Gingerbread house - School holiday fun

We have finally finished our gingerbread house. It is not quite as pretty looking as I had hoped but I'm trying to be OK with that. I bought a kit from Coles and added some extra lollies. I love Freckle chocolates and so do my DDs. And the make get roof tiles.

Side view of fake chimney

The front yard has a Christmas tree, a Snowman and a Gingerbread "person". You'll just have to believe me.

The school holidays have been trying my parenting skills. The four girls are full of beans and tiring me out but we have sqeezed in some fun. The girls aren't used to be all at home for more than two days in a row and have taken a bit of time to learn to play well with others. Hopefully things will continue to improve. I'm sure people having been praying for me as then have gotten better since taking to friends from my church community group. I'll have reinforcements of the adult kind from next week as DH is taking two weeks leave.

The photoes are taken with my nice new camera in my nice new kitchen. Hopefully I'll get some kitchen photos up soon.

Back view

A more accurate diagnosis - Not Type 1 - Neonatal Diabetes

Dealing with diabetes is hard. Looking after a newly diagnosed baby is harder. How much was she drinking at a Breastfeed? I guessed. I had no idea of how she was feeling. I most probably missed lows and highs because I didn't test at exactly the "right" times but we made it through. After Miss F was discharged daily phone calls to the on-call Paed endo and more education session at the hospital were the new "normal". Miss F reduced her number of feeds in weeks after diagnosis so much. From 5 breastfeeds and 3 bottles every day to 3 breastfeeds and a bottle if she was low in a just a month or two.


We gradually reduced the calls to the endocrinologist and started making decisions about insulin dosages ourselves. I worked out how much food she could have for snacks without making her blood sugar spike with her long acting insulin and how much short acting insulin she would need to cover her meals. I tried to keep the times of her breastfeeds fairly constant to make that as predictable as possible in amongst balancing the carbs of her meals and insulin doses. It was quite hard to come up with low or no carb foods suitable for a baby that has just started solids. As I introduced foods I had to worry about how much of it she ate and if she spat some out.

We had to lance her skin at least 5 times a day to test her blood. Usually it was more because if she was low you would need to check again later to check that the apple puree or juice we had used to treat the low had helped bring up her blood sugar. If she wanted to eat something we would need to check her BGL to see if she needed more insulin to cover the food or try to work out if she had enough insulin in her system to cope with extra carbs. Sometimes I would look at her beautiful little legs before I put an insulin pen into her but know I had to do it to keep her alive.

I had certainly never heard of Neonatal Diabetes but I remember asking one of the diabetes educators at the first education session after hospital admission if there are other types of diabetes. Ones not caused by an auto-immune response but with something going wrong in the pathway to producing insulin. Little did I know how close to the truth I was.

When she was diagnosed with diabetes I felt we were given lots of information about managing diabetes in children but not infants. I think there was one page on toddlers in the book we were given. Most of my search for information centred around infants with diabetes. I searched and searched the internet. I came a across a bit of information about Neonatal Diabetes. After looking at some of that info I thought it sounded a lot like Miss F. Low birth weight, Failure to thrive, urination, presentation of symptoms before six months, etc. One things I wasn't sure about was if she tested positive for auto-antibodies at diagnosis.

I wanted to her to get tested immediately but I had to make an extra appointment to see a Dr at the Clinic to be able to discuss doing DNA testing as I didn’t want to be waiting the 3 months to the next appointment to get the ball rolling. I asked about her antibody results. Once the Paed Endo #2 looked at her initial test results and saw that she had no antibodies they were happy to do the tests
At diagnosis one of the younger doctors asked Paed Endo #1 if they would do DNA testing. He said not yet. I didn’t even know why DNA testing would need to be done. So the tests were done and the wait began. I did more searching for information about the various forms of Neonatal Diabetes. It became clear to me that some forms responded to oral medication and other didn't. So I spent a lot of time praying that it would be a type that responds well to oral drugs. The more I read the more I was convinced Miss F would get a positive result I just wasn't sure which type of Neonatal Diabetes it would be.

Breast feeding a baby with diabetes made it a bit harder as she stopped taking each feed. I had to make sure she was getting enough other food so it wouldn’t affect her blood sugar levels.
While we were waiting to the DNA results Miss F had her first birthday and we definitely wanted to celebrate her making it through her first eventful year. At her first birthday party we had to test her BGL and give her more insulin before she could have even a piece of her cake.

