Different, but not less.

Sunday over at Adventures in Xtreme Parenthood is hosting the 'Different but not less' bloghop today, to share tips on how we all managed over the Christmas period.

Christmas went very well for us, much better than I had expected. This is our second Christmas with HRH diagnosed with autism and last year was very unsettled for all of us. As always, we were in our own home on the big day, we do not travel on Christmas day, ever! The present opening went well with HRH showing some interest in the 'new' things although he didn't stray very far from my side.

The big difficulty for us comes on St. Stephens day when all of my husbands family meet at his parents house. There are 11 grandchildren who are all brilliant, lovely children and get very excited to meet each other. As you can imagine it gets loud, very loud. This is the perfect 'meltdown' setup for HRH, he can't cope. Therefore I can't cope and, because I like to share, my husband also gets stressed. This year we were snowed in and couldn't go, the roads were just too unsafe to risk it. I missed seeing the other children and I missed the fun, but a big part of me is very relieved at the same time.

I feel very guilty about being relieved. My husbands parents are the best, they love HRH very much, as they do all of my children. They are genuinely interested in HRH and his autism and they listen when we explain things to them. I mean really listen, not just pretend to listen.

At times I find it hard to balance everyones needs and expectations. My husbands family love the gettogether and it is great fun. But HRH has autism and SPD and finds this kind of situation hard. For the most part I have reached the stage whereby HRH comes first because ultimately this is what benefits my family unit. I don't know if other people understand this though and it is something that I need to work on during the coming year.




     

Search Engine Optimization - am I good or what??

A while back Lynn from My Life as an Ungraceful, Unhinged and Unwilling Draftee into the Autism Army posted about some of the more unusual search terms that had led people to her blog. She kindly agreed that I could shamelessly copy take part in the fun. So, in the spirit of being frivolous and silly that is our post Christmas entitlement, I present to you some of the strange (possibly worrying) search terms that have led Googlers to my blog:

Can you  give goldfish disprin? I have linked to that post in case any of you actually want to know the answer, but, in short, NO! On a vaguely educational note the reference to someone giving disprin to a goldfish was in the comments, so the google spiders crawl the comments too. Who knew!! And if you have a goldfish and want tips on how to give the kiss of life and pulmonary massage then the comments on that post go into that too!

Free animated cat furball: I have no idea, and why would someone want an animated cat furball anyway?? Eeewwwwww.

Shorts of small 18 year olds xxx iphone: I have posted about shorts (and keeping them on) and I have also blogged about iPhones (quite a bit) but never in the same post and this search term leaves me with a lot of questions.


Case histories midlife crisis Ireland: Quite possibly the post where I put up the photos of my drastic haircut where I hid upstairs with my husbands hair clippers and did a great imitation of a sheep shearer.....on myself! I am sure I was able to help this person, really, I am!

I am twitter snow: Can anyone help me out on this?? Anyone?

I have Google Analytics but I am far too lazy to use it. If you are on blogger then use the 'blogger in draft' dashboard and you can access some basic stats there, including the search terms used to find your blog.

Anyone else going to take part?






   

Oh no, HELP!

On Christmas Eve, after HRH had his bath I sat him on my lap. I wrapped my arms around his body, pinning his arms to his chest. Mr LS straddled his legs, securing one of his ankles between his knees and proceeded to clip HRH's toe nails. HRH screamed, he always does. But this time he also screamed

"Oh no HELP! Oh no HELP!"

Upside: He used the word 'help' for the first time and used it appropriately. Also, the fact that he verbalised while extremely distressed is a big deal.

Downside: Everything else!!

I am now pretty desperate to find ways to ease the trauma of the event, for everyone's sake. My 'Mummy Guilt' has reached unprecedented levels. In the words of a fabulous 3 year old boy with autism and SPD:

Oh no, HELP!





       

*photo credit google images

When nice things happen to bloggers

Way back in November I commented on a post written by Nickie at Typecast. She had been sent a fabulous box of retro sweets by Applicances Online, who had picked her comment out from another blog, seen Nickies Christmas wishlist and sent her one of the items. Being an avid reader of Nickies blog I commented to congratulate her.

Guess what??? Appliances Online emailed me on Christmas Eve. They had seen my comment and came over to check out my blog. They saw my post about treats for me-time, noticed my addiction affection for good coffee and are sending me some coffee *squeeeeee*. I will admit to being deliriously happy about this because they took the time to read my blog and pick out something that means a lot to me. How cool is that!!


So here is your chance, leave a comment because you just never know what might happen!



       

The Crocodile in the Dark.

