Number five is alive

Once upon a time Ash was very small...

OK not very small for a baby, but babies by their nature are very small, so it still stands ;) He was born 8lb 14oz / 4kg, somewhere around 9pm on Sunday the 7th August 2005... I'm going by memory so don't quote me on that. Though I am fairly certain it was 9:20-something, I might be wrong. I know we went to the hospital at about 6 when I couldn't cope labouring at home anymore. I've tried to hold out as much as possible with each labour, just because it was nicer at home, though with Cedar's not so much as I needed to get stuff sorted at hospital (but turned out ran out of time anyway as his progressed much faster). Back to Ash.

My sister Hayley would remember, I was in labour all day but you know, progressively. She put on one of my dvds, it was Jamie Cullum live at Blenheim Palace and I used the tune from Jamie's version of 'High and Dry' for the rest of the day and post-labour... it had quite a good rhythm for it, kind of a la de da (going up) and then a da da da (going down, different notes) in a few different ways :) Hayley laughed that she could tell when the pain was worse because the humming got louder and more insistent.

I made a rogan josh curry from scratch in the afternoon. I don't really want to talk about the intense labour, I ended up shaking from shock for awhile after and I didn't feel very looked-after by the people in the room at that point (except Ben, that is). But it was great that we got to come home the next day before lunch! Just a little while after my mum had surprised me by showing up at the hospital, she had flown over, that was so nice :)

Skip to now, and Ash has just turned 5. He is on about the 75th percentile for height and weight, and is super strong. He just interrupted me, coming in from outside, to give me a yellow daisy and tell me "I love you mum", before stomping back outside in his pirate gumboots, doggy in hand. He tells me he loves me at least a dozen times a day, and often says it to Sienna, Ben, the cats, Cedar, etc. He told his cousin Jude a couple of weeks ago "I love you Jude" and Jude replied "Pffft! Weird!". Very funny.

So our big, strong, affectionate, loving and smiley pirate-obsessed boy is 5. He has recently been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which was both interesting and kind of not-very-surprising. He is in Early Intervention this year already, as well as 4 year old kinder, and he loves both. He starts school next year, and I am hoping Sienna's current teacher (Prep/1 class) who has had Sienna for 2 years will be there next year to teach Ash, as she is lovely and understanding.

Ash is great, he is really endearing and most people can't help but smile at him. He growls when something annoys him and tells us in a gruff voice "That makes me angry!". Which is pretty funny really. He is really helpful, generally, around the house and at putting things in their place and doing as asked. Very independent, he is the easy one in the mornings, getting dressed and getting drinks etc without help or prompting needed. He is a really cool little person.

He thinks his name is spelt with an 'x' in the middle. As in 'x' marks the spot. As he told the shop assistant in Smiggle when we bought a little letter badge there, "I love X". LOL, cool.