Also while we waited Miss F and I went to Camp Diabetes. It was so helpful meet other parents and receive more education. The JDRF peer support person I was assigned encouraged me to go on camp and meet others. It was the best advice I have received.

After I was given the positive DNA results for KCNJ11 (Kir6.2) R201H our next appointment was made for late December. I asked Paed Endo #1 if I would have to wait until then to find out more and he reassured me that they would be in contact before then. I then came home and could focus on the particular mutation Miss F has in my search for information. I found a number of articles about the successful transfer of patients with KCNJ11 mutations (Some with the exact R201H mutation) and also protocols for transitioning patients. When a doctor called they said that transitioning would be discussed at the next appointment (nearly 3 months away). I said that didn’t seem right as I had information on how to transition and knew that patients with the exact mutation had transferred. The next phone call lead to some e-mails back and forth with articles and protocols and selecting a date to transition.

I have had to search for information about Neonatal diabetes myself. The hospital hasn’t given me any information about Neonatal diabetes except to point me to the UK group who discovered the gene mutations. I guess they know that I am an informed adovcate for Miss F but it would have been nice for them to be actively supportive of my search for information.

I have a Bachelors degree in Science and a Graduate Diploma in LIbrary and Inforamtion Studies so my searching for information wasn't just google. I searched medical journals online and anyway I could get access to articles including going to the campus libraries so search myself. The more I found out the more targeted I could be in my search for information.

I contacted the UK group and found out about their Neonatal Diabetes Open day held in August 2009. I have received some information from them. I also asked them for contact details of others with Neonatal Diabetes particularly in Australia. They have been able to give me details of a couple of families in Australia. Privacy rules have been a bit of a pain with this as they had to contact the doctors would had to contact their patients to see if they were happy to to be put into contact with me. I understand privacy and patient confidentitally is important but it sure can slow communication down.
I also contacted the Kovler Diabetes Center in the USA and have joined their study and forum. I have spoken to one of their doctors and he was very helpful explaining things and answering questions. Finally I could ask question directly with someone who had some experience with Neonatal Diabetes.

I have been able to talk to two families here in Australia whose children have Neonatal Diabetes. One of the children has Transient Neonatal Diabetes and doesn't currently require any treatment. The other child is now on oral medication.

Last November Miss F was admitted to hospital to transition to oral medication. We used a CGM to monitor her BGL during the transfer. They gradually decreased her insulin and increased the glibenclamide over a number of days. Her pancreas started making its own insulin. We no longer have to monitor every bite of food Miss F eats but she will require still medication to keep her alive for the rest of her life. We still monitor her BGL 4 times a day.

If she was born and diagnosed even 6 years earlier we would have had to wait for this discovery. The first person to transition from insulin to an oral sulphonylurea only did so in 2004. Miss F’s BGL control has been a lot better since changing over to oral medication. Her HbA1C (measure of glucose on Haemaglobin- which indicates control of past 3 months) has gone from 16% at diagnosis, 7.8% (after 7months on insulin therapy) to 5.3% (after 9 months on glibenclamide). Her BGL is more stable and doesn’t fluctuate so high or low.

The highs and lows of Swimming, and Sick ,Sick Sick.

The weather is warming up here and DH took all the girls swimming yesterday. When I tested Miss F for dinner just an hour after they got back from the pool she was 3.2 (57.6). (Anything under 4 is a hypo or low.) She seemed fine but I gave her extra carbs with her dinner and her normal dose of medication. When I checked her before I went to bed her BGL was 5.2 (93.6). She had eaten afternoon tea before going to the pool. I know that many T1s have problems with swimming and lows. Has anybody had any experience with this and Neonatal Diabetes? Thankfully everyone had a great time swimming, so we will just have to learn how to manage swimming, medication, food and BGLs. Always learning.

Miss F is now 26mo and has been on Glibenclamide (Glyburide) for just over 10 months. Things have been going well for the most part. She has had some non-symptomatic lows when sick earlier this year but we have gave her some apple puree and her BGL has come up. When she was sick again recently I reduced her dose to half normal dose and didn’t have the same problem. I then gradually increased the dose as her BGL numbers increased. It was a vomiting bug duing the school holiday break and it is quite funny to watch a 2yo vomit, take 2 steps and vomit some more. But then I had to clean it all up. Not so funny.

