Friday 20th July

Yippee….end of term! D was absolutely raring to get to school today as they were watching DVDs today and having popcorn – yes, her little nose would have been twitching away in anticipation, bless her!

I’m still not 100% so Hubbie took T to his school and as D’s school is ten minutes walk away, I thought we’d try it without her SN buggy. We left at a time when the school we have to pass would have started (and therefore anxieties & sensory overload from the other children would not be happening).

She managed very well but did say that she had missed her buggy “in case I get scared” – reassuring that she recognises that and is able to tell me but at the same time, I know that a SN buggy is going to be a long term requirement to cope with these anxieties.

When she’d got to school, she went into class very well – anticipation of the day – and handed over her end-of-term gifts …chocolate pencils! All very well received and very appropriate given her love of drawing.

Whilst she was at school, a couple of books arrived I’d ordered, both are definitely recommended:

The first one is a must if you have a cat! Very very funny, with pictures illustrating why the author’s view & I agree, having two very different cats in our family.

The second one would be a great help to anyone who thinks in a very literal way. For example, a driving instruction might be “turn left at the fork in the road”, if that was D in a few years she’d be looking for a giant fork! The book uses illustrations to explain everyday metaphors and expressions and their meaning. Going to be a definite help for D.

These also came too, for our summer holiday fun, used my finger to show scale:

T came out of school an hour-and-a-bit before D and it was really funny watching all these children coming out of school punching the air & cheering! We had a bit of mum-T time before picking up D, which was nice, we spent it in a bookshop, my little bookworm.

D came out very happy too. Coincidentally they’d both watched the same DVDs in their classes – Ice Age 3! Ice-cream time for both and this picture really does prove how invisible autism is:

D also received a certificate today for her fantastic reading, already laminated, her reading has really come on this year, so proud of her:

So, a really good last day of term for us, hope everyone else has had a good day too. Thanks for reading, comments/RTs as ever welcomed Jx 😘

Junk, junk and more junk….

There comes a point in the year when I think it’s time to declutter.

It normally starts in the run-up to the school fairs and then toys/books that are in good nick get donated (which to be honest, is quite a few, we generally know by then what D won’t play with out of the Birthday and Christmas presents she gets kindly given).

It’s been extended this year to include clothes to charity shops, loads of toys went to Taplow (Thames Valley Adventure Playground), now that I’m not childminding, we don’t need the full range of Early Learning Centre around and so, for the first time in 5 years it’s more-or-less just T and D’s toys around and it’s WONDERFUL!

Emails were next….I don’t remember signing up for emails from the whole world and his wife, offering everything from blooming online Viagra to solar panels and rather than just deleting them, I’ve been unsubscribing as and when they appear. Just dealt with about 15 today.

Am I on some random list that says “this lady likes to read? Send her your junk!”.. Well, not any more, in my best “Big Brother” voice “you have been evicted, please leave this inbox”.