Mutterings for the Minority An insight into the world of DDWT

Chicken Pox

All of the excitement I felt with Mrs DDWT and the kids impending arrival home - after their mini-break in Ceredigion with Nanny - was quickly dampened with a 07:30 am telephone call.

It was Mrs DDWT ringing to tell me the kids had the classic symptoms and signs of chicken pox!

I couldn't believe it and just to compound matters I've booked a week's leave next week to do lots of family things - so we had lots planned. A train trip to Cardiff, a day in Folly Farm or Dan-yr-Ogof and a couple of 5th birthday parties (which DDWT Junior had been invited too).

The thought of Baby DDWT (@ just 10 months old) having chicken pox fills me with trepidation as well. Bless her.

The missus and I had it when we were kids so we'll be ok and I suppose in a weird kind of way it's good that the kids have it whilst they are very young as well - as opposed to their teens or even adulthood.

Oh well time to head off to the pharmacy for some calamine lotion I think and some antihistamines for children!

Boy is it going to be a fun week off in the house of DDWT *raised eyebrows*

State of shock

As you get older and supposedly wiser you consider all the things in life that one day will inevitably happen to you - however unpleasant they might seem. Well one of those days has seemingly arrived for me.

Today, my Dad was diagnosed as having liver cancer. That in itself was an almighty shock for me, but just to compound matters further - he also has a tumour on his bowel and spots on his lungs.

The doctor said that we should know the full extent of the cancer by the end of the week, when the specialists have had time to analyse all of the scans. The wait will seem like an eternity.

The news has really come as a bolt out of the blue for everyone and it really hasn't even began to sink in to be honest. I'm just numb with the news.

I don't usually blog about things as serious as this, but I just felt the need to let out some of my feelings and share them.

Triple eye test

Weird as the heading sounds, believe me when I say it's not some new kind of service offered by opticians - merely that fact that the house of DDWT went to the opticians en masse today.

In DDWT Junior's case it was his first time.  We didn't really know at what age (DDWT Junior is 4) you were supposed to start taking your children to have their eyes tested to be honest.  What swung it for us was the little fella's rather annoying habit of occasionally playing with his dinosaurs about 3mm from his nose!

I'm glad to say that thankfully his eyes were fine and his nose-to-nose approach to dinosaurs is merely a 'habit' or in his case more likely to be due to the sheer excitement and enjoyment he gets from playing with his vast dinosaur collection.

It won't surprise you to hear that the current 'backburner' web project I'm working on is an online portal dedicated to all things dinosaur! So in future, if you're looking for a dinosaur gift you'll now where to look

Ok, let's get back on track. Our eyetests were fine as well - it was a good day - with only a very very slight deterioration in our eyes (both of which were our right ones somewhat bizarrely).

So that's us done for another two years anyway.

Dentist x 2

I mean how weird is that, both Mrs DDWT and I go to the dentist on the same day but at different times!?!?

In fairness though whilst I was having a filling done, the Mrs had to have an emergency appointment as her filling had fallen out. Just to complicate matters further - as Mrs DDWT is now 31 weeks pregnant - she can't have a "proper" filling only a temporary one, well until the baby is born anyhow.

It's a bloody good job we're with Denplan as well, otherwise it could have been a very expensive day all around!

As I was working from home today, I decided to give our York Elliptical workout machine a pounding for 25 minutes. During this session - in which I sweated the most I've done for many moons - I managed to cover 9km and burn 246 calories in the process! Whilst I felt a wee bit leg weary after it, I was glad I'd stuck to my guns and did some form of exercise.

DDWT Junior continues to make the most of the Easter holidays. He had his first proper go of his Apollo Moonman bike, which considering he'd been jumping/climbing/sliding about in Funsters most of the morning, he did quite well.

He also went to have his feet measured and like me, he also has one foot slightly bigger than the other. Anyway, he's now a size 10.5G.

Heartbeat

Mrs DDWT visited the midwife today for the 16 week progress chat and had the opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat for the very first time. It was beating away at a steady old pace and could be heard as clear as anything.

I was gutted to have had to miss it, but suffering from man flu and having to babysit DDWT Junior meant that it was easier for us to stay at home, whilst the Mrs went about her business.

The next big date is near the end of January now when we go for the 20 week scan - which means we should be able to have a scan picture to bring home with us, or at least that's what we're hoping for.

On the subject of babies (well toddler in fact), we weighed DDWT Junior this morning and he's now 3st 1lb quite a weight for someone who's only a 10 days short of being 4 years old.