The rest of the house also were to varying degrees and varying symptoms. We had to cancel three playdates and the children that were well at the time went a bit stir crazy being quarantined with the sick people.

Missing in action.

I have even more busy than usual for the past month or two. We have had two birthday's and have organised a kitchen reno on top of the normal things to keep a family of six running.

We have taken some progress photos of the kitchen, so I will share those soon. I need to get them on the computer first. Actually getting the kitchen put in seems to be easier than picking all the appliances and features. There are endless choices (some are out of the reach of our budget) for cupboards, colours, benchtops, drawers, taps, sinks. You get the idea.

One of the things that has happened in the last month is on the diabetes front. Something that added just a bit extra stress each week was heading to the hospital to get DD#4 F's oral medication. We get a suspension for the ease of given an accurate dose and being able to change the dose easily as she grows. The hospital will only give the suspension a shelf life of 1 week as they don't have test data for for any longer. My local pharmacy starting compounding a month or two ago so I thought I would see if they could make it for us. Long story short. They can and have. We are on to week 4 of our first bottle and all seems to be going fine with her BGLs. They only problem is the cost. I put in claim to our private health insurance this week but I don't know if it will be covered. It costs more than 10 times the hospital phamacy price to get it from the local phamacy BUT it very convenient. The jury is still out if we will be able to continue to get it locally long term.

DH has just gotten back from his bible study and he wants me to tell you all how special he is. DH is special.

Remembering the Ekka - Fun Friday

I'm still playing catch up for August so this post is about the annual Royal Brisbane Show (Ekka). Our family went on People's Day Wednesday 10th August, which is the day of the local public holiday. We only decided the night before that we might go so I had a search of the official website to see what would be the main attractions that we would want to see. We quickly decided that seeing the fireworks would be a highlight so we would go later in the day so the children wouldn't get too tired.

We decided to not tell the girls about the plan in case the weather wasn't suitable. We had planned for a kitchen designer to visit us about lunch time as well so we planned to fit things in the day OK. We wanted to leave for the Ekka at about 2:30pm. The kitchen designer did a very through job and by the end of his visit DH was hurrying him up so we could get going. He left at 2:15 and we were out the door by 2:30pm. I don't think we have ever gotten ready to go out so quickly before.

We entered near the children's sideshow alley so some rides for the girls were first on the agenda. We then headed to the dog pavilion and then the Agricultural Hall (with big displays made of fruit & veges). I remember seeing similar displays as a child. We then headed for some afternoon tea and then Animal Boulevard. There were plenty of animals on display, horses, fish, birds, ewes giving birth, beef cattle, dairy cows being milked and an animal nursery. The 4 girls really enjoyed seeing all the animals. While we were there we saw a family from school and mum who was in my Mother's group when Miss C was a baby, I haven't since her for over 6 years. A few more rides were then on the cards. Dodgems were a favourite for DH (big kid) and Miss C.

I then persuaded the rest of the family to look at the cooking and crafts displays. The decorated cakes were impressive and the other baking made us all feel hungry. I enjoyed looking at the sewing and handicrafts. The girls were interested for a while but we skipped the painting and photography sections.

Strawberry ice creams and show bags were next on the agenda but the lines for both meant a change of plans. It was time for dinner. At least one Dagwood dog (corn dog) was consumed but we didn't give in to the pleas for fairy floss. After dinner we searched for seats in the stands around the arena to watch the night program. We ended up walking to the opposite side of the arena to get seats in the third back row.
Once the family was settled I headed back to the other side of the arena to get Strawberry ice creams. I really wanted one. It would make my Ekka experience complete.
This is the official description from here.  The Ekka Strawberry Sundae is mouth-watering top to bottom-from the crunchy wafer cone to the smooth vanilla ice-cream, sweet chopped strawberries, delicious awardwinning handmade gourmet ice-cream, swirls of fresh cream and topped off with a tasty fresh Queensland strawberry.
 I search for another stand with a shorter line but I ended up in the long line waiting for 6 ice creams. I then had to very gingerly walk back to our seats, with strawberries threatening to fall and general ice cream wobbles. I am saw I was a sight. I made it back and ice creams were consumed as we watched a precision driving team, motocross stunts and Monster trucks. I could not believe how exciting my DD's were to see these motorised acts.
I missed on the National anthem and some cattle mustering. The night was finished off with a great fire works display. Miss F had the best smile on her face. She really loved it.

