Thoughts on Fireman Sam

 General  10 Responses »
Apr 292012
 

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I started writing about Fireman Sam as a facebook message.. but then realised that I had a bit more to say on the matter.

Drew and I discuss the various childrens programmes we often find ourselves watching more than the lil squirts do. Bananas in PJ’s for one! A conversation about which one is smarter resulted in a little facebook debate on the DTLS page. I think B1 is smarter than B2.

Lately we’ve been watching more Fireman Sam (purely as we have to movies aswell as the shows). Now MissC LOVES Fireman Sam – her face lights up when he comes on and she shouts out Fireman Sam is here to rescue! 
We even have the Fireman Sam doll, when you press his hand he says various catchphrases. Like ‘Great Fires of London’. I had to order this toy from the UK. I have a slight obsession with toys that say things. Perhaps I should do a vlog about them.
Before I started this post I read alot about Fireman Sam on google. And he is quite interesting, so is the story behind Fireman Sam and the characters.
Fireman Sam Online
Drew has also often told me little facts about Fireman Sam – he loves imdb and googling things.
 
Fireman Sam has been around since I was a wee lil lass. 1985 original series started in Welsh. Then put on in English in 1987. I grew up with alot of UK based tv shows like Fireman Sam, Joshua Jones, Brum, Sooty and Sweep, T-bag and the list really can go on! I would love to see them back on ABC4kids one day soon!
 
There are been 3 different series, and lately ABC4kids are playing the latest computerised series (instead of the plasticine ones). Which is fabulous as I have watched the old ones over and over again with MissC. Nice to watch new episodes.


Now to be honest who wouldn’t what a hot sexy single man come rescue you everytime you get into a “lil bit of bother”. I know the countless times I have been stuck up a tree, fallen down a well, got stuck on the roof, caught in a fire started by my pet Robot Bentley, put my head through the bars in a fence. You know the usual stuff you’ll need a fireman for!

Image Source
 
There are a few things that bug me about Fireman Sam the TV show:
  • When they call for help – they dial 999 and then ask for Fireman Sam – not The Fire Brigade or Police or an Ambulance. It’s like all they think of is Fireman Sam can rescue them no one else.
  • Dilys (the shopkeeper) says the wrong sounding word whenever she talks. Yet no one corrects her.
  • Norman is always getting in trouble (most of the episodes are based around his antics) and at the end of the episode they always laugh at him as if he will never do it again. “Oh Norman ha ha ha”.
  • Elvis, although a great character doesn’t really know much about being a Fireman. He is very absent minded for someone who needs to know alot about safety.
  • James Jones has a very squeeky girls voice rather than a ‘boys voice’. Bugs the crap out of me.
  • Mike Flood would not have any fingers, toes or a nose left if he was real.
  • The town doesn’t have a chemist, or a policeman.
  • There are plenty of houses yet not many characters (or extra’s) walking around.
  • The Station Officer is suppose to be in charge, yet he knows about the same amount as Elvis.
  • The children hardly go to school. And where is the school?
  • Penny really should hook up with Fireman Sam and have a wedding.
I seem to find myself wondering if there is a little town like Pontypandy in Wales. I know a few people in a town I use to live in, in the UK, that Fireman Sam characters could have been based on!


Now I am on the hunt to find all my the old tv shows I use to watch as a wee nipper to show my lil squirts, hope they will love them as much as I did.

What tv show do you remember watching as a wee nipper that you would love to see again!

My lil man and his flexible legs

 General  13 Responses »
Apr 242012
 

When MasterS was born, I was petrified.. the love for him was unconditional. The gene machine threw us a curve ball with his strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes – where as the rest of us have brown hair and very dark brown eyes! That made him all the more special! 
But I was petrified as had no idea how to bring up a boy! He has those lil bits that point and pee all over me – his aim got pretty good too!

Considering MasterS was our second child, I knew how to handle a new born baby. When MasterS started screaming after every feed, I thought oh no! We have another screaming child! MissC was a screamer and she threw up alot and the only thing that calmed her was a dummy. However a dummy didn’t work for MasterS. He refused to take it.

At our 6 week appointment with the Child Health Nurse (CHN) I brought it up, she wasn’t the normal CHN I normally saw, so it was refreshing to ask questions that I wouldn’t normally ask. She asked if he was a chucker (her exact words). I said no, he’d drink all his milk and then cry for about 15 minutes before settling down. She diagnosed MasterS with silent reflux straight away! She told me to go to the Dr’s and get a prescription for Silent Reflux medication in liquid form. I was seeing the Dr that afternoon for his injections and she was hesitant with the diagnosis.. until after watching him for a good 15 minutes as he poked his tongue in and out.. MasterS was on liquid medication for almost 2 months. We saw the difference in him straight away! It was a wonderful change in his personality.. Such a happier baby!

