The Gallery - Emotions

When I look back at photos of HRH as a baby I think ‘what did we miss?’, or ‘could we have detected his autism sooner?’. I try not to, it is fruitless, but I end up doing it anyway. I also find myself looking at those photos in a wistful way because we didn’t ‘know’. His future, in my head, was different then.

I border on being an eternal optimist so it is unusual for me to have regrets.  My one regret with regard to HRH is that we waited for 5 months before taking matters into our own hands. 5 months that we could have been having intervention. 5 months where I believed that our public health system would look after us in a timely manner. Over a year later we have had little help and had to fight for that which we have received.

I look forward to the time I can browse his baby photographs and only see the gorgeous little boy, without searching for 'early signs'. I also intend to work my petite 'you know what' off so that I don't have any more regrets to add to the mix later on!!

Please don't misunderstand, I do not feel I have failed my son. I just feel sad sometimes, you know?






Written for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers and Writing Workshop at Sleep is for the Weak.

Talk, or the kitten gets it!

@VBinCatalunya, of Very Bored in Catalunya blog fame, started The Spanish Inquisition. She very kindly tagged me and I am only now getting around to accepting the challenge.

However, last week @PaulaMaher of Dipping My Toe In tagged me for the same meme. Anyone that does the #fridaytwiz you will know that @PaulaMaher is the group invigilator and if anyone cheats she threatens that a kitten will die. (me? use google? never!!) Scary stuff I tell you, but I dare not have the life of a poor innocent kitten depend on me, so I will grovel and do as I am told!

I must answer spectacularly random questions from each lady and then pass the meme on. So, for the sake of kittens everywhere....................

1. Who's poster did you have pinned up on your teenage bedroom wall?

WHAM!

2. What was the last book you read?

Eclipse.

3. What smell reminds you most of your childhood?

Silage (strong rotten and kind of sweet smelling, yuck) along with cow manure from the slurry spreading season. No, actually I had a great childhood but living on a farm does put 'smells' onto a different level of experience!

4. BBC3 or BBC4?

I think we have them alright, are they very different to each other that I should be able to tell them apart?

 5. If you could possess one superpower for the day what would it be?

Ah, the one where I click my fingers and my children go asleep, that one!

6. What is your party trick?

I have amazing control over the muscles in my nostrils and can flare them at will (NO, no vlog!)

7. What is the job you keep putting off that really needs doing?

Housework, every bit of it.

8. What is in the cupboard under your stairs?

It is called 'The cupboard of everything' and what resides there is known only to my husband. In fact, I would rather undergo futher beatings from @PaulaMaher and risk a kittens life than go look in the cupboard of everything.

For now I am going to leave it open to anyone that wishes to take part. I am particularly tired after three days of celebrations for my sisters' wedding and my brain just isn't working. So, YOU, consider yourself tagged!


*pictures from google images

Creatures!

The prompt for week 16 of The Gallery, run by the lovely Tara, is 'Creatures'.

A SLUG! Yes, yucky, slimy creatures but, apparently, very impressive to a certain visiting Canadian in 2008. I am reliably informed that Canada does not have slugs of this magnitude. I was somewhat taken aback by the admiration bestowed on Irish slugs, but there you have it, each to their own!

Hugheeeeeeeee..............

So, what part of the world do you live in? and does your little patch of it have slugs like this?

Go on, do comment, I am testing a new comment system and want to see it under pressure!

Slayer Extraordinaire............

Dear Herbie,

I was over at Brigids place and memories of you came flooding back. I wanted to write this to apologise for your untimely death.

I now know that I should never have offered to help my cousin clean your bowl. I didn't realise you were an athletic fish with considerable jumping prowess.

I wholeheartedly apologise for trying to dig you out of the plughole with a teaspoon. However, my cousin screaming hysterically spurred me to hasty action.

You were a brave little goldfish. I admire that you suffered the shock and trauma of the event for a full 24 hours before going to 'swim with the fishies'.

Herbie, I am truly sorry.

Yours sincerely,

Jen.

Has anything similar happened to you?

9.20 PM EDITED to add in Jazzygals unmissable comment:

Ah...poor Herbie! No such childhood memory but 2 or 3 years ago one of WiiBoy's gold fish was almost dead. I got him out and massaged him gently with my pinkie and gave him kiss of life!! Eeeew...eeew!! It worked too, for about a year and then he died! He was blind though...and lost his colour. So he was a blind albino goldfish!! xx Jazzy

Keep your shorts ON!!

Well, I don't shout it, it's more of a strong hiss at HRH. But really, it is not that he wants to be naked. No, he is a 'must have clothes on at all times regardless of the heat' type of child. It would seem children on the spectrum are one or the other, they either prefer being naked or prefer too many clothes. HRH is the latter, no doubt aboout it.

So why is he pulling his shorts down? because they are short! He hunkers down, grabs at the ends of them and keeps pulling to try and get the shorts to cover his ankles, as all trousers should. Yep, he ends up covering his ankles alright! So I pull them up and it starts all over again. He even walks around in a kind of crouched waddle, complaining and tugging as he walks. At least I know he has good balance!

I have decided to give up. I am going shopping at the weekend and I am going to buy him several sets of the cheapest, lightest pyjamas that I can find. They will keep him covered up, as he requires. It will also prevent the daily 'battle of the suncream'. There is never a clear winner in this battle and I just worry all the time, especially with this very 'unIrish' hot weather. So, light, long legged and long armed pyjamas it will be.