I am really glad that we made the effort to go with all the children. I haven't been since before children and DH took DD#1 C & #2 D 4 years ago so they didn't remember it this time. I was almost due with DD#3 and could barely walk, so I didn't go that time. I remember going with my grandparents as a child so I hope the older girls might remember this when they are older. Great memories for us anyway.

A bit behind

I haven't posted for a while. Sorry for the silence. Any opportunities I have had I haven't been able to get my thoughts together.

I'll go back to where I left off. Jelly Beans - Diabetes Camp. It was great. All the girls had a great time. They made friends and hung out. Miss C even started swapping clothes with her new friends! She is not even 8yo yet. I am glad that they had a such good time. They spent a bit of time fascinated by who had diabetes and who didn't and then it wasn't even an issue. Miss E who turned 4 yo last week has said to me a few times since camp "Some of the kids had pumps."  I was worried that DH wouldn't enjoy camp but he met lots of other parents and learned a few things too. I met some lovely people and got to touch base with other I had met before, including a mum I "met" on the Munted Pancreas forum. It is great to talk to people who "get" diabetes.

For being surrounded by children with Diabetes (CWD) I saw very little testing and no injections. I know that some were using Multiple Injections a Day (MID) but I didn't see any sign of it. I saw a few pump controllers out for boluses, particularly when the Freddo frogs were handed out during Diabetes bingo. The girls loved all their prizes.

The sessions for parents were good. It wasn't all so new like last year but I felt guilty that we don't have to struggle daily to keep Miss F's BGL in range. As long as we test and dose with her glibenclamide her BGL should be good. I want everyone to have our miracle.

During one of the session I did have an opportunity to present information about Neonatal Diabetes and other forms of Monogenic diabetes. I really liked to be able to talk to a group of interested individuals about this new diagnosis of KNCJ11 - R201H. Most of these families know other CWD and other PWD so getting the word out may lead to some others having their T1 diagosis changed or at least investigated further. Getting to do this session reinforced my decision to try and become a Diabetes educator. I sent e-mail out today to the UK Diabetes Genes group looking for some advice on the process.

Jelly beans - Friday Fun

Well. I do love jelly beans but the best bit about today's jelly beans is that it is Camp Diabetes - Making a difference for kids with diabetes.

I have almost finished packing for our weekend away. I still need to check my list but I think I am almost done. Packing for 6 is quite an exercise. But I am really looking forward to the weekend of meeting other families dealing with diabetes. And sharing our story of Miss F's rare form of diabetes and her new treatment. Our story of Neonatal Diabetes might not make a direct difference to anyone on camp but hopefully it will help spread the word to even more people of this rare form of diabetes.

Everyone is looking forward to the weekend away.  Have a good weekend.

Not quite what I was expecting

After a busy end to last week I thought this week was going to be slower. The school fete went well. To me that means that most of the things I baked sold before lunch time. It makes me happy that the effort I putting into baking was appreciated. I had fun baking, decorating and packaging up, unfortunately I also had a really late night. As a consequence was so tired the next day I thought I might go to sleep standing up at one stage. I didn't manage to get any photos but they did look nice.

On Monday I only spent 1 hour at home from school drop off to school pick up time. I went from school to the hospital (didn't actually get the medicine) to home for 5 minutes (I didn't get the girls out of the car) to get lunch for Miss E for daycare. I then picked up a friends child to take them to daycare as well. I then went straight to a (rescheduled to an earlier time) physio appointment, taking literally a minute to drop Miss F at a friends house first. Back to friends to collect Miss F and a quick game of UNO before heading to the hospital again to actually get the medicine this time. Finding a car park at the hospital is hard if you don't want to pay a large amount of money for the privilege. I found a 2 hour on street meter and was glad.

Parking at the hospital is really that bad. It's just that I have to do it every week for Miss F's medication.

I then came home briefly for Miss to sleep and then it was back to school for pick up.

Then rest of the week has been a bit quieter. Plenty of washing and meals to be made but that's normal.  Today, I took Miss E & F to the library for story time. Miss F only bolted once. Thankfully Miss E noticed and averted any incident.

Tonight I am packing for Jelly Beans Camp. It is the diabetes camp that Miss F and I went to last year. It was great to meet other D parents and learn soem more about D. This year we are all going. Miss E has been telling people about it all week. The older girls are really excited so I had better get back to the packing so we can actually leave on time tomorrow.

