More News to Follow.....

Good News - the Dermatology Nurse is expected to be here within the next hour

Bad News - the GP changed one of James' creams yesterday and he reacted to it, which means that it started burning him and he started screaming. Thats the third cream that has done this. He also has an antibiotic cream as some parts of his eczema are infected again.

*Most GP's only get an hours training on skin care, my GP however only works at the GP practise one day a week because the rest of the week she works at the skin clinic. She specialises in dermatology. The only reason she has referred us now is because she does not have the resources to teach me how to do the wet wraps at the GP practise.

Eczema here, Eczema there, Eczema Everywhere

Depending on how well you know me or my family or you know how severe James' eczema is. You will know how it rules our lives. How I only wear certain clothing at home as he needs to be creamed 5-6 times (sometimes more) a day and the creams are oily. How only getting 3 hours sleep is almost normal in this house because he is so itchy. How we can only wash his hair once a week because of the special bath additives that go into his bath. How he only wears 100% cotton. How his bedding is all anti allergy and 100% cotton. How we have visited the doctor almost every Monday since the beginning of the year. How we have 5 different creams, 1 anti-histamine, 1 bath additive and 1 special shampoo that need to be used on him on a regular basis. How we have used adult strength creams, sedatives and antibiotics on him to treat the eczema and they all failed too. And how we are really getting impatient waiting for the dermatologist to contact us, because after 2.5 years of battle we have finally been referred to him/her. Here are 2 photo's of his eczema, so you know that I am not exaggerating. I did alter the colour on the second photo a bit, just because he was moving and the camera never picked up the redness properly. This is just a slight indication because he does have it all over, including in his scalp and over his eyes.

But just to show you that none of this gets James down, here is a photo of him trying to hide in his Daddy's closet. He is a proper little trooper.

It's puzzling

I decided that I would try and make dinner early tonight so that we can all eat together (this has not happened for about the last week) so while I was in the kitchen making some pasta dish for tonight James decided to stay in the lounge. I left him with no TV and what I cam back to surprised. I was very impressed with my son. We have some puzzles that we leave on a shelf at his height, and normally he drives me mad with them because he pours all the pieces together and then I need to sort out the puzzles. There are about 5 puzzles and the smallest one has 20 pieces. They are all 3+ or 4+ (years not months. So when I walked into the lounge and I found this -

I was pleasantly surprised. My 2.5 year old son had done the fire truck 20 piece puzzle all by himself. There was no one here to help him. I am impressed.

So, we got a more difficult one. Its like a road map the next one, and I did give him some guidance, but he managed to do most of it by himself

Does this piece fit here?

Mmmm, where is that missing piece?

So now, while I have been blogging this James has started on the next puzzle, its a 4 year + puzzle with 24 quite small pieces, and he is already a third of the way through.

Lazy lunch?

I think this gives a whole new meaning to a Lazy lunch.....

Ice Lollies

Summer days are approaching us now, and we have had lovely sunshine this weekend. It was lovely and hot, and that only means one thing, its time for ice creams. But, Gareth does complain that I give James too much ice cream, so I thought the way to get around this would be to make him some yoghurt ice lollies. Yesterday I went to Poundstretcher and I bought an 8 pack ice lolly mould and then we came home and James helped me make the ice lollies.

We added about 250g mulled strawberries, one banana, a cup of natural yoghurt, 2 spoons of creme fraiche and a few squeezes of honey together and put them all in the blender.

Blended them all together.

Adjusted the taste to suit us. And then I put the smoothie mixture in the mould to freeze (and then in the freezer, duh!)

James drank the left over smoothie mix.

And today he is enjoying the Yoghurt Ice Lollies, and trust me when I say that he really likes it, and Gareth is not complaining.

I am proud of myself...

I have been teaching myself to sew in the evenings while Gareth studies. And to explain my sewing ability, well lets just say that they only subject I failed in school was Needlework, its not a talent that I have. But today I finished my first project all by myself from start to finish.... and this is the result.....

Now we are trying to convince James that he needs to take the romper off. As you can see, there are some threads still hanging off of it, but he loves it. It is a bit wonky and lopsided in places, but I have learnt a lot. Next project is finishing off a Cape for James and then I am making him a Monster Protection Blanket because he has been scared of them a lot lately, and this fear seems to be growing.....

Monsters

As some of you know, James and I are hostages at home this week. James may not leave the house as he has German Measles, otherwise known as Rubella. We saw the doctor on Sunday and he said that the only treatment for German Measles is to rest, and paracetamol if the temperature gets too high. Well, have you ever asked a 2 year old to rest, its one of lifes jokes. I have been playing DVD's that he likes and trying to do some quiet activities like puzzles and read books. Unfortunately my son wants to run around and kick a ball and go bounce on the bed. Yes, he is sick, but he is two and that means that he takes extra long naps, but still has energy, but it also means that he screams at me a lot more and even the smallest of things will make him cry. Any suggestions on how to keep him rested will be well received.

This afternoon we build Monsters with his Megabloks.

This is the Monster that we built together

And this is a video of James wanting to build a Monster while I held my camera phone, that is why the quality is not great.

On tomorrow's agenda are drawing and playdough.