Mandarin Chocolate Roll

Yeah, I haven't quite got the hang of making swiss rolls, this is not the first time I ended up with a chocolate circle! ...filled with freshly whipped unsweetened cream and tinned mandarins, my favourite of all the swiss roll type cakes. With cream cakes I usually have black coffee, even though I usually take milk, it's just perfect to cut through the creaminess and richness. Emm loves all the German cakes, too, as you can see, my mum makes sure of her getting a taste of all the best cakes, when we're over.

Health updates, Emm and Ti both had EUAs and FAs 3 weeks ago, Ti needed more laser, the consultant said he has avascular areas all around the retina, the areas they lasered the first time had calmed down, but the other areas that they hadn't really looked at, before, had started to produce abnormal bloodvessels. They couldn't really see his retinas properly because he was scrunching his eyes closed and moving his head at the follow up 1 week ago, but they said there were no 'dramatic' changes or leaking. We'll now have to hope and wait for the next EUA at the beginning of July

Emm had a visiting teacher over, who was just lovely. There was no help or encouragement from the hospital, but I gathered lots of information online and contacted the NCBI who've been great. The teacher said that Emm is coping really well with the vision she has, and that with close up work, it hasn't held her back at all. She called her pleasant and lovely and all sorts of nice things and said several times that she's doing really well for her age. She showed me some games that I can play with Emm to help her practice depth perception, which her eyes don't give her. I'm glad she's doing so well, the more she can learn and understand now, the better, because if there is more damage to her eye sight in the future that's going to be hard for her and might slow her development then. And her goodnaturedness might suffer, too, if she gets frustrated and upset with sightloss.

We've settled into routines with Ti, but he still hasn't shown any inclination to feed at certain times, it's different every few days. He does sleep most of the evenings and nights, most days, which is great. His 'abnormal eye movements' have calmed down dramatically, as have his episodes of crying and arching his back, we're hoping it'll stay that way. He is 'pukier' now, but doesn't seem to be as bothered by his stomach.  He's a happy little fella most of the time, and very strong, and putting on plenty of weight.

I've looked into donating milk to the milk bank in Irvinestown, which serves all of Ireland, but the amount of milk required worries me, I don't get as much milk when I express, this time around. It would take me a long time to get the required amount of bottles, and our freezer is so small... Now if we were to get a big freezer to put into the shed, that would make it easier, but I don't know if that's going to happen this year. It would mean leading electricity to the shed, and ideally, building a little side roof to the house to store the bikes, to actually make space in the shed, and there are so many other things we'd like to/have to spend our money on. 

We had a lovely relaxed weekend this week.
Yesterday I went to the shops (on my own!) and bought a wetsuit for Emm in TKMaxx, in anticipation of better weather, and a cute little dress by 'me too'  for a tenner, and baby presents for 2 little girls. It was great to have a little time to myself, I just wish I hadn't spent so much of it buying groceries and household things and clothes for kids. My idea was to just go and get the paper, and read it in starbucks, but I new that wouldn't happen once I was there, too much temptation to shop. (I also have this idea in my head that I want an eReader, not sure why as I hardly ever get time to read! The visiting teacher was mentioning them, and how great it is to be able to change the font size, so I looked at some of them) In the evening P was out, and I brought the kids along to a friend's house, where we had an impromptu dinner party with 3 moms and 6 children. We'd all brought some food, the kids entertained each other and we got to sit down at the grown up table and have a chat and some simple but lovely food, and a little glass of sauvignant blanc.
Today I was supposed to get a sleep in, but didn't get any extra sleep, I'm not good at going back to sleep after being awake for a good 40 minutes, feeding, changing nappies and entertaining Ti while P got Emm dressed, and especially not if there's lots of noise downstairs! P's much better he hardly wakes up to mind T while I get Emm ready...
As Emm was not going to sleep for her nap ("I'm not going to my bed, ever again!") we put the two of them in the buggy and went for a sunny windy walk, and then into the car, to the shopping centre for P to get a new jacket (another success in TKMaxx!) and to have some Piri Piri chicken for an early dinner. By the time we got home, Emm was so tired, she watched one episode of 'Humf' and then went upstairs, even though another one was starting!

If she's tired she'll often say 'I'm not tired' while heading for the stairs. Or 'I don't want to go to bed' while willingly getting into her PJs and running ahead to the bathroom to brush her teeth, she's so funny!