Too busy for any Friday Fun

Tomorrow is our bi-annual school fete. I missed the last one as I was in hospital after having Miss F. It should be fun but I have been baking and making things all day.  Unfortunately my DDs have not co-operated like I hoped. Too much "helping" and not enough actual helpfulness. My parenting skills have been tried today and found wanting.

Miss F sampled too much of my baking and ended up with a 11.2 BGL before dinner. Oops. I'll try to give a report after the fete and let you know how MIss C & D go in their class performances.

Fun Friday - A great web find

I have just finished perusing a blog "liked" by a friend on Facebook.  Parenting. Illustrated with crappy pictures is so true and so funny. The pictures are crappy but they are real. She could be talking about my life. Do you have a favourite parenting blog? Is it funny or serious or both?

Parenting. Illustrated with crappy pictures made me truly laugh out loud not just LOL for the sake of it. I hope it can brighten your day too.

Zumba

Yes. I'm sore. But it was worth it.

Trying something new - Zumba

My baby Miss F is nearly 2years old. When she was a new born I remember feeding her at night and watching TV to pass the time. Midnight, 2am, 3am there isn't much on except a lot of bad television programs and infomercials. Zumba infomercials always seemed to be on. And ads for Proactive.

Zumba ads then made into daytimes spots and then Zumba was at a gym near you. Up until tonight I hadn't made it to a class. I looked at the kits in Target and was tempted but managed to keep my money in my pocket so far. Local classes have been at inconvenient times.

Tonight I went to Zumba at my gym. I tried to go last Tuesday but I had the wrong night, oops. A friend posted about her recent Zumba experience saying it was a waste of an hour. But my class was a great workout. It got my heartrate up and my body moving. The instructor and the other participants were enthusiastic and having fun. I worked up a sweat and think I might be sore tomorrow. It don't think the difference in our experience is just the she's fit and I'm not. I think I had a great instructor.

Now I have to work out if I will go back and pay the extra money each week. Zumba classes aren't included in the membership or just buy the kit and do it at home?

What would you do?

Friday Fun - Family movie night

Tonight was a family movie night. After dinner I moved the couch into optimum TV watching position and put a Hi-5 DVD into the player. Not my choice but all 4 DD's were happy

The Hi-5 DVD was part of the haul of books and DVDs we brought home from the local libarary this afternoon. Not sure how far Hi-5 have made it overseas. Let me know if you have heard of them if you aren't in Australia.

We have lots of children's books at home, particularly picture books, but it is great to head to the library and temporarily added to our collection. There have been soem that ended up such favourites that I bought our own copy. One of these is Muddled Up Farm by Mike Dubbleton. Great rhymes, great pace, my DDs love it.

Have you borrowed anything from the library and then needed to buy your own copy?

Fun Friday - Coco

Disney has announced a new character, Coco the Monkey with Diabetes.

Coco is going to be part of a series of books, starting with "Coco and Goofy's Goofy Day". It a collaboration between Disney and Lilly Diabetes. Coco is newly diagnosed and still learning about BGL checks, insulin and eating well. And her friends are learning she is still one of thema nd can do the things they do.

It sounds like a great move to educate and entertain.

National Diabetes Week 10-16 July

This week is  National Diabetes Week here in Australia.

A quote from the Diabetes Australia web page "Each year Diabetes Australia celebrates National Diabetes Week to raise awareness about diabetes in Australia. The campaign aims to educate Australia of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes and how type 2 can be prevented."

It makes me mad on behalf of people with Type 1 Diabetes that the focus is so fully on Type 2. Prevention is great but Type 1's need a cure and not more people telling them that they should have looked after themselves to avoid the disease and that they can't eat that.
Another focus of National Diabetes Week is Eye health and getting your eyes checked which is important for anyone with Diabetes. I can't argue with that. Diabetic Retinopathy is a real danger when living with D over time.

As a mum of a CWD who isn't Type 1 or 2 I get annoyed with the lack of information about Monogenic forms of Diabetes. I know it is rare but an accurate diagnosis has changed our life.
Most sources of information about Diabetes only include Type 1 & 2 and somtimes Gestational. Some forms of Monogenic Diabetes can be treated with oral drugs - glibenclamide (like our Miss F), some don't really any treatment and some still need insulin but knowing can help get better treatment and outcomes.

