"Me playing with cars."

Frank in disguise
That's MY boat
Reading time
Granny Ro time
Picnic time
Frank loves jam
Arf digs persimmons
Arf the pony
The 65th dalmation

I was trying to come up with a title so have gone with Frank's suggestion, as you can see...

All is good again in our house - and a well-timed visit from Granny Ro. Arf is mended, sleeping and eating well, and has two new teeth! His wound has healed over and only looks like a scratch, plus he's leaning over like a yoga-pro leading us to believe it doesn't bother him at all. If you look carefully at the persimmon photo, you can see how smart he is - the fruit kept slipping out of his grip so he figured out how to hold onto it using his bib. Kind of a furtive look in those eyes, though!

Frank has been looking after Arf incredibly well, reading him books, singing to him ('Skidily dinky dinky doo, I love you') and even letting him play with his precious cars. He's loving day care and hasn't wanted to leave the last few times and is always surrounded by his crew who have been known to give 'Frank's Mum' a goodbye kiss too.

Dougal had a (much needed?) weekend away tramping while the rest of the whanau and Granny Ro went to Iris' third birthday party. Three!!!

Boys needing food and attention and Granny Ro deserves another cuppa. Thank you for all the love re: Arthur's op. It worked.

Home safe and sound

I suspect that most of our regular readers (yes, both of you) knew about Arthur's dodgey kidney.

Now to look at him you would have no idea there was the slightest bit wrong, but after many scans and checks at the hospital the decision was taken to get the dodgey one out as it can cause health problems in later life.

So today our brave wee man went in for his op. He went in at 0700 (last feed at 0130) and had to hang about until noon - amazing bonnie lad to hang out this long with NO food or drink. Just a fair amount of dedicated mum and dad distractions. Finally he went in...

And came out fine!

2 hours later he was back in recovery room, had some water and a 2 hour nap. Then woke for a big bottle, feed of apple muesli, charm the pants off the hospital staff and discharge by 1800!

Yep, thats how tough this boy is - have a kidney out as day surgery. Do not try that at home folks.

He is now home, sleeping in his own bed. We are very happy and relieved.

We are therefore having a small sipping bourbon, specially and personally exported from the states by Pappy as a present from Arthur's uncle Hamish. This is none of your Jim Beam crap, no, this is fine small batch good old boy sipping Boar-bon (as they say down south).

So here's to Arthurs health - great to have him home!!!!!

ps. this is post 100. Clearly a fortuitous landmark in the history of this blog.
pps. for those wondering, Frank is entertaining his G'Marg and Pappy

pps. Apparently he will be back in the swing of things in no time - lie tomorrow almost. No wrestling with Frank or Dad for a week or so though

Queen's Birfday Weekend

Another attempt at a family photo - there's always someone looking away!

The boys with Aunty Emily and Jeremy.
Arf inundated with toys - thanks, Frank!

Frank and Lucia.

A quick catch up - I have Arfalarfa on my knee, 'helping'. He says, "Dardarg gadarga." He sounds a bit like the Swedish chef from the Muppets when he gets going. I think he's becoming The Boss these days. Yesterday he had a great long speech which went something along the lines of, "Frank, please stop yelling. I don't like it. It gives me a headache. And Mum, stop being grumpy with Frank. It's not helping really, is it? I mean, is it the worst thing in the world that he's spilling a cup of water all over the essays you have to mark? Or that he thinks it's fun to throw everything you need for cooking down the stairs? Now, let's all take deep breaths and try to get along."

Excitingly, we had Milz here for the long weekend and finally got to meet her beau, Jeremy. Frank was in heaven, feasting on chips, sliding down their legs and having an audience to sing and dance for, while Arthur preferred to chill out on Jeremy's knee with a bottle (or pull Aunty Emily's hair). Fun times.