Month: November 2018

I have now successfully put our son to bed twice on my own with no daddy – go me!!!

I think (hope!) that the phase of only letting daddy put him to bed has passed.

Another challenge defeated, bring on the next!!!

I received a phone call from school on Monday afternoon to say they were running a Makaton Course in school for the teachers and they have a couple of spaces free if I want one. Of course!!

I attended school all day Tuesday and Wednesday for the course and loved every second.

We learned the background to Makaton and around 200 signs. Now I just need to keep practicing!

Join their Facebook page: Makaton Central

https://www.makaton.org

School are teaching the mainstream children Makaton and all their teachers are learning it which is AMAZING! It raises more awareness and understanding throughout the whole school.

Daddy is going out with his friend today. Normally they meet up later on, 6pm ish, but today they are meeting at 12pm and getting lunch. He hasn’t seen him for a while so I’m glad he is getting out to relax and let loose.

This would normally fill me with dread. I used to be so anxious when left with our son on my own. But now, I can’t wait for a day just the two of us, I’m so excited!

I have joined a few private Facebook groups for support and guidance. I read the posts regularly but don’t often comment as normally by the time I read the post, someone has already commented on what I was thinking too!

I have asked a couple of questions on the pages too and had some good feedback so it’s worth joining some pages to realise you are not alone and others are going through what you are.

The pages I have joined are:

• Autism Support UK: Parent & Carer
• UK Sensory Processing Disorder Support
• Autism Spectrum Disorder, through my eyes discussion group
• Bricks for Autism

I recently read a post by a woman that had been out with her son at a fireworks display and started talking to the lady beside her. She mentioned that her son had autism, to which the lady replied, oh he doesn’t look autistic. The woman commented that she was really upset at this comment and asked the group, what does autism look like?

When I initially read the woman’s post I agreed with how upset she was as I would have been upset too. To me, the lady was pointing out that he looked ‘normal’. Then I started reading some of the comments and my thinking turned around. I commented on the post and said be proud of your son tonight as he was coping so well.

Since buying the Playmobil police station, every Playmobil advert that comes on TV, he says ‘I want that’

Its great that he recognises it, and I love that he is showing an interest in something. I checked eBay and put a few bids on some sets, not wanting to pay too much. I didn’t win them but saw a playground set listed on Gumtree and it was still available so we collected it. He played with it a bit longer than the police station!

Then I remembered that last Christmas I bought him the Playmobil water park. This was the first toy that he spent a bit of time playing with, putting the people down the slides and splashing in the water, so I brought it back out again and he played with it some more. Not for a great length of time, but it’s a start.

My dad just phoned ‘what happened on your Smyth’s trip? Every advert that comes on TV he says “I want that”‘

Ha ha, I have a feeling I’m going to be skint!

But do you know what, I love it!

Our son got a Smyth’s toy store voucher for his birthday, so we decided to go at the weekend, just me and him as daddy was painting.

For anyone who hasn’t been to Smyth’s before, it is literally piled floor to ceiling with toys! I really like the way the shop is laid out, each aisle is a theme and there is every toy you can think of!

I parked outside and said, let’s go spend your birthday money. We walked in and the escalator is in front of the front door. He loves escalators so wanted to go up. To the left of the escalator on the ground floor is the Lego, piled floor to ceiling, a million boxes! He looked over and said ‘oh wow’ we were only upstairs a minute and he was down and straight over to the Lego boxes.

He has never been interested in Lego even though we have tried. He has a few Duplo and Lego Junior sets, but doesn’t look at them. He really isn’t in to toys at all, but we are trying.

He pointed to a Lego fire engine and said ‘I want that one’. It was age 6-12 and I knew it was far too old for him but again he said he wanted it when I said it may be to old for him. I picked it up, knowing I wouldn’t be buying it, but he was happy I picked it up.

Then comes the Playmobil section and his eyes lit up! I loved seeing him so excited about the Playmobil sets. He pointed to a police station with a police car, helicopter and some people and said ‘I want that one’. I asked if he wanted the police station or the Lego fire engine, and he said police. It was a big box, so I said let’s go a walk incase there is anything else, then we can come back. Each time I pointed at something, he just said ‘I want the police’ – so we got the police!

It wasn’t cheap, and honestly I was thinking, he is never going to play with this! But, he picked up the box and carried it to the checkout.

I made it up when we got home, and he looked at it for 2 minutes!

Maybe one day he will play with it – if not, there is always eBay!!