Rant over.

Any ideas on how to make a difference?

Great week

During the past week my oldest three DDs have attended the Kids Club at our previous church. The theme was Jungle tales and they have come home with Jungle dioramas, Lion masks, stocking tales and animal vests. My girls love to make things so the craft was a hit with them. The teaching time was parables from Jesus and they were keen to tell me what they had learnt.

It was such a blessing to see the people running the program keen to share Jesus with the children. My girls raved about their groups leaders. Miss E wanted to go again on today (Saturday) even though we all went to an end of week BBQ last night to round off the week.

Playing with diabetes

Today was full. Today was great. Today my big girls, DD#1, 2 & 3 went to Kids Club in the morning and we brought 2 extra girls home for lunch.
When the other girls had gone home I made a quick decision to join the Diabeanies play date that I had hoped we could go to but hadn't counted on. I had to wake Miss F from her nap. Pile the girls into the car and drive to an unkown part of the city. I did have to stop a number of times to check the street directory. Miss C even commented on the number of times I pulled over to check.  "Are you stopping again mum?" "Yes, I am.". Anyway we got there and I had a great time. Meeting up with other D parents is great. They get it about BGL checks, and Doctors and just "get it". The know where you can get skins for your meter in Australia. Level Living, by the way.
I think the children had a good time too.
A lovely Diabetes Educator that I met on a Camp was there too, it was good to catch up with her and tell her about Miss F and how she is going on glibenclamide (glyburide).
I also had a chance to tell a few others about Felicity's type of diabetes and her treatment. I like to tell as many people as possible hoping that it will make to the right ears eventually and help change another life.

Litter, litter, everywhere.

I wasn't going to post about this particular holiday activity. I thought it might seem a little strange that this was our first family activity this school break. But my friend post here about the litter problem in her part of the world so I have decided to share.

After walking through our local park last Saturday I was shocked by the amount of rubbish. I usually drive past this reserve as there is no play equipment and it is really just a gully with a small creek between two roads. Local high school students walk through it each day. My theory is that the buy food at the local shops and then drop the rubbish when they finish each as the rubbish only starts after a certain point in the park.

Any way the point is that Sunday I bought small gloves and rubbish bags and Monday I took my 4 DD's to the park to clean up. I may have added a small amount of motivation by offering some chocolate eggs when we finished but the oldest 3 girls were very keen. Poor little Miss F was kept strapped into the pram as I didn't want her eating the rubbish or running into the creek.

They enjoyed themselves and filled 3 kitchen sized bags with rubbish. The park is cleaner and will most probably stay that way until Tuesday week when students return to school. But we had our own Clean Up Australia Day for the holdays.

Now if I could get them to clean up the house.

Crossing ice skating off the list

Today I went to a local shopping centre with 5 children. Four of them were my DDs and one was my niece. I did have my mum with me (I'm not totally crazy). She brought my niece with her as she was baby sitting for the day.

Getting back to ice skating. The first day of the school holidays my DD#1 C put together two lists. One was "Things to do" and the other was "People to catch up with". As soon as she started listing things I knew that they were ambitious lists. She wanting to go iceskating. I said that that just wasn't going to happen. The seed of this idea was planted by my DH who took all 4 DDs to look at the iceskating in the CBD 2 weeks ago.

Skip to tonight and iceskating can be crossed off her list. It has been accomplished. I am surpirised that the opportunity presented itself but pleased that I could help a wish come true.

So the shopping centre had a small rink and 45min cost $10 or a certain spend at participating stores. So after my mum and I completed our shopping we could getting 3 free sessions and only had to pay for one. DD#4 F had to miss out as I thought she was way too young and I don't even think they would have let her one the ice. I wasn't going to go out there, so the girls were on there own. They only fell a few times and had a great time. A success.

DD#1 C also gets to cross off seeing cousins as well.

Toy Sales - Fun Friday

I just love looking through the Toy Sale catalogues here. Myer, Big W and Kmart catalogues are all available now and Target is not far behind. My DDs don't need anything really but it is fun to look. And I do have some nieces and nephews to buy birthday and Christmas presents for sometime.

A friend has been posting about toys recently and has included some solutions to excess  and simple gift ideas. I love most of the ideas but I am still having heaps of fun looking through the catalogues and searching for ideal gifts.