and so it all ends ...

welcome dear reader, to this the last post in the story that is Harlow.

i don't know how many of you there are, or how often you read the scribbles i write, but now, it is coming to a close. i thank you for reading this, for commenting, for the support you have given us since he was born. i may not have replied (im terrible at that), but please know, the comments were read and appreciated.

Harlow is now two years old. he has beaten everything that has been thrown at him and has come out the other side laughing. all because he will not take no for an answer. if he wants something, he will dig in his toes until he gets it and this goes for everything. he never sits still ... he opens every draw, and then proceeds to pull everything out in case there is something at the bottom he hasn't seen ... he laughs ... he smiles ... and he makes everyone around him happier. most of the time ~:)

he has been classified as mostly normal, glasses and minimal cerebral palsy aside. this is simply awesome. it was not what was being thought two years ago.

i don't really know how to proceed from this point, i'm at a loss as to what to say, so i will leave you with some photos. they say more than i ever could.

thank you.

rich.

a little too tired to eat dinner ....

5 easy bullet points ...

mornin' y'all ...

first off let me apologise for not saying hi earlier. when Harlow got signed off, he became "just another boy" and this became "just another blog" about "just another boy" ... i kinda figured there are a million blogs about a million boys, so i would give it a rest for a while. well, a while has gone past and i now realise that there is a bit more to talk about after all.

so ... here goes.

1/. crawling.

it had to happen, as it happens to all children. they become mobile. in january he started to crawl and has not stopped since. he crawls everywhere, pulls himself up where ever he can, nothing is safe anymore. you should have seen how pleased he was with himself after crawling up all 16 stairs! grinning like a loon he was. he will pull himself up on anything and everything and he can also climb. i got a phone call at work the other day, it was Justine, laughing so hard she was having difficulty talking, asking if it was ok to take a photo of Harlow with his head stuck down the loo and his feet in the air before going to rescue him. heh, go for it `:)

once again, the high water mark in our house rises.

2/. Jill.

for a year we had the pleasure of a carer for Harlow. Jill would come in three days a week and look after Harlow for the morning so that Justine could do the school runs and get out of the house for a while, stave off the cabin fever. well, in may, Jill had completed her tour of duty and we have sadly said goodbye to her. she came in, looked after Harlow (you should have seen him welcome her in, he loves her), lent the boys books to read, made the best damn pikelets this side of anywhere ... she is welcome here any time she chooses. we are poorer for her not being here.

3/. glasses.

yeah ... glasses. Harlow has to have them. apparently he is extremely long sighted, a plus 10, with an eye that points in more than it should. heh, it its funny to see him with them on, they last for about 5 seconds before he starts to pull them off and chew them. we tried the glasses for a while but with him refusing to wear them, we've been told to hang fire for a few months. it will be interesting when we put them on again, to see what he does.

4/. hospital visit

last weekend was interesting, we had sickness though the family the previous week and Harlow had been sick. he was full of snot and congested, rattling when he breathed. sunday afternoon (the 12th) Justine realised he was sicker than he appeared and took him to wellington a&e. he was admitted and spent two nights sick in the hospital. he was also refusing both solids and liquids so, you guessed it ... back in went the NGT. bugger!

i tell you, it was very quiet at home for those two days.

he came home on the tuesday, looking so much better (and leaving the NGT behind). he had had two doses of strong IV antibiotics which must have kicked whatever it was that he had. he has continued to get better since then but is still a little rattly. he also slimmed down a bit, but that may have something to do with hospital food `:)

5/. cerebral palsy.

with all the bullet dodging that Harlow has done, we feel pretty lucky to have such a normal boy. but ... not too normal it turns out. he had a paediatric visit today and it was confirmed that he has a mild case of cerebral palsy caused by his extreme prematurity. if you don't know what it is, there is a good explanation here. his case is mild, he seems to be affected in the left leg only. we just have to keep reminding ourselves, it could be much much worse. still ... it was pretty hard to hear.