So life went on as normal for my lil man. He was developing normally, slowly hitting the milestones.. he smiled, he laughed *alot*, he clapped, he rolled, he sat. Because he was now such a happy baby, I was able to leave him on his play mat and play with MissC while he watched us giggling and clapping and occasionally rolling.

I started to notice at 5 months that he couldn’t roll from his tummy to his back. I also noticed that he didn’t like to put any weight on his legs.. Whenever we held him, he never seemed to want to put his feet down, when we put him in a sitting position and move him onto his tummy or try and stand him up, his legs would be straight out, never bending, never wanting to stand or get into the crawl position. Always crying out in pain. I was worried. Google made me worry. My friends and family said he was only young, he’ll get there. I continued to worry. The local doctor said this was normal, that he wasn’t ready and to leave him until his 8 month checkup.

 At 6.5 months I finally phoned the CHN, she adviced me to make an appointment with another CHN who specialises in fine and gross motor skills. When we went for the meeting she asked me how MasterS was developing, was he hitting his milestones. I told her yes, everything. She asked if he could pincer grip. I said yes because we were Baby Led Feeding him and he has been able to feed himself now for a few weeks. She told me that she could refer me to a paediatric physio, however they won’t see a baby until they are 8 months old. She told me that his hips were fine and to come back then for an assessment.

So off I went feeling a little disappointed, but knew that by 8 months if he wasn’t putting weight on his feet atleast I knew something was wrong and it wasn’t just me! We tried to encourage his standing, but he cried out in pain that we left it alot of the time. He was still hitting his other milestones, so no one was concerned (except for me!).

I borrowed a walker and a jumping jolly off some friends to see if he would put his feet down on that. (yes I know they are bad for development but it wasn’t for him to play in, it was to see if he would bare weight on his legs.) He did not. He bounced a little bit, but he never locked his legs to stand. 

But things didn’t change, he still wouldn’t stand and he would always sit at his highchair with his legs up over the table.

When he turned 8 months old, MasterS started crawling. It wasn’t your normal crawl. MissC got up and crawled like she had been doing it for years at 6.5 months – but I shall never compare my children.

It was a caterpillar crawl, his bum would go up, arms stretched out to pull him along and one leg would push, the other leg was dragging behind him. Slightly commando crawling.

We went to the CHN for his 8 month checkup. Again it wasn’t the CHN I normally see and after his check (He was in the 70% for his height and 40% for his weight), this lady said she can refer us now to a public physio. Then told me it could be up to a 6 month wait, she said now that he is crawling he can get the hang of it and will start pulling himself up in no time. However I could always call a private physio if I wanted – but they cost alot.

On the Monday I went to meet up with my Mothers Group – who are all now having/had their 2nd child and currently we all have pigeon pairs (bit freaky!). I explained to the ladies about my concern. I showed them how MasterS was still not standing, and would rarely move his legs out of the sitting position and how he was crawling funny. One of the ladies had a boy who didn’t crawl until he was 8 months old, but she said he was lazy and just didn’t want to move from his sitting position, he crawled fine once he started and always stood on his legs.

I got an email about a week later from a friend in my Mothers Group (plus she is a friend of my sisters!) who said that I really need to make an appointment with a private phsyio, that she had spoken to a friend of hers who was a physio (but not a paediatric one) and said that it was very concerning he was crying out in pain from standing.

So I went on google and found a paediatric phsyio close by and called her for an appointment. I got one for 2 days later! She was quite concerned when I explained MasterS’s ‘symptoms’.

Private Physio appointment: 
She checked over his legs, and moved them round, and checked his hips, wrote a few things down, asked me questions about whether he eats with his hands (yes he is Baby Led Fed and loves eating with his hands). She asked all the regular milestone questions – yes he has done them all, except stand with baring weight on his legs or crawl properly. I also mentioned that he has always ‘flapped like a parashooting man’ when he was on his tummy.

She then proceeded to put him on the floor and play with him, making him reach out and grab toys and put him on his knees to reach up for things and played peekaboo and moved him around from sitting to onto his knees.
She then told me he had very flexible legs, and that there was no muscle tone around his hips, which is why he is not baring any weight on his legs, and that he cries out in pain after about 45 seconds, because he gets sore and tired.
She said we have to teach him to stand before he will crawl properly.
She showed me some exercises to do with him and told me to buy a ‘Play Activity Station’ that is height adjustable and he will be able to stand in it and bounce, to help strengthen his muscles (not a walker, a stationary one). 