So if you see the strange lady, who is obviously too lazy to dress her very happy toddler, it is just me. Come over and say hi..............please?

The Gallery - Motherhood

The prompt for this week is 'Motherhood'. I chose this photo because, although traditionally this would not be considered the best photo of my son, I believe he is absolutely gorgeous, toothy grin included.

No matter what he does, thinks, says or how he looks I will always think he is the most gorgeous child, ever! Well, one of the three most gorgeous children ever.

Not a morning person!

I am not a morning person, not until I have had two cups of coffee!

HRH is first up every morning. I know he is on his way because of the thump thump thump. No delicate pitter patter of tiny feet in our house, thumping all the way! He bursts into my room, managing to bang the door open (a gift inherited from his Grandad), barrels around the bed and then stops dead in his tracks about two feet away from my head. He drops onto the floor, crawls the last two feet and then pops his head up over the edge of the bed, shouting 'aaaaaaaaaarrrrrh'. Think 'peep' with a hint of  violence!

I, being a great mother you understand, do my best to mumble 'good morning to you too my darling' but his attention will already be on his little sister and he starts hitting the side of her cot. Sometimes he is lucky enough not to have woken her with his joyful morning greeting to me and then he gets extra giggles when he sees her jump awake from the banging.

Last week was different. HRH turned his attention to his big brother, with whom he shares a room. Firstborn, not a morning person either, dragged himself into me one morning and mumbled 'HRH woke me up by blowing raspberries on my belly'. The following morning it was 'HRH woke me up by jumping up and down on my bed'.

I am wondering how many different ways he can wake up Firstborn and how long Firstborn will cope.

But, mostly, I am glad of the few extra quiet minutes for me in bed!!

Are you a morning person? If so, how do you do it? All tips welcome!

Lightning Effect!

Things that might seem silly to other parents are cause for celebration in our house. Things like: HRH touched a fish finger on Wednesday. He really did and we are delighted. It was what we were aiming for when we put it in front of him.

Then there are the unexpected little things that make me sad, again things that other parents might find silly. Things like: HRH can't scratch his own head because his hands and head are sensitive to the extreme. He grabs my hand and puts it on his head and I do the necessary.  I am not sure why this particular one gets me, but it does.

For the most part we have been very sensible with our expectations. We have done some research and the Royal Advisor is brilliant at keeping us in the loop and explaining what each achievement means, along with the wider implications for HRH. We are learning as we go and, so far, it is working.

This brings me to Her Cuteness. I forgot that I would have to re-amend my expectations because they are, naturally enough, based on the toddler ahead of her. You know, the one who has autism. We have become so used to HRH and the way he needs to learn that I have forgotten how much Her Cuteness is going to learn just by being in the room with us.

I need to unlearn all that I have learned. In a (strange) way this is almost scarier than learning about autism because she is moving so fast I can't keep up. She is like a 15 month old lightning bolt! Fork lightning! She lashes in, stuns us all (while looking quite amazing) and then goes, completely unaware of the effect she has.

I need a refresher course on neuro-typical children!


Oh, help me out here please. She now says 'puter'. What is it with my children and computers?? *innocent whistle*

Fun with food.

HRH brings new meaning to the phrase 'fussy eater'. I won't go into too much detail, suffice to say that due to his sensory problems he will not eat any food that has moisture in it. That leaves dry crunchy food only. But we made a little breakthrough yesterday and I caught it on my snazzy iPhone.






Those of you who do not have autistic children probably won't be laughing your heads off right now so let me explain. Lining things up and a fascination with numbers/letters are quite common in children with autism. The above is a perfect example and I really had to resist calling the clip 'spot the autie kid' because I don't want to seem disrespectful of him. I just can't watch the clip without laughing, it is so him and utterly gorgeous.

Anyway, that was the first time in months that he has eaten chips and we were thrilled. We have decided that we will try the 'lining up and counting' approach with other foods and see how it goes, you never know, we just might get him eating a more varied diet. At this stage it has to be worth trying!

Wish me luck!

The sound is out of sync on the video, no idea why!

Silly Mama and the Hagu.

I am fascinated by stories I read about children with autism/aspergers and the way their minds work. Our children have an impressive flair for logical and literal thinking. We have seen these traits in HRH in his problem solving skills, but as his speech progresses we will probably notice it even more. 

Firstborn bought a trampoline 3 weeks ago. HRH calls the trampoline 'Hagu'. It took me about two days to figure out that Hagu meant trampoline and I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out why. I know it doesn't really matter why but it was bugging me that I couldn't trace the origins of the word. The penny finally dropped yesterday.

HRH loves circles. His love began with manhole covers and includes the water mains access points, pictured above. Circle, in HRH speak,  is ha-go. Trust me on this, I hear it many, many times a day. 

If he sees a big circle it is ha-gUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. This is very logical, he is making the word bigger (and louder), just like the circle.

What shape is our trampoline? Yes, it is a big circle.

Can I just sneak it in here that I am really impressed with this, but gloss over it because I am obviously biased!

I see exciting and interesting times ahead!

The Gallery - Still Life

The prompt for The Gallery this week at Sticky Fingers this week is 'Still Life'.

I debated about posting this photo but my husband has a good sense of humour so I decided to risk it. I haven't told him, he will see it when he checks in on the blog on his lunch break. If you hear big girlie shrieking, don't worry, it is just him in pain after spilling his coffee on himself in shock!

My interpretation of 'Still Life':

Life with a newborn is hectic, one doesn't often get to sit still.

Aren't they the image of each other?