MWNews 34

William and Juanita are home now. William is doing ok but Juanita is still in a lot of pain. She came home because she was tired of being in the hospital. I think, altogether, it was six weeks, give or take a few days. She still has the pain and can hardly move around but it made no difference that her sitting at home and doing nothing and sitting at the hospital and doing nothing. All they are giving her is paracetemol (Panadol) and that is just like aspirin, so she can take that at home.

She does have the problem of sitting in bed and not being able to arrange herself to feed the baby without some discomfort. She has now taken all the pillow and all the cushions off the couch and made herself a little sitting up place in the bed so she does not have to move around alot.

We bought the baby a new bassinet, or new to us, from the next door neighbor. She was selling it a while back and it is very nice. It is made of bamboo and has a large woven basket that sits up in a frame. It is very nice, except I am worried about the size of the mattress in that it is really thick and not quite side to side, so there is a gap between the mattress and the side of the basket. I have to stuff a blanket in the sides but I am told that is what you are suppossed to do and the gap is there for that reason. I will have to keep an eye on it.

Maeghan has grown accustomed to the baby. Before we left the hospital, Juanita asked Maeghan if she was going to sleep in her bed. She has been sleeping in mommy's bed with daddy. She said, no, she wasn't. So, Juanita asked her where she was going to sleep. She said in mommy's bed. So where is mommy going to sleep. In mommy's bed with the baby. So Juanita asked her where daddy is going to sleep. She said, on the couch. Apparently, she had already worked this out. So, last night, she slept in mommy's bed and daddy slept in her bed. When she got up this morning, I went in to play with her like we always do. She said no, she was playing with the baby and I could not tickle her while she was playing with the baby.

Natalie and Angela have come back. They arrived this morning. You can tell Angela and the kids are back as they stopped here before they went home and all the toys are strewn all over the house. And the main one, Jarvis, was not even here to help make the mess. He stayed with his father in Brisbane, which would indicate that Angela is going back sometime soon but she has not said anything yet. She always said she was going to be there for Christmas but I am not sure how she was going to swing that finacially. Maybe the father is going to help, but I doubt it.

Natalie is here indefinitly. We are not sure what her further plans are but she has apparently left her boyfriend, at least temporarily, and is going to stay with us for some time. She says she will be here at least through Christmas, so we are hoping that is the case. We haven't had Christmas with her since last year. That is a long time to go without having family around. If Angela and the kids do not make it back to Brisbane for Christmas, then that will mean a house full of people. It will still be a house full of people, but just not as many kids.

I have no idea who is going to cook for Christmas. With my operation, I am told I will not feel like it but then if I don't do it, who will. I know Juanita says she can and she probably could, but I don't know if she has had to cook for that many people before. Her mother will be here to help and while we won't say anything about Juanita and her mother in the same kitchen, I am sure it will end up with only one of them cooking and the other staying out of the way.

I will probably be well enough anyway, if I am out of the hospital. If I am still in the hospital, then I don't really care what they eat. But if I am out, and I should be, I am sure I will be able to do it. I won't be able to lift anything in or out of the oven but they do not expect anything fancy for Christmas dinner, so I am sure anything I make will be more than they expect. Since I do not get to cook Thanksgiving dinner, I like to try to make the same things for Christmas. The main problem with that is it is hot over here for Christmas, and they are predicting the hottest summer and Christmas on record for this year. Of course, their records only go back to 1950 or so, but still, it is suppossed to be really hot here this year. I don't know what that means, it is certainly not Texas hot, but since I am not used to Texas heat anymore, it will mean I will be staying inside most of the time. But, since most of the foods we cook for Thanksgiving or Christmas are hot foods and suppossed to be for the winter, then making them on a really hot day is not something they do over here. They mostly have cold foods or room temperature foods. Like cold ham and prawns (shrimp with the heads on them) and jelly (jello) and salads. Nothing baked or in a casserole and certainly not hot turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes. Although, they do have cold turkey. A lot of families go to the beach for Christmas day and have a barbeque. I think we have tried to do that a couple of years but finding a place and barrling all the flies is always a problem and not the way I want to spend Christmas day.

