Sunday 15th July

Better start with the ladybird update 🐞 as I forgot last night!
Day 4:
They’ve got a bit bigger and move quite quickly around their habitat. I opened the lid to take a picture and these nit-like insects starting climbing! Some are a lot bigger than others – survival of the fittest, I guess. Here’s a picture:

D said “oh, they look a bit like nits” but she’s accepted they’re not – phew – it might be a bit different if they escaped though.

T had his last football tournament of the season, no silverware this time but they got to the semi-finals and came third. So many of their games/tournaments have been called off due to water-logged pitches and car parks so pleased that they’ve played. T came back extremely muddy!

D has been calmer today but inter-mingled with that has been lots of “please don’t send me to school tomorrow”. Monday is “news” day and according to D that is “hard work”. It hasn’t seemed to make much difference that it’s the last “news” day for 6 weeks, in terms of anxieties.

She’s found something quite bizarre on YouTube, called “Annoying Orange” and even though it’s a bit grim – lots of fruit & veg being chopped in a fierce way – I guess the fact it’s done comically has appealed to her.

She’s enjoyed playing with glitter too, on a big tray, trailing her fingers in it, picking it up and generally making a bit of a mess! But that’s what hoovers are for!

So, fingers crossed for school tomorrow, I hope everyone’s had a good day, thanks for reading. Comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘

Tonight’s picture was via Bev @hodgesclan x

Why do people have to be so mean-spirited?

As a parent to a special needs child, I’m unfortunately used to the stares and the whispers when I take D out “she’s a baby” “why’s she in that buggy” and then if D does get upset when faced with a sensory-heightened situation, it’s the tuts and the general air of “not in my back yard”.

This is why awareness and (it would be nice) acceptance of autism is so important.

I found a new level of mean-spiritedness at the end of last week. I debated whether to blog it or not for a couple of days, here it is:

I was in my local coffee shop, it’s a little sanctuary. I get my coffee and catch up with blog thanks for RTs/mentions etc.

I overhead people talking about the Olympic torch relay, we’d had it “visit” the town nearest to us Tues evening/Wednesday morning.

My ears tuned in because – as you may be aware – I knew one of the torch bearers, a lady who had two Downs Syndrome (DS) sons (one of whom is in D’s class) and she is chair of the local DS association. So her part in the relay was very much to raise awareness for her sons and other children/adults with DS.

Here’s a picture below that made the ITN news site:

She’s also featured on the front of our local paper:

It’s brilliant for DS awareness and for the SN school that her sons attend.

So..why were these people sitting there judging her for running with her sons? According to them they shouldn’t have taken part. It wasn’t appropriate, apparently.

It made me so cross that I left the area, I couldn’t sit there anymore or I would have said something. Makes me wonder how they would have reacted if an autistic child had been participating.

So much for community spirit.