Celebration of Our Girls

 

I went to watch gorgeous little Juliette's Reception assembly yesterday - 'Billy Goat's Gruff'.  She was, ofcourse, amazingly wonderful! She spoke loudly and clearly and sung her little heart out.  I was happily blubbing as I took vieos and photos!

Annalise also has something to celebrate and for us to be proud of - she designed the hat above for a competition at school - to be invited to the British Embassy's 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party' t celebrate the Queen of England's Diamond Jubilee... and she WON!!!
She is one of 8 select students who have been chosen to go.  Now we have to make it!
Yay for Annalise.  Boo for us as we cant go with her as only the Head of Primary is accompanying her.  I wish I could go!!!

St Chris Primary Art Exhibition 2012

 

This year, they celebrated form class joint collaborative works of art.  Annalise's form class produced an original Japanese kimono after studying Japanese culture and Juliette looked at Mod Rock sculpture.
Very cute.

Juliette the Future Make-over Artist...

 

One afternoon last week, I was so tired but Juliette was so up for playing with me that I persuaded her to come to the bedroom with me and massage me whilst I laid down....
"Hey, Mummy! I have a great idea! Why don't I give you a makeover?!'
"ooh yes,....that sound's perfect darling. I will just lie here and' zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz out for the count.
The above is what I woke up to both girls giggling over.  A makeup artist in the making methinks? Not! x

Our Little Soccer/Football Player

 

 

Have to make sure I say 'soccer' for the Aussie side of the family - and especially as the girls are Aussies! Annalise was desperate to sign up for soccer school on a Saturday morning.  Boy was she excited.
Three weeks in, she had had enough of one of only three other girls in her 22 team saying 'You suck at football....' and 'My grandpa plays better than you' so she refuses to go back.... :( very sad.  Makes me as Mother Hen want to go and rip that little girl's head off!

Poor Pippin...

So, poor Pippin is now no more...
And as you can see from the note above,  Juliette wrote on lots of post-it-notes yesterday, (perhaps as a form of personal therapy!) with big fat tears streaming down her face, 'Bibin has did' or in non-5yr old-script 'Pippin has Died'.
Poor little girl was very sad.
He did live about a year longer than we thought he would.  Poor little thing.
Both girls put him in a little box and with Daddy, buried him in the garden and have planted a flower ontop of him.

 

Fun Rubik's Cube Brunch

 

We all had to start with a black base and then wear 6 things of different colours for the six colours on the Rubik's cube. 
When we arrived, we had to pick a card out of a deck which told us what colour we would have to end up being by the end of the brunch.  I picked out a red card. Then, over the 5 hours of drinking and eating, every time a whistle was blown, we had to swap an item of clothing or an accessory with the nearest person to us in an attempt to end up with only the colour we picked out.
it was great fun, and it carried on for many, many hours after I left!
I got home by 6pm - most people didn't leave till 1am!
So glad I did leave early as Juliette was up at the crack of dawn this morning!
More pictures to follow.

Things that they say...

I cherish my night-time chats with Annalise - we talk about things that have happened in the day and talk about what has made us happy/sad etc.  The other night, she was talking about some of her friends at school...
"Mummy, you know? Sometimes my friends can be really mean....it's not very nice.  I don't like it when they're mean to other people in the playground. 
I believe that you should be nice to everyone - even the ugly people."....
Words of wisdom from my 7 year old.  Be kind to everyone - even the uglies!

Just a normal school run...

 

 

Nearly every other day there are road blocks/protests on the way to school duirng rush hour.  This usually involves roads being blocked by burning tyres/rubbish bins/sofas (!). 
These were taken on thursday at 6:15am.  No danger for us - just a bit tiresome!

Juliette's Club Members...

Juliette's becoming really good at writing now - above is a list of her family and friends and soft toys that are in her 'club'!
Annalise, Kathryn, Andrew, Lucy, Charlotte, Elie, Charlie, Ben, Maisie, Alice, Mr. Foxie, Mr. Little Foxie, Hiccle Piccle

Little Juliette

So, we rocked up to the Manama American Mission Hospital to meet with the paediatric cardiologist at 3pm today.  Doctor Pravin was lovely, and he straight away got down to business on little JuJu.
He listened to her heart which he said was indeed, very irregular and that he heard a clear 2/6 systolic mitral murmur.  Andrew and I were a little panicked as he both spoke to us about best scenarios and then worst case scenarios. He scheduled an X-ray and an EKG straightaway and so off we trotted downstairs to the X-ray department and the Urgent Care Dept.
Her X-ray was first - Juliette was very excited, and loved all the attention being paid to her! She came out of the room giggling that they had to cover up her bottom with a special heavy skirt, because they didn't want to see what the inside of her bottom looked like!
The EKG was done just as efficiently - the photos above are of her lying in the urgent care unit getting her heart rate tested. Andrew told her the nurse was turning her into a robot - she thought she was going to turn into a super hero with electrical powers!
Then we had to go back up to Dr Pravin.
The EKG shows clear sinus arrhythmia - her heart beats are irregularly beating between 65 and 103 beats a minute....but sinus arrhythmia is quite normal in infants apparently.
Her X ray showed no signs of heart defects, but there is still obviously a heart murmur there that we need to pay attention to, but not worry about for now as many infants are diagnosed with innocent heart murmurs.  Because there's no obvious signs of defects, apart from the murmur and the irregular heart beat, Dr. Pravin said to just get her  normal Dr to keep an eye on her heart over the next year - whenever we go for check ups or vaccinations etc, and to come back to him in a year to see if the murmur has gone away by itself and/or the sinus arrhythmia has disappeared too.  He said that if it's an innocent/benign murmur, they tend to go away by themselves, as children grow. 
If the murmur is due to a small hole in the heart, then Juliette can still live a normal life, and sometimes the holes repair themselves, but if they don't then maybe at age 20-30 she may find she has breathing difficulties due to her heart having worked harder and becoming more enlarged than it should be.  This is a worst case scenario and perhaps would lead to her needing surgery.
It won't stop me worrying when I think too much about it, but at least we now know and can keep an eye on it.  Dr Pravin said she can carry on as normal with no special precautions i.e. exercising etc.
Juliette is absolutely healthy in every other way - she's exactly the opposite of someone who has a heart defect - she has more energy than I have seen in other 5 year olds and has no chest pain, so hopefully it's just a benign murmur and that the irregular heart beat and the murmur are not related.
Anyway. 
Andrew says I have to stop fretting now. 
Our daughter is fine.
Big sigh of relief.

Sleepover Fun & New Purchase

The girls partying down at the bar and then watching American Idol together! The sleepover went well!

Annalise 'entertainiing ' her friend Jade and little Juliette!

My new reclining chair that we have put in our little alcove space - I love it! It reclines to absolutely flat so great for afternoon naps....trouble is, I don't remember the last time I managed to have an afternoon nap! Still, I love this little 'quiet reading space' we've set up.

Flamingo Pool Party!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great day out last weekend to our friend's pool party - Ferne was 7  and her sister, Flo was 5.  It was super, super hot - well into the mid 40's and even though we were covered in sunscreen, Annalise managed to still burn her face and I burnt my forehead! We had a ball though.

Been very remiss, I know at writing.  Life is spinning by!
The day after we arrived back from Oman, I suddenly acquired all these strange spots on my legs, chest, bum and hands - turns out the very itchy what I thought were monster mosquito bites, were, in fact, chicken pox!! So I was signed off work for 11 days.  Not much fun as I was excruciatingly itchy and have still got the scars, proving that although I covered myself in calamine Geisha-girl style, I still managed to scratch myself during sleep! Lucky I didn't get the pox on my face!

Super busy at school as always, but busy getting the Year 13's ready for their written exam, which is rather stressful.  All their practical exams, along with the Year 12's and Year 11's has now been completed so at least that means I have my afternoons and weekends back - although, in saying that, we now have the KS3 production of Dracula Spectacula to rehearse for the end of June ....it ever stops!
Been tryingto diet - am now into the fourth week of no alcohol and trying to eat more healthily. Have lost 6 kilos so far....need to lose another 9 and then I'll be back to a happier place!!
The girls are doing well.  Annalise's friendship issues have all disappeared, thank God, although next year the classes all get mixed up so she has to choose three friends she would like to move with - it's proving difficult. She's very happy at school and doing really well.  Tonight we have her friend over for Annalise's first sleepover...they are running around the bedrooms squealing joyfully with little Juliette as I type!

Been a little bit worried about Juliette as when I put her to sleep four nights ago, she fell asleep on my hand which was cupped around her heart and her heartbeat was doing some very odd irregular beating.  I stayed feeling it 'beat in my hand' for about twenty minutes and then got Andrew to come feel, but he told me I was speaking rubbish, but every time since, when she's sleeping, her heart beat is a bit strange - even Lauren and Stephen thought it didn't feel regular when they came over yesterday and she was napping on the sofa, so we took her to the American Mission Hospital clinic last night just to check it out and stop me from fretting!
The paediatrician did lots of testing with his stethoscope and blood pressure things when she was sitting upright in front of him and said her heart beat was regular which was a big relief, but then he got her to lie down and did say that when she was lying down and he listened to her heartbeat he did hear a very faint murmur - but it could just be an incidental murmur.  Because of this, we now have an appointment with a paediatric cardiologist on Saturday, that the Dr referred us to, just in case. He said that it was purely a precaution.
Apparently, even if there is a little murmur, it's quite common in infants, so I am sure everything will be fine. Even so, Saturday can't come soon enough for me.