So we will stay home. I will stay in bed and we will have a quiet Christmas, or as quiet as you can with a house full of people. At least we will have air conditioning and I might set it to as low as it will go just so we can pretend it is cold outside. It would cost a fortune, but it would be a nice Christmas present, I am sure.

This will be the first Christmas where Maeghan knows what is going on. Juanita, against my direct orders, has already started putting up the tree and the ornaments. I told her she had to wait until her birthday, the day after Thanksgiving, but she will not listen. I have put the decorating of the Christmas tree on hold as I am the only one who can do the lights, so maybe I can delay it until Friday. I doubt it, but I will try. I know it is probably the same over there but there have been Christmas decorations in the stores for almost two months now. Maybe longer than two months because I remember Juanita and I commenting on it before she went into the hospital. We have pointed out all the decorations to Maeghan and now, whenever she sees the decorations, she says look, Christmas trees and does an ooohhh and aaahhhh thing. Now, when she figures out that she gets presents for Christmas, she will be really estatic and want to open them right away I am sure.

And, of course, it will be William's first Christmas. We got him a little ornament and a big teddy bear. The teddy bear is like the one we got in America for Maeghan in that it has the year on it. I think we might have gotten it from the same store as we got the one for William at Kmart.

By the way, I know I mention it all the time. The fact that when I am writing these things, I keep getting interupted and am usually doing something else at the same time. Well, this time, it is William interupting me. I have been typing this for about two hours now and William keeps making little noises where I have to go in and check on him and play with him for a few minutes. He is doing this about every fifteen minutes. Juanita is alseep on the couch. she only woke up to feed him once but since then, I have been typing and watching him in the other room. I put him on the floor, on a pillow, and he seems to like that. He is looking around and having the hic-cups. Maeghan is laying down next to him but she will not lay on the same pillow so I can take a picture. She is laying on her own pillow next to him and reaches over and kisses him every once and a while. I have pictures and will upload them to the Kodak site as soon as I can. I the meantime, I might include one of them in this blog but I have so many others to include, I might not get around to it.

William is feeding every one and a half to two hours. I don't think that is a lot, as I would do the same if I could, but Juanita seems to think it is a lot. I am sure he will slow down at some point but I seem to recall that Maeghan did the same thing. Maybe it is just faulty memory.

I think I mentioned earlier, that I do not have a date for my operation yet. That is another thing I did during this typing session, is call the doctor to find out if there was any news. They did not know and are to call me back but have not done so yet. I suppose I will have to call them everyday for this as I have to make plans and we have to make plans for when I am off work and when Juanita will have to make arrangements to do things. It also would help to arrange to have someone here while I am in the hospital, if we cannot find someone. That is not as necessary right now because the girls are back, but who knows how long they will stay and the more people Juanita has around her the better. Laura, my sister for anyone who does not know the family, has told me she will be here whenever I have a permanent date. I really appreciate that and I wanted to say so in here. I know it will not be a very fun trip, but I really appreciate it, not only for Juanita's sake, but for mine as well.

I think it is time to go. I did get some work done this morning but I need to do some more. If have not sent you a link to the pictures or have not included you in some list I have created, send me your email address and I will add you to the list. Don't pot it here, just send it directly to me. Most everyone has and address for myself or Juanita, so send your address there and I will get you added to the list of people who can view the pictures. Of course, if you are reading this, then you already know how to get to this list, so that is not a problem. I recently opened this up to anyone who would care to look at it, so if you ever see some strange comments at the end or stange things happen, it probably means someone has hacked into the list and done something and I have not yet had a chance to clean it up.

Ok, bye for now.

Talk to you soon