Child labour here! ;-) Except they were having lots of fun, so didn't know they were actually working! Shelling some peas for dinner - no, not homegrown or even local, but they were British and in-season and tasted lovely (from Lidl).
Clement thought the bowl would be more fun on his head, rather than containing the empty pea shells.
A happy & playful Abigail with her little brother!
Benjamin, looking off away from the camera it seems! :)Speaking of Benjamin, we finally got to see a dermatology nurse at the hospital last week! We had asked for a referral last year but the main nurse who deals with eczema was off work due to having an operation, so we "only" saw a dermatologist, who apparently was less qualified to help us than the nurse! So we didn't really get anywhere and I didn't pursue anything further. But last month I was feeling quite desperate with his eczema, so I phoned up the dermatology department to see if they'd let me speak to a nurse for advice. They let me talk to someone but said that my referral was no longer valid since 3 months had passed since I'd last had contact with them. So I had to see a local GP and ask if they'd write and ask for a referral again! The locum GP was very reluctant to refer me, saying there wasn't much more they could do for me there that a local GP couldn't! Grrr! But she did finally agree. So a few weeks later we got a phone call from dermatology to say they had a cancellation for the following week and would we like it. The timing couldn't have been better, as Benjamin's skin was getting to an extreme point again (as seems to happen at least every 3 weeks or so). However, when we turned up at 3:15pm on Tuesday last week, the lady at the desk told us there was nothing down to say Benjamin was meant to be seen, and the slots were all filled up with other young children. They couldn't find anyone to accept the blame for their mistake but said the nurse would still see Benjamin (thankfully!) but we'd need to wait till the end of the clinic (at least 4:20), so we had to wander around for an hour or so and came back, and eventually were seen at about a quarter to 5pm! Of course, by that stage and after such a long wait, Benjamin was exhausted and quite stressed out and couldn't really cope with being seen by the lady. :( She was able to see what the state of his skin was like and then Peter took him & Abigail out of the room so Benjamin could relax, and I got to talk to the nurse. She feels that Benjamin is very atopic and basically reacts to loads of things in his environment, making it very hard to prevent the eczema or keep it under control. I had wanted to know her opinion on using Fucibet Lipid Cream, as Benjamin's skin responds very well to it and clears up completely after only 5 days, but I'd been told that using it every 3 weeks was too frequent. It has a strong steroid in it (betamethasone) as well as an antibiotic, and the leaflet says to not use it on under 6s. She agreed that it's strong and we don't want to use it too frequently, but that it's important to manage the eczema, and that often strong steroids are necessary for someone who is so atopic. But she has prescribed a slightly less strong steroid called Elocon (mometasone furoate) to use in-between and hopefully allow us to go longer without using the Fucibet. She's also suggested an antihistamine which has a sedative in it, but I've not yet tried it on him, as he didn't react well to ones in the past. I might give it a try sometime if he's really restless/itchy, but hope to avoid using it if possible. Anyway, we'll see how things go over the next couple of weeks. I've also got some Dexeryl emollient to use on him, which we had a sample of last year. He seems to like it (something that rarely happens with any creams) so whilst it's not totally natural (has parabens, etc) it's not too thick and seems to help with the severe dry skin on his hands, so it would be nice if it helped a bit.
The racing Clement! :-)
Abigail in her pirate ship!
And while Abigail was busy being a pirate, Benjamin insisted that he was going to do schoolwork! It doesn't matter that he's only 3 years old, and that it's the summer holidays, this was his activity of choice! LOL
Not a very good self portrait! I was trying to take a picture of a maternity top that I made for myself! I've gotten totally fed up with trying to buy decent tops - can't find anything in shops that I like, and when I think something looks OK on the internet, it's never quite the right fit when it arrives (awful low neck-lines!). So at last, something that fits - is long enough to cover a tummy and has a good neckline! Now to find the time to make a couple of more to get me through the next 11.5 weeks! LOL
A pair of shorts I made for Benjamin, though he's not really wanting to look at the camera for me - despite the fact that he is always excited with something mummy makes for him! :)
Another pair of shorts I made for Benjamin (tho he's hiding them in this photo) and a dress for Abigail last night! I love this photo of them together though - cute faces, in my opinion, anyway! :-)
The two of them again!
Riding bikes in the sunshine earlier today
My lovely walking Clement! Yep, he's fully a walker now! He's ditched crawling in favour of walking - and it's so cute and fun!
The three of them hanging out together - literally! :-) (perhaps it's a good thing that Abigail likes to wear leggings under her dresses, as she's not exactly very lady-like! LOL)
The racing Clement! :-)
Abigail in her pirate ship!
And while Abigail was busy being a pirate, Benjamin insisted that he was going to do schoolwork! It doesn't matter that he's only 3 years old, and that it's the summer holidays, this was his activity of choice! LOL
Not a very good self portrait! I was trying to take a picture of a maternity top that I made for myself! I've gotten totally fed up with trying to buy decent tops - can't find anything in shops that I like, and when I think something looks OK on the internet, it's never quite the right fit when it arrives (awful low neck-lines!). So at last, something that fits - is long enough to cover a tummy and has a good neckline! Now to find the time to make a couple of more to get me through the next 11.5 weeks! LOL
A pair of shorts I made for Benjamin, though he's not really wanting to look at the camera for me - despite the fact that he is always excited with something mummy makes for him! :)
Another pair of shorts I made for Benjamin (tho he's hiding them in this photo) and a dress for Abigail last night! I love this photo of them together though - cute faces, in my opinion, anyway! :-)
The two of them again!
Riding bikes in the sunshine earlier today
My lovely walking Clement! Yep, he's fully a walker now! He's ditched crawling in favour of walking - and it's so cute and fun!
The three of them hanging out together - literally! :-) (perhaps it's a good thing that Abigail likes to wear leggings under her dresses, as she's not exactly very lady-like! LOL)Ok, sleep for me! Goodnight.
Benjamin shaking hands with the Lifeboats mascot :)
