A couple of months ago Claire mentioned to me that she thought a freckle on my right forearm looked different. As a general rule, the skin cancer organisations say that if a freckle or mole changes size, colour or teture that you should go and get it checked.

After several reminders from Claire, I booked an appointment with Doctors @ Cavill which is conveniently located across the road from my office and went and got checked out. It was the first time I’ve ever had a skin cancer check and I was pleased that after a full body assessment, none of my other freckles or moles raised an eye brow. However, the funky freckle on my arm was cause for a skin biopsy in the same appointment.

A week later I received my results and the doctor confirmed that it was a basal cell carcinoma. I had no idea what that was, but after asking the doctor about it and researching it online, basal cell carcinoma’s are the most common and least dangerous skin cancer, are typically located on the upper body and are a non-melanomo skin cancer.

Nearly as soon as the doctor had given me my results, we were walking back down to the surgery room where I had the initial skin biopsy done and was being prepared to have the carcinoma cut out. Roughly 15 minutes later, I’d had a local anesthetic and the doctor had cut a section of my right forearm out about 3cm long and a few millimetres wider than the carcinoma on each side. The specimen was placed into a jar with fluid in it to be sent to pathology and five minutes later I had three nylon stitches in my arm to pull everything back together.

I’m certainly not going to win any awards from the Cancer Council of Australia for diligently applying sun smart practices. That being said, I’m always aware of the fact that I have fair skin and don’t go and lounge around in the sun. People that know me will often hear me joke that the sun and I don’t get alone very well and this has been a stark reminder of that.

Next time I’m at the shops, I’m going on the hunt for a wide brimmed hat to wear when working outside to give my face, neck and ears a better chance of avoiding going under the knife in the future.

Anita dropped in yesterday to wish Hugo a happy 3rd birthday and gave him a spectacular present, a crown tail Siamese fighting fish!

When Anita asked Claire what a cool present might be, Claire suggested a pink fighting fish because pink is one of Hugo’s favourite colours. Of course, not knowing what colours fighting fish come in, we were shocked to see a beautiful pink/purple coloured fighting fish arrive.

Needless to say, Hugo is very excited by Finnegan and regularly stops to gaze into his bowl and drag one of his chairs over to get a closer look. Throughout the course of the day, Evie managed to say “fish!” a few times as well. In case you were wondering, the exclamation point is there deliberately, Evie says fish with gusto.

On Sunday, Hugo turned three years old and we celebrated in the usual fashion for our household with presents first thing.

When I went upstairs go get Hugo from his bedroom, he initially wanted to run downstairs to our bedroom to say good morning to Claire. I had to convince Hugo not to go downstairs (we had his presents set up in the lounge room) and to come and say good morning to Claire as she got Evie out of bed for the morning festivities. Hugo made me laugh as he walked down the stairs, saw the pile of presents wrapped up and said ‘ohh, parcels!’.

Claire, Evie and I sat around Hugo while he took great pleasure in opening all of his little presents. Hugo received a few different types of presents from some books, a cricket bat & ball, Cars DVD but was particularly interested in his new three-wheel scooter, helmet and sunglasses.

For lunch we dared to venture out to the Coffee Club at Oxenford. Claire called to check if we’d need a reservation and they didn’t think we would; fortunately for us when we arrived while it was busy, it wasn’t manic. To my surprise and delight, even though it was quite busy, the food was served in a very reasonable time – so congratulations to their staff for getting through everyone’s orders.

Between lunch and mid afternoon while Evie was sleeping, Sterle, Lorraine & Jean came back to our place ahead of Hugo’s party small gathering of people. This was a great opportunity for Hugo to receive a present or two from Sterle, Lorraine & Jean – a work bench with tools and a wooden toaster – my goodness he loves them to pieces! After the present, he realised it might be a good opportunity to get a head start on some party food, try out some of his new toys in greater detail and generally have a good old time.

With near perfect timing, Jude, George, Emily, Oliver & Milla arrived to get our small gathering of people started. Last year Hugo had a barn yard party but this year it was time for a dinosaur party. There was a fantastic dinosaur cake, fierce dinosaur figurines and cool hanging dinosaur decorations for Hugo’s dinosaur themed birthday party. Claire assures me that while the delicious dinosaur cake looks quite straight forward, it was actually quite a challenge to make – particularly getting the different pieces to stick together and the icing to look pretty!

The little people had a fantastic time playing with one another, charging around the house, playing with the new toys, eating plenty of party food all the while trying their hardest to stay out of trouble.

I now have a new found respect for parents who have climbers for kids. I’ve heard plenty of stories from Emily about how fast Milla is but I really didn’t appreciate it until I saw it first hand – she can practically run. While speed is definitely one of her strengths, fearlessness and ninja-esque stealth definitely play a huge role in her ability to get into mischief.

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it to Hugo’s 3rd birthday party, phoned, sent emails and SMS’d us and especially those that traveled; it means the world to Claire & I. Hugo had a fantastic day hanging out with his extended family, was spoiled beyond belief with some absolutely beautiful presents and was completely exhausted by the end of it.

Next up, fabulous four!