally shy and out of the way child was very smiley and excited to be baptised which was lovely for us as parents. Look at that face!

I love him when he smiles. Melts my heart.

I found a way for Grandma and Poppy to share the day with us and I'm so glad I did. They were watching today, I am certain of it.

Everything went beautifully, with lovely talks from family members and a beautiful blessing from his father as he confirmed him a member of the church with assistance from his Grandad Neil and Uncle Jared.

Aunty Jenny made us these gorgeous CTR cookies in Joseph's favourite colour, bright orange! They were a big hit, especially with our few close friends who aren't members of our church that Joseph had invited to come along. It was lovely having them share the day with us.

We had a little afternoon tea in the hall and although a lot of people we had invited weren't able to make it, it was lovely just having all our nearest and dearest. This wall of photos I set up was a huge hit. So cheap, but really effective... everyone loved seeing the pics of him through the years, there were so many adorable shots to look at.

Joseph says his favourite part of the day was the "pizza cake" I made. I wanted to make it extra fun for him, so had a last minute of adding gummy pizza slices to the top of each rosette. He loved it and I was so glad I had done it. 

I mean, look at that face!

I also love this pic of Alex eagerly looking on, waiting to get into it.

Which they all did, the minute it was cut. Joseph loved the inside too, it was so fun!

Joseph told me he had the "best" day and was all smiles. I'm so glad it was a good day for him and something he will always remember.

I was also super stoked to get this sneaky shot sent to me from my neighbour who came to Joseph's baptism. She said to me, I don't know if you're allowed to take photos in your church but I took this anyway because I thought it was so special that you'd want to remember it. You're not allowed, but that kind out went out the window with covid now that we are constantly having to facetime people in for events like this. I absolutely love this shot and will cherish it. ❤

Joseph turns 8!

Joseph turned 8 today! I can't believe he made it to 8 and I haven't killed him yet. Baha. 

He was so stoked with all his gifts and I was too... I did so well, he got a brand new in the packet sloth oodie that I found on marketplace for a fraction of the new price - $50 that Uncle Isaac kindly collected one morning on his way to work at the crack of dawn. 

Rubber ducky socks that I found at Spotlight, when I was buying him a beanbag that was on half price sale as well as using my $10 Spotlight birthday voucher...

He desperately wanted a Mario Lego set that was freaking $150 recommended retail price. I was like holy heck, I'm not paying that - so I got looking for the lowest price I could and found one on marketplace for $75. Woo!

We also found him a $90 Switch backpack brand new in the bag for $40 which was a huge win. So here is some proof that you can get amazing gifts without paying full price for them!

The most special gift was a jade carving from the otara markets that Grandma had bought herself when Madeline was a baby and we went to NZ for Doug's grandparents unveiling. She only wore it once that I can remember and when we cleaned up her house, I found it carefully wrapped in a bag in her bedroom. It was a perfect baptism gift from his grandparents who I am sure will be watching over him today. ❤

The most special part of his birthday of course is that he's going to be baptised today - on his actual birthday which very few people get. We spent last night blowing up balloons to make this beautiful rainbow garland which I barely managed to fit in my car... and we are all excited to go back to church and be a part of his extra special day!

Here we go! ❤

A baptism photo shoot for Joseph

For "the boy who never smiles," we had no problems today. I wanted to get some lovely shots of Joseph for his baptism invitations and set aside some time to make it happen. We got his hair cut nice and neatly to make sure Grandma would have been happy, that was so, so important to her. After I finished work on Wednesday, I took him home for a shower and neatened his hair up, put on some nice church clothes and dropped Madeline at dancing (Alex was at Nannaleahs) so we could go to the temple and get some shots on the grounds.

I was so proud of him. I told him, the sooner you smile and pose nicely, the sooner we can go home. It'll take fifteen minutes if you work with me.

And that is all it took! Done and dusted and on our way home in 15 minutes flat.

I honestly believe it was because none of the other kids were there with us... it was him and I, with all my attention focused on him, just the way he likes it. He is honestly best with one on one situations, so I thought it out ahead and made it happen.

I can't wait to see the invites made up and ready, the shots are great! ❤

 

The boy who never smiles

I have the best Joseph story to tell. It needs to be written down here so that years down the track from now we can look back and have a laugh at how he used to be. (Hopefully how he used to be.)

Last week, I listed some old school dresses of Madeline's for sale on the local secondhand uniform page. I rather promptly received a message from a man who said he would come by later than day to collect them. He turned up with a sweet little girl who gave me a little smile and waved hello. I assumed she recognised me from the canteen and I was right, "I know you! You work at the canteen!" I smiled back and said hello and then asked her what year she would be in this year and she said 3. I then said, "Oh my son is in year 3 this year. Do you know him?" She nodded her head and said, "Yes I know Joseph. He was in my class last year. He's the boy that never smiles." He came and said hello to her and then disappeared again, of course without a smile and I barely managed to keep my laughter in until the door was closed. 