Went home and explained all this to Mum and Drew and we went straight onto Gumtree and found a play activity station for $40, so I phoned up and we went to look at it. It was in need of a scrub and a minor stitching, but it was in great condition, and we will only be using it for a few weeks/months before he will be hopefully grown out of it because he is standing and walking!! And then we can sell it or give it too my older sister who is having her 3rd child in May (2 days before MasterS’s 1st birthday!).

We did his exercises for a couple of times a day for a few minutes (he got tired quickly), but he loved being on his knees and rocking. He loved sitting standing sitting standing – giggles like crazy! And he loved bouncing up and down and spinning around in his play activity station.

 We started down this path three months ago. We have been going to the physio every 2 weeks up until last month. Then we had a month off and went last Thursday. With MasterS now 11 months old, he has progressed so well, even the physio said she was so impressed with his progress. 


 He has become so much stronger in his legs and man has he got that commando crawl down packed! Once the gate to the kitchen is opened he is the first one there – trying to get his freedom!

MasterS can get up onto his hands and knees, although he doesn’t know what to do once he does. Except when he can play on my computer. He will sit up on his knees and hold out his hands for you to pick him up.

In the last week he has started pulling himself up onto his feet at the couch, but also once he gets there he doesn’t know what to do and usually cries to get down. He still has very flexible feet and legs, as once he is standing he can’t pull himself in to the proper upright position – usually at an angle holding onto the couch with all his strength.

This weekend he started getting up on his feet and hands with his bum in the air – like he is doing yoga! 

We still call him our Jelly Man, because he wibble wobbles when he is standing, but he has determination that as soon as we put him back down he is back standing up again. 

His legs still are far apart, and one of his foot turns out. He still drags that one leg and I doubt he will learn to crawl properly before he walks. But who says what is ‘proper’ crawling. 

One thing that has increased is the amount of washing – his tshirts gets quite dirty from crawling around on his tummy all day. And so does the toes of the one foot that pushes him along. I find it a little amusing.

Papsmear – Part 3 – Waiting Game

 General  1 Response »
Apr 022012
 

So its been just over a month since I found out I have HPV CIN III.
Papsmear Posts:
See 
See 

I originally booked an appointment with a Private Gyno (and getting the forecasted amount I would have to pay). Drew and I sat down and had a lengthy discussion about the money, we also spoke to a obs/gyno friend of ours who advised us that we could go to our local public hospital (which is where we had both MissC and MasterS) and should be able to get an appointment with the obs/gyno that delivered both lil squirts!


Drew and I decided to go the public system route. We pay top health cover, yet the things that we are suddenly needing cover for, doesn’t actually amount to much. Our dentist bills are minimal though – so thats not too bad! Plus we can use our health cover when being admitted to a public hospital and get good benefits.


Anyway back to the point.


Now we are going down the public system route, and are currently awaiting an appointment with my local hospital/Gyno. This hospital use to be private until 5 years ago and only has approx 50 beds, it specialises in maternity mainly and is less than 5 minutes drive from our house.


I’ve been waiting a lil under a month for an appointment, I know the hospital has my referral, but it needs to be ‘read’ by a doctor before making an appointment. So the wait is on.


Now the wedding is over (I made myself forget this issue and concentrate on having a beautiful day), I have been able to start sorting out other things in my life, this issue has been playing on my mind alot, and my terrible addiction to Dr Google, is making things worse!


I guess I am scared that it won’t be a simple biopsy, laser surgery and that it might have developed in the last month into something more scary… when you get told some bad but treatable news, you really do want it dealt with straight away and not play the waiting game.


If I had gone private, I would be see a doctor I don’t know this tuesday. Instead I am waiting to see someone I know, am comfortable with, know they will tell me everything, and yes it may be another month before I get an appointment, but I have chosen this path.


My sister went to our local public hospital when she had HPV CIN III when she was younger, and she said that once she got that appointment, everything was done so quickly she knew it was just as fast if she was private. 
She advised me that if I was to go for my appointments, to get someone to drive me down and pick me up, as one time they gave her a general aesthetic and she couldn’t drive home.


I am glad my sister is here to advise me on this issue as she’s been through the same thing, but also so happy that she is currently living in Perth (after moving over from Townsville last month). she is here in person to talk to instead of over the phone!


I also have a twitter friend who is currently going through the same issue, and it is comforting to know that I have her support as she has mine.


So now the waiting game is on.


When was your last papsmear? Have you made your appointment!