Nine years on...

Today is nine years on from “Day 1” which is when we arrived at Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital and we did not have a clue that 302 days later we would be in hospital still.

“Day 0” was yesterdays equivalent when we turned up at Torbay’s Louisa Carey Ward thinking not a lot was to happen after the GP’s referral.

Walking down the hill from dropping Heidi off at school this morning was a marked contrast to where we were at in 2006.  Today I wondered if this ‘blog had been deleted through inactivity and the passage of time and was pleased to still see it evident on the web, hence me posting on Face Book about how times fly.....

Heidi is seven now and doing very well at school.  She is looking forward to the summer holidays which loom, and going out cycling with Rachel.  I eventually got around to mending Heidi’s numerous punctures.  Even my bike has had new inner tubes this weekend and is ready to roll.

Wilf is 4 ½ now and is just getting to finish his pre-schooling next week.  He starts at Heidi’s school next term and yesterday went in for a couple of hours to see what it was like.  We did not get reports of any problems and it appears he palled up with two little ones – Danny and Charlie.  It will be very interesting to see how Wilf gets on at school as he is quite independent and spent a fair amount of time with Rachel who works from home.

Wilf is also to start very soon with a local child minder who lives in the village and he has taken a shine to her, and her little boy.  Hopefully this will give him more experience away from home with other people and give Rachel some more time back for herself.

We moved just over three years ago from Paignton to the village and the kids have a lovely garden in which to play safely.  This weekend saw them in the paddling pool with Emily most of the day whilst Rachel and I went out.  Wilf stayed in the longest and reluctantly got out later with chattering teeth.  A warm bath drew him out of his pool, back inside the house.

So much has happened in the last nine years in some ways and in other ways very little else has changed.

Heidi and Wilf regularly talk about Freddie and Wilf recognises his photograph. She regularly tells her school friends about him and seems comfortable with the whole scenario.  When my dad died in March of this year Heidi went out that evening and pointed up to Freddie’s twinkling star, and then saw another one, much brighter, and said “look Daddy – granddad is up there now!”