with this news, we also received a walking frame and a pair of gnarly shoes, both aimed at helping him stretch the tendons in the affected leg and get him interested in walking. he can use the frame really well, but unless he chooses to, he will not. he's stubborn that way... a matriarchal trait.

and there you have it, almost five months development in five (mostly) easy bullet points.

today ...

shout it out loud!!

yeah .. im lookin' at you

hello dear reader,

it would appear that our wee boy is growing up! he has outgrown his tubes, he has outgrown his wires, his beeps and burps ... well, wishful thinking there i guess, he is my boy after all.

over the last month, the oxygen bottles have been returned, the apnoea monitor has gone back and the feeding pump has gone to feeding pump heaven. he no longer needs these things, these things that once kept him alive. he is no longer on the endangered species list.

woo and hoo `:)

there has been one more change over the last month, our social worker Lorraine has also moved on to other children, children who need her more than Harlow does now. this is a vote of confidence from Lorraine, its only when the babies complete all 7 exams that they are considered qualified to roam around without minders/ keepers/ those who give guidance.

[ actually, if you could hear him right now, you would swear that he was a normal, if slightly grumpy child. he is currently howling at the indignity of having to go to bed. ]

even the food thing is mostly a non-issue now, he eats with gusto! mostly! the last hurdle is him drinking out of a cup, he tends to gargle a bit, then look surprised while it dribbles down his chin...

so, dear reader, it looks like all is going well, all systems green, all orifices are being used in the correct manner.

HE IS NORMAL!!!! WHO KNEW!!!!

it must be night time ....

boy o boy, don't he just LOOOOOVE going to bed...

a hint of normality ...

ah, the weekend. the time of family. (and sports, and morning teas, and going out and forgetting yourself for a while)

NORMAL families do some or all of these things. NORMAL families are able to do some or all of these things. we are not a NORMAL family.

but we are on our way. after a little more than a year, we have taken our first decent family outing. with Harlow not being able to go ... anywhere really, on saturday we made it to lindale in paraparamumu and enjoyed ice creams in the sun. all six of us. after that we headed up the coast to levin and the adventure park.

for those of you who haven't been to either place, you should. there is something to be said for kapiti ice cream. they have flavours like lemon cheesecake and gingernut, very very good. and the adventure park? its a great place to let off steam, although they have taken down the flying fox...

so anyway, we made it there, we made it back again and it was great. a family outing, to somewhere other than the mall. (and we've only been to the mall a couple of times all together).

Harlow even managed to drink a bottle while sitting in a cafe in otaki!

one day, we may just end up being a NORMAL family...

the bash...

photo by Lisa Wong

the birthday bash. i really shouldn't call it a 'bash', it was too big to be called a 'bash'. you could call it an 'event', or a 'small national gathering' or something of that ilk.

just shows how many friends he has already. in for a life of "social butterfly"-ish-ness is our boy.

it was great really, there was over 120 attendees. just about everyone who has helped us with the wee snotmonster over the last 18 months was there, eating and drinking and making merry. we even had a bouncy castle so the children would leave the adults to their adult-type pursuits while learning how to launch themselves out the hall window to (hopefully) land in the bushes.

the party itself was great, everyone had enough to eat(!) and drink, there was talking all over the place .... and then there was the speech.

me. talking. in front of over 120 people. lucky i had the "pre speech beer(s)" handy. very lucky...

then it was all over.

now ... Harlow. he was great. he missed his afternoon sleep so as he could attend his party, and he handled it like the gentleman he will someday become. it also helped that he was passed around his many unofficial aunties etc who obligingly coo'd over him and kept his smiling and laughing until everyone had left. he burbled, he dribbled, he laughed during the awkward moments thus relieving those moments of their awkwardness. it was all good `:) champion...

everyone did leave eventually, loaded down with food. did i mention that we over catered? by about double? there was more than one family of 4 or more that went home with no need to cook that night... in the end we couldn't even give it away.

ah well ... it was worth it `:)