This year has flown by, a mostly good year, a very busy one. My 17 year old son is now living with us and going to school down the road; our 5 year old is beyond excited having him here. We've settled into our new house, and had some people over for the inaugural feasting and drinking of wine. Heather's Mum came to stay with us for 4 months, sleeping with, playing with and hanging out with Jai, giving us a great break. She went home last week, so we now have a nanny a few days a week to try to fill the sizeable hole that she's left, and help us out when we're both at work.

Jai's had a few more seizures in September, after being seizure free for the first 9 months of the year. Hopefully it's just him growing and us getting his medication dose right. And his occasional insomnia. It's time for us to get a bit more routine into his evenings, and hopefully he'll get used to some sleep time cues.

The restart of seizures is playing on our minds. I feel a sadness and an echo of the difficult times last year, and a helplessness. We've upped Jai's medicine and trying to be as normal as possible, keeping smiling and playing with Jai, looking after the other kids, doing our work..

He seems otherwise his normal self though. Crawling faster, getting better at balancing, getting up onto his knees to reach across at things. He's loving getting out to the parks, seeing other kids and playing with the pine bark. Getting more used to the sounds and sights of the neigbourhood.

The rain is steadily falling tonight, as it has done for some months, the wettest of winters stretching its fingers into spring. We've dug through the soil, myself and Uma, planted flower seeds and strawberries in the front, fertilised the citrus at the back. I'm enjoying the sweet sound of rain and imagining its energy spreading through our small square of land.