MWNews 23

Maeghan went to the doctors last week. It was one of her apparently bi-yearly checkups. They don't want to see her again until March. Which means they are not planning on doing anymore scans or anything. I am not sure I am happy with that but they are really pleased with how she is doing. I didn't get to go but Juanita said the doctors were all pleased with her and said she was doing really well. Juanita said her doctor was looking really old but I didn't see her so she might just have been having a bad day. We haven't seen the doctor in six months but Juanita said she had changed a lot.

I don't know what other doctors she might have seen while she was there but there were no bad reports. She is getting bigger, slowly, and they didn't see a problem with that. I wanted to ask them is she will ever get to 'normal' size. We know she will always be small but they have never said how small. I am guessing they don't know and I suppose it doesn't really matter. She is perfect the way she is now but we know she can't stay that size forever.

We have noticed she is doing a lot of things now that she could not before. I think it is from watching Jarvis climbing and doing reckless things. He will climb up on and jump off of anything and will do a lot of things that will scare us but are just normal for him. Maeghan has started climbing on things now that she would not even try before. In one way it is good, because she is more confident and she can do more things by herself but it is sometimes scary when she takes chances she should not and I miss having to do everything for her. She can climb up on the couch by herself now and will climb over things in the playgyms all by herself.

Yesterday, she scared herself on the slide at the mall. She was sliding down and caught one foot on the side and then caught her arm on the other side so she kind of spun around. It is all covered by netting, so the kids to not fall out but she hurt her arm and wouldn't go down the slide anymore after that. She will probably be over it by the time we go again, but she would just climb around inside after that. She wouldn't even take a last time slide when we were ready to go.

She has started to become really independent now. She is not listening to what you tell her to do. Typical of all kids but she is just starting to do it. She has started to eat a lot lately and she tells us she does not like her bottle anymore. We don't want to give her juice but she likes water so she will drink that. At night, she still has a bottle although she says she doesn't like it but if you leave it with her, she will drink it during the night. She has been sleeping most of the night lately. Everyone has the flu over here and she will wake up during the night if she cannot breath right. She insists she has to sleep on her pillow, so if you just put her back on her pillow she will go back to sleep. We put the vicks on her when she cannot breath through her nose and she will say thank you in her sleep. She is really cute when she says thank you.

She is being shy lately. Kaz and John, Juanita's friends from Brisbane, came by the other day. They were on a road trip and stopped in for a few hours. Maeghan would not go anywhere near them. She would get really quiet and hide behind me or go outside so she didn't have to go near them. Maeghan loves playing outside. We don't really have a place for her to play, the side of the house is all gravel and the back yard slopes towards a dropoff, so she has to be careful all the time. But she loves playing out there. She always wants the other kids to go outside and play with her. Usually, Leslie is the only one who will go out and he is only two also. I am not sure about just having them out there by themselves. It is ok if they play by the back door in the gravel, that is where Maeghan's slide is, but if they go out to the back, then no one can see them and I generally insist that someone goes out and watches them.

Leslie can climb up on the horse swing on the backyard gym set. It is way too high for Maeghan to do it but he has seen Jarvis do it and will copy him. He can't get down by himself, or he can't if anyone is out there with him. If no one is looking, he will climb down by himself but if he can see someone who will help, he cries out for them.

Juanita turned out to have diabetes, or at least the pregnancy kind. We will not know if she has it for real until after the baby is born. Hopefully not, but we go next week to have them tell us what she has to do. Probably just diet but if that doesn't work, then they will try something else. She has to learn to take her blood samples and check them. Her mother has to do that, so she should know how.

She is also going for another ultrasound for William. I think this is just the normal one but she has to go each week from now on. Not for ultra-sound but to the diabetes doctor.

I have an appointment for an angiogram. It is Oct. 25. I think I already told you that but just in case, that is when it is. I get to be off work for a week. The other angiograms, I was always already in the hospital, so I don't know if I was restricted or not. This time, it is outpatient surgery, so they will send me home. I am told I cannot drive or go to work for a week, so I have to stay at home and not work. Over here, if the doctor tells you you have to stay home, then your work has to let you stay home and not work. In the states, they cannot really enforce that but over here, it is some kind of law or something and if your work insists you have to work, then you can sue them or something.

I am supposed to go back to the doctor but I don't remember if he said in a month or a month after the operation. I will have to call him to check. He said there was a possibility they would keep me and do an operation but he said that was not very likely. Since this is a public doctor and hospital, they will probably just try medication if they find anything.

Michael has turned 17. He says he is not going back to school. He finishes the 11th grade this week. As you know, over here, they do not have to go to the 11th or 12th grade. We told him he has to get a job and soon. I don't know what kind of job he can get but I guess we will see. I have found out only about 20% of the population attends year 11 and 12. I am not sure how that is possible, but that is what they do over here. Michael has that apprenticeship thing he might be able to start in December but that is kind of iffy and I do not know if they have the same opportunities if they are not in school.

It is a little too late for Michael, but I will make sure not going to school will not be an option for Maeghan and William. Hopefully, by then the laws will have changed but even if they do not, I am not going to give them that option. Of course, in reality, there is nothing a parent can do about it other than kick them out of the house and that is not an option but I will try to make sure they understand the importance of it. I am not sure how to do that but I suppose that if kids were given this option in America, they would take it and not go to school either. If you do try to kick the kids out of the house for not going to school, the government pays them money to live on their own, so that is seen as an attractive option for the kids. They get paid for doing nothing. They don't realize that the money they get does not cover living expenses until it is too late but that is the system they have over here.

I did read that the average age of kids living at home has gone up in Australia over the past ten years. Ten years ago, it was 17.5 and then the kids would move out. Now it is 22.5 before the kids move out and a lot of them move back in when they are 27 or 28. Not something I am looking forward to but those are the averages according to some magazine over here.

On other notes, I did get Skype for my computer. I don't have a microphone but we will get one next week. I have an old one but it does not appear to work. For now, it is just computer to computer but I am going to try the computer to land line option also to see what it costs. Over here, there are several companies pushing the VoIP options. That is voice over IP for those you don't know and since that does not make any more sense if you don't know what VoIP is, it is a little box that you connect your phone and your computer to that uses the internet to make phone calls. I don't know if it will be any cheaper but we might do that at some point. The problem is the computer connection as it is more expensive to use theirs than the one we have but the phone calls are cheaper.

We will try Skype first and see what it is like. Several of the people here are work say they have it but they don't use it anymore. They are doing a trial over here with using the power lines for internet and phone connections. It is only in Tasmania right now, but it is apparently the first major conversion to take place in the world. It is only a trail right now but the speeds they are testing are much faster than what we have over the phone lines. The cost is more for the computer but the phone calls are free. I was going to look into it for Juanita's parents but it is not in their area yet. It will be next year. The only major drawback right now is that if you lose power, you lose your phone line, so you cannot call out but since most people use cell phones anyway, it will completely replace your need for a telephone line. That is a savings right there as you have to pay 30$ a month over here just to have your phone line connected and that is without making any calls.

This has gotten rather long this time and I have to work or eat lunch or go the mall or something right now. I will add some more later. I do have a few new pictures, so as soon as I download them from the camera, I will use them.

Talk to you later.