It actually took me a long time to find a few grumpy photos of him, because to be honest, he smiles and laughs a lot! But I know he spends a lot of time with a grumpy face, especially at school when he's in class. He is not always grumpy though, I would say he's just as often serious. People are always telling him to smile, so this cracked all of us up and of course made him grumpier than ever - and I just can't stop laughing!

joseph's stem course

joseph is shy and sometimes painfully so. i try my hardest to get him to involve himself in things, but it's not always easy (or always possible). recently in the school newsletter, they sent home an announcement about a stem (science technology engineering maths) course, focusing on building techniques with bricks. a lego kind of thin, including the technic style, to build bridges, gears, pulleys etc.

considering his love for lego, i thought it was a wonderful opportunity to get him involved in something that didn't have any of us near him. to allow him to grow, to extend his comfort zone and to just be him. be him with no one from the family to hide behind.

he is actually loving it and seeing these updates from the organisers is amazing. i can see he is enjoying himself. well worth the money i'd say!

 

when hide and seek goes wrong

this is what happens when a game of hide and seek goes wrong. you end up in the local emergency department for the long haul, with scheduled surgery for the following day. gah.

it allllll started at the wake after baby willows funeral yesterday. joseph and some of mel and aitu's girls and their cousins were playing a game of hide or something like that (let's be honest, we don't really know) when we were about to leave to go home. in fact, we had even made it to the car and then couldn't find him. maddie went back in to look and then came outside yelling that joseph had hurt himself and i needed to come back in.

oh my gosh. hurt himself he had, his left middle finger had been crushed in a door and had a cut down one side by the nail and the nail had been completely ripped out of the bed and was hanging off the edge like 5mm above where it should have been and there was so. much. blood. it was horrendous. i tried to run it under some water to get a better look but that only made him scream more (not at all surprising, it was a mess!) making it very quickly apparent that this was needing a hospital run and definitely not something we could help with. he was in sooooo much pain and wailed the entire way there. i felt so helpless and just did my best to get him there as fast as we could.

the hospital staff were absolutely incredible. he was seen within minutes and given a pain block needle straight into his finger, which stopped all of the feeling. i really felt for him though as he has quite bad anxiety and the needle didn't help with that. he was screaming and trying to push everyone away, but was so happy when it took hold and he was pain free. his face was hilarious, he held his hand up in the air and was looking at it with amazement like he couldn't believe it. we had x-rays and confirmed that the tip of his finger was broken. he kept saying to me over and over why did this happen to me?! i just did my best as a mum, reminding him he was very lucky to keep is finger - as it could have ended differently and very badly, with him not having a finger!

it was so hard for me as a mum though to watch him. i was so emotional from being at a funeral already and kept crying while we waited and when he got upset. and he was so so upset and couldn't calm down, especially when they needed to give him a second block needle to ensure that the first one wouldn't wear off first. i am certain they heard him through the entire department! the dr actually spoke to me and suggested that i may need to have him assessed formally for anxiety and possible autism. they said his reactions put across that it's a possibility. it was no surprise to me as we have always thought it was a possibility but we have never had him diagnosed as his issues don't actually affect his day to life. he's smart, bright, has a lot of friends (although he does like his own company!) but just needs a little help regulating his emotions sometimes. we will think and pray on it and see what we decide to do. but even knowing someone else can see it is comforting. i always wondered if i was "that" mum that was diagnosing her kid. 

as you can see he was far from impressed, especially when he ended up vomiting all over himself  when he needed to go to the bathroom, right before they said we could go home. i was not in any way surprised, he had had so much going on, along with the pain and the pain meds... it was horrendous! the sweet nurse that was looking after us very quickly cleaned him up and gave him two of their childrens gowns, one back to front and one the right way around to ensure maximum coverage haha. just to make matters worse though, we finally made it home and got him in the shower to wash the day away and his hand started bleeding through the bandages again... another trip back to emergency to get it under control and then home again, ready to report to the hospital in the morning for his surgery.

the hospital staff were so wonderful. we got checked in and given a bed in the childrens ward where we spoke to the doctor and completed all the paperwork prior to being prepped for surgery. we did get a bit of a giggle out of it too, when the nurse accidentally wrote removal of left middle finger and left off the word nail. we definitely want to keep the finger! 

the surgeon came and spoke to us beforehand too (i still can't get over the fact a he has had plastic surgery on his finger!!) saying that they would be removing the nail and checking underneath to ensure there was no more damage they couldn't see, then repairing the nail bed and reattaching the nail. it wasn't a long surgery but it feels like forever when it's your child!

i must admit too, it was much nicer having a more grown up child this time around than our experience with having his teeth removed! he calmly lay in the bed, playing the switch while i read a book, occasionally talking to me or asking a question. even though he had to fast too, not once did he complain about being hungry either, considering how focused he normally is on food!

everything went perfectly according to plan and we were able to go home a few hours later after he had been checked by the nurse again.

i am so so proud of him. he coped so well with everything he had thrown at him and although grumpy came out of it no problems at all.

so now i just have to put up with that grumpy face and his giant record breaking rude finger for the nect few weeks. he's been referred to a place in joondalup for continued care, so fingers crossed there are no further issues and it heals well. and most of all, that it's our last trip to emergency for a while. although with my two boys - it's unlikely!