HRH is at that wonderful, funny stage of speech where there is a stream of babble. Sometimes I can understand what he is saying, but mostly I can't, no matter how hard I try. I tend to chatter back to him anyway, as if I understand and I really enjoy the interaction with him. As an example of his speech, his word for crocodile is 'sock-a-dee', close enough and easy to figure out as he is usually pointing to a picture of a crocodile when he says it.

During the week he woke up three times during the night, crying 'sock-a-dee' and calling for his big brother. Firstborn and HRH share a room but because HRH had been waking I had brought him in to sleep with me. It was difficult enough to soothe him when he woke, but eventually we managed to get a few hours of sleep.

The next day he was in great form and I could see no effects from his nightmares the night before. Later on in the day we were playing and went under the blanket. He said 'i-sawk-ih- hee' and I realised he was saying 'it's dark in here'. Then I realised that is what he had been saying the night before when he woke crying. He was afraid of the dark and he was calling his big brother for comfort.

Woohoo and woohoo again. This is such a big deal. He was expressing the problem and calling someone to help him. But, it gets better, I never taught him that phrase. Ok, so he must have heard it, but we never sat down and 'worked' on it. I do remember that around about age 3 Firstborn became very afraid of the dark too, so there is also the bonus of HRH reaching this 'milestone' on time as he turned 3 recently.

We are all absolutely delighted. None more so than Firstborn because HRH was calling for him. Firstborn takes being a big brother very seriously and something like this really reinforces his confidence in being a fabulous big brother.

So a bad nights sleep turns into a happy event and the best Christmas present we could possibly have in this house, more communication! It just leaves me with one question; what is it about three year olds, who only measure 3 feet, being able to take up an entire 5 foot bed??

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and my family wishes your family the very best in 2011.





       

*photo credits google images

Treats that I love.

I decided to share some of my shallow side favourite items with you, the ones that I love most. What is a bit of materialism and frivolity between friends! When I get a chance for 'me time' I use the above, well loved, items.

I present to you chocolate, my coffee grinder, my iPad and a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans.These are the items I do not travel without. If I go away for a weekend they come too, along with the children, husband etc.

The prompt this week is 'Love'.

   

Blog Gems - Air your Archives #5

How many posts do you have languishing in your archives? Great posts that will never be dusted off and brought out to breathe again! Maybe you created fabulous content before you had lots of followers, or maybe you have been blogging for years and your current followers haven't seen your older material.

I have a plan.

Blog Gems - Air Your Archives is a forthnighly linky list where I will give a prompt and you select a post from your archives that fits the prompt. You do not have to create content for the prompt, unless you want to. All you have to do is copy and paste the url of the post into the linky list. Voila, an old post gets a second shot!

To take part:

1. Follow my blog to get future Blog Gem posting information and linkys.

2. Grab the Blog Gem button and place it on your sidebar (html code here)

Putting the button on your blog is not a dealbreaker, some people just don't like doing it and I have no problem with that at all. What I will say is that something like this can't be successful without 'word of mouth' so I would appreciate if you could find another way to let people know that this is available and they are welcome to join in.

3. Enter your link.

4. Read and comment on the submissions of the two blogs posted before you on the linky list. (Please!)

5. Help me spread the word by telling your blogging friends, sharing buttons at end of post.

Everyone has to start blogging somewhere. We have been hopping to each others blogs for a while now so I thought it might be nice to see where and how we all started out blogging.

Now, point us all in the direction of a your first public post:


Please read and comment on the two blogs that post before you on the linky list.

Happy Christmas!






       

Allison at Life in a Pink Fibro and I have gotten together to generate some cross-hemisphere linky love. Allison runs Weekend Rewind every weekend and is also based on posting up your favourite oldies. I have taken part this week and it is one of the friendliest bloghops I have ever taken part in! Her linky is closed now, but will be open again next weekend. Remember to go have a look!


Maxabella also does a lovely linky each week called 'I'm grateful for.....', I recommend that one too.

How to add a Favicon to Blogger blogs, tutorial

What is a favicon? Look up at the address bar, do you see the little eye beside the url? Now look at the tab, do you see a little eye there? That is my favicon. It is a way of promoting the blog 'brand'. It also shows up on bookmarks lists!

If you want to know how to get your own favicon on your blogger blog read on. I have tested this on this blog which has a custom domain and a custom template. I have also tested in on a blog which has a blogspot domain with custom template and another blogspot domain with standard blogger template. It worked on all of them. Favicons will show in IE and Firefox on both the address bars and the tabs, but will only show on the tabs in Google Chrome. If you are on a Wordpress blog you do not need this tutorial, