Sunday 1st December 2013

The festive fun has begun.

We have just spent a fun packed week at the Winter Wonderland at Center Parcs.

We had a fantastic time swimming, playing tennis and squash, cycling, dancing at disco's, dropping in on the old guy Mr Claus and we even managed to sneak in a 'few' Christmas coffees and glasses of vino.

The highlight of the week for me was definitely how much both boys enjoyed the swimming. Samuel is so confident with his swimming now and Freddie had no fear when it came to the slides!

Here are a few pics...

     Playing pretend shop on the park...potatoes anyone?

    The back of our villa, just before the swans descended!

    Cheers everyone!

    Inside Santa's grotto. Watch out naughty elves, Freddie could give you a run for your money!

    Ahh, beautiful twinkles.

 

    Me and the boy went for an early morning bike ride to the nature reserve. Worth it when we saw lots of bunnies and a woodpecker.

    Teach em young!

    The boys having fun.

    The Christmas jumpers are out!

    No Daddy you can't have a crisp!

    What a face!

    Meeting Rupert the bear on the Teddy's picnic.

Sunday 17th November 2013

Christmas is definitely starting earlier each year...

The first official Sawyer viewing of The Polar Express is happening as I type!

Do you believe?

Thursday 31st October 2013

Today Freddie had his routine check at Glenfield hospital.

First of all the nurse took Freddie's numbers- his heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen level and then height and weight.

All looked good.

Then a lovely nurse called Sue carried out an ECG (Electrocardiogram)....

        The nurse had the right idea in putting the stickers on herself but asking me to take them off! They are ridiculously sticky!

Brave little monkey wondering what on earth is going on. The nurses explained things to him but I'm not sure he got it!

A rather proud looking Freddie but a rather nervous Mummy.

After his ECG Freddie then had an ECHO scan  (Echocardiogram) by the lovely nurse Claire 

which is an ultrasound of his heart...

Freddie was unsure about lying down until he realised cbeebies was on the television!

A rather chilled out Freddie and a less chilled out Daddy.

After a short break to make some dinner we went to chat to the doctor.

The experts continue to monitor Freddie's heart- especially for two reasons. One being the coarctation of his aorta that he had repaired and where there is still a slight narrowing. The second being because Freddie has a heart murmur.

Overall the doctor was very pleased with our little fighter, said his heart was functioning very well and that he is obviously healthy and thriving.

They don't need to see Freddie back at the clinic for another twelve months. 

Despite a rather scary start to our Halloween this year we are very pleased with the outcome of Freddie's appointment and are once again forever grateful to the wonderful staff at Glenfield hospital for their care, dedication and genius.

Sawyers out x

Sunday 20th October 2013

It has been far too long since I have written on either of my blogs.

The boys have been keeping us busy with school and nursery runs, their need for constant entertainment when at home and their funny antics that have us in stitches on a daily basis.

It was two years ago this week that Freddie was discharged from Glenfield.

Now he is confidently going to nursery, has had his first full dry day in pants and rules our household like a king.

Superstar.

He is still mad about his music

 and spends most of his time skipping through the tracks on his player and saying "come on EVERYBODY" whilst dancing around the room.

Some of his current favourite sayings are:

"I don't want to."

He made me look like a cruel mother when I was carrying him into Asda the other days whilst he was shouting "I don't want to go shopping!"

He is also very good at putting on a sad face and telling me Samuel hurt him. He even says it when he knows I have been watching and his brother went no where near him!

The boys are now sharing a room which so far has proved to be a success. 

They are both pretty much sleeping through which is an improvement on the last few months.

The boys have unfortunately experienced the loss of a loved one for the first time recently.

Sadly, last weekend my Grandad passed away.

He will be sadly missed but happily remembered.

The boys have spent happy times with their Little Mamma and Grandad. I know they will be too young to remember much about Grandad, especially Freddie.

I wanted to write about him on here today so in the future the boys will know that he was an important person in their early childhood, who was loved very much.

He was always happy watching the boys playing, treating them to gingerbread men and ice cream from the farm shop and insisting I throw Freddie's dirty nappies on the fire!

He has done the grandfatherly task of walking each of the boys to sleep in their prams when they were baby's.

Thanks to him the value of scrumping good, otherwise wasted, apples will be past down to the next generation!

Rest in peace Grandad.

Sunday 15th September 2013

Jon and I have been married six years today.

We went out for tea to celebrate this afternoon and I sat thinking how peaceful and relaxed going out for dinner must have been six years ago!

If it wasn't for that cheesy chat up line in Wakefield's 'Flares', or that first date to the cinema to see a scary film (which just happened to mean I had to cuddle up to him) our gorgeous boys might not even have arrived.

I am currently sat on the landing outside of Freddie's bedroom writing this and singing 'mamma's on the bus' as requested, in order to try and get the little monkey to sleep.
And who said romance goes out of the window once the children arrive!

I thought I would take this opportunity to give a Freddie update.

The little star/Tasmanian devil is coming on leaps and bounds.

We had a great summer.
Our holiday in Bude was definitely the highlight. He even donned a wetsuit to fit in with all the surfer dudes.
Freddie is doing well at nursery two days a week. He still doesn't like being dropped off but soon forgets and has fun with his carers and friends.
His key worker has commented on his increasing ability to spend all day chatting away... I don't know where he gets that from.

He is starting to fill out a little now. He has his two year review with the health visitor this week so it will be interesting to know his height and weight.

He has a completely different personality to Samuel. The difference in the two of them is quite extreme.
They get on well though, most of the time. I actually think Samuel is sometimes a little terrified of Freddie's tantrums and so doesn't mind losing the fight over a toy.
He enjoys taking Samuel to school, but prefers picking him up. His latest saying is ..."'Samul' play with me."
As you can see from the photo the big lad is looking about eight years old in his school uniform, rather than the five that he is. He's a superstar and has done very well settling back into school.

Freddie has an appointment at Glenfield in October for his heart scan and chat with the consultant. Not dwelling on that too much at the moment. Will lose sleep over it nearer the time.

So to sum up Freddie is a healthy, feisty, handsome (obviously), early rising, bright little dude.


Some snaps from over the summer...

Wednesday 21st August 2013

Happy 2nd Birthday Freddie!


Our special little man has turned two!
We have had a lovely day celebrating.

Today we see our healthy, strong little man and it is hard to comprehend that he arrived into this world that fragile, tiny bundle.

At this exact time two years ago we were losing hope.
Now we see nothing but opportunity and adventure for our bright, happy, beautiful little boy.

We don't like to dwell on how you entered this world but remembering simply makes us even more aware of how lucky we are.

Thanks to all of you (you know who you are!) who help make Freddie's life so full of love and laughter.

Here of some pics from today...

Tuesday 23rd July 2013

Today was an important day for Samuel.
The last day of his first year at primary school.

The 'year' has absolutely flown by.
It does not seem like two minutes ago since I was sat weeping in the playground in front of lots of unfamiliar faces after dropping him off on that first day.

He has come so far since those first few unsure weeks and we are very proud of him.

The school run has absolutely become a big part of our daily routine and although it will be nice to have a break it won't be long before we are missing it.

Freddie is a firm favourite of many of Samuel's class mates. They often crowd round his buggy calling him 'baby Freddie'. Sometimes he might grace them with a royal wave, other times he snubs them with a definitive "no" in their faces!

I saw a few Mums of the older children moving on, crying at school today and that nearly set me off!
Thank goodness that's quite a number of years off for us yet!

Samuel's first school report is a pleasure to read. He has done well in all aspects of his first experience of formal education.

His class teacher has commented that Samuel has finally realised that it is ok to get things wrong-that is how you learn. Because he was worried about failing he was worried to try new things. She says his confidence has continued to grow and over the last few weeks she felt he had finally come out of his shell.

My favourite bit is from his key worker...

"Samuel is an absolute joy to have...he is always so positive about everything we do and puts 100% effort into all our activities. I will miss our little chats each week.


Well done champ

.

Monday 8th July 2013

Summer has begun.
The sun is shining and we're all feeling...

And now the out takes...

Only children called Samuel were injured during the making of this video.

Sunday 16th June 2013

Samuel turns five next week so we have had a weekend of birthday and Father's Day fun!

We had a party at home on Saturday with lots of Samuel's friends.
Despite the increasingly threatening rain clouds we actually had some sunshine and the kids had fun playing in the garden and eating lots of pizza and jelly and ice cream.

Today we went to Wollaton Hall with the family. Again after fretting all week about the weather, the sun shone beautifully and we had a great day.
We played archery, bowls, football and Samuel had a go on his new bike.

We also took Samuel on a super hero animal trail in the Hall which was fun.

I'm not massively impressed with my baby turning five already but I like enjoying birthday celebrations!