After we returned from Norma's funeral we decided that it would be a good idea to take the boys in to the 24 hour surgery in Dunedin. Luca was running a temperature and Oscar looked like someone had socked him in the eye, although we knew this wasn't exactly the case unless he had done it to himself during his sleep. Jo was more concerned with Luca's temperature and I with Oscar's eye.

Turned out Luca was on the tail end of a viral infection and there was nothing to be done. Poor little Oscar was pushed off to the emergency department at the hospital in the buggy. After quite a few hours of rigmarole and predictable bureaucracy he eventually saw the doctor that needed to see him an he was admitted for IV antibiotics. He had a periorbital cellulitis infection. This is an infection of the soft tissue surrounding the eye socket, but can go in to the eye or back along the nervous tissue to the brain apparently.

After being poked and prodded by quite a number of people, all the poor little thing wanted was his mummy and to sleep. He was not happy when they put the IV shunt in his arm (neither was his squeamish daddy) and his big brother and mummy were quite disturbed by it all too. All the same, he was a stoic little man and after spending 2 nights in the ward with mummy was allowed to come home and sleep in his own cot! By this time he had visited everyone in the ward a few times at least, whether they were happy to have him or not, and was getting to almost climb the walls from boredom.

He has made a great recovery and is right back to his normal self now.

Note the eye and the splint on his arm in the first photo. The splint was an attempt at keeping his arm straight with the shunt in it.

Luca was happy to see his brother and play with the hospital toys; as well as celebrating a decent team winning the rugby world cup!
Daddy was very happy to be able to take him away from the dastardly place.

Last weekend, labour weekend in New Zealand, we went up to Timaru for Jo's aunt Norma's funeral. We decided to spend the night up there after the funeral instead of doing a day trip. Good thing too, as we had some quality time with Keith and the Crawford boys after the funeral. The next day, Saturday, we all went to where Jo's mum was staying and had a great breakfast. All the Campbell siblings were there, the first time we've all been together since the latest addition, Emma, has arrived. This naturally necessitated the obligatory photos of grandchildren all together. I also managed to get a couple of our boys playing in the garden.

Hello there folks. Well, now that we have some photographic evidence and the prescribed period has elapsed, it is time for us to let you all know that the Dixon family will be getting another addition sometime in April. Current due date is Oscar's birthday - 11 April - but the first couple were early so we are predicting that this one may follow suite. We're going to stick with tradition and not find out the sex before it comes in to the world; Jo says the anticipation is a good way to help her cope with the whole birth thing.

It's going to be a very cool little thing anyway, it's already given us the thumbs up in the first picture!