Autumn Nature Table

Frank enjoyed freshening up the nature table today.  

Autumn is my favourite season as I just wilt in the humid heat of summer and seem to come alive again as the air turns that little bit cooler and the sun sits that bit lower in the sky.

My boy seems to share my love of autumn and the feeling of gathering in and drawing close that comes with the shorter days and longer nights.

For the first time he decided that he wanted full artistic control over the nature table and went to work (once we had cleared it and I had wiped it down a bit) with a selection of the things we keep for it.

He chose to make a woodland scene complete with a fox chasing an unsuspecting duck and two cute hedgehogs setting up their winter homes.

We have two beautiful Ostheimer trees for the nature table and change them around as the seasons change.  

The pear tree here has white blossoms on the other side for the Spring season and then we have  a fir tree for winter.

And so the seasons shift and change.

Also this week we have celebrated, albeit a bittersweet celebration for this Mama, Frank's first wobbly tooth.  

And we step not just into Autumn but into a new phase of Frank's life.  

Milk teeth are on their way out and big teeth on their way in.

We are talking about this as being exciting though my heart is a little sore at all this growing up.

We are also taking chamomilla, a homeopathic remedy for teething as Frank was a bit freaked out about his tooth being so loose.

And this Mama is taking deep breaths as her boy gets more beautiful by the day as he grows towards the man he will become...

this boy

this boy is growing up

this boy has had a haircut

this boy adores Scooby-Doo

this boy is bright and full of energy

this boy loves stories

this boy loves to sword fight

this boy loves jacket potatoes ("jacket a-patoes")

this boy is artistic

this boy can mimic voices uncannily well

this boy loves "Almost Naked Animals"

this boy loves

And the week before last this boy was weighed at the hospital and his blood pressure taken, his HbA1c taken and his height measured.  

He has lost weight.

The hospital were telling me they are now officially "concerned".  I go home and Google "unexplained weight loss in children".  It's not pretty (no shit, Sherlock, right?) but he HAS NO SYMPTOMS.

He is fine. 

We are under the care of two separate hospitals for Frank's diabetes.  

One here in town for his general D-care and one in Cambridge for his pump.

They are both fantastic.  

We cannot fault them.

However, after a few days of calling one of them and asking for the latest blood test results so we could see if coeliac disease or maybe thyroid issues were at play here (and need I add that we were rather heavy hearted all that time), we were told that due to human error his weight was plotted wrongly on one of our previous visits and, whilst he hasn't gained much weight, has HAS NOT LOST ANY.

Good grief.  

That was four long days.

And on we go, taking it one day, maybe one week at a time.

This experience really highlighted for me the progress I have made in accepting diabetes, that uninvited guest who just won't bugger off, in our lives.

It is not the first thing out of my mouth when I meet someone.

I don't feel the need to blurt it out and I feel so much healthier for it.  

Frank is now of an age where he would possibly begin to feel "defined" by his diabetes as I blurt it out to new people anyway, when before now he was perhaps too young to take in what I was saying.

The one thing I am now very hot on though is not letting people get far in the "poor little boy, he can't have sweets" or "but he looks so healthy" or, as from my own bloody mother on the phone this evening (and on speakerphone no less, with Frank in earshot) "I suppose he'll go to school one day, but it's difficult with his (pauses to find the right word and then whispers it as though it is an profanity) "illness". 

Speakerphone was switched of smartly and mother's ridiculous inability to "get it" silenced for her grandson.

And on we go!

doily bunting

I have been crafting on and off.

Summer is not a time for lots of craftng for me as Frank and I tend to be out and about or just enjoying the garden.

So I tend to find time when I can fit it in between Lego and making cartoon books and beach trips and gardening.

My aim this year is to only use what I have at home and to buy nothing at all new if I can help it.  

It's a tough one sometimes, but I have a strong desire to clear things out every August and so using up some of my collection of thrifted doilies and table runners seemed like a grand plan.

Enter a little strip of bunting made from doilies and embroidered bits and bobs!

 

 ~ oooh, choosing the fabric was the most fun! ~

 ~ and in situ it looks fresh and fun ~

Bunting therapy, if you will.

 ***********************

We have had some diabetes-related scares recently but I am saving them for another post.  

Back with more on that tomorrow.

xxxx

that beach

Oh yes, it's summer for sure now and we spent a beautiful day at my favourite beach ...

All these pictures were taken as we left the beach hut that we had kindly been lent for the day and walked along the beach , en route to the van to make our way home.

We were tired, sun-kissed, sandy and at such peace with each other.

My heart was so happy in these moments.

 ~ the boy digs ~

 ~ oh, that beach ~

 ~ obligatory shot of my feet in the surf ~

 ~ writing his name ~

~ contemplating a bit more digging ~

Summer living is full for us this month, with family visits and fruit picking, late nights (it's the Olympics, you see, we have to see it all!!), concerts in catherdrals and football in the garden.  

This week saw me out for the count with some kind of virus, or maybe migraine (I've never had one but it felt like I have heard them described) for three days.  

Luckily lovely hubby stepped in on the day trips to farms and the like and now I am fighting fit and raring to go for another summer week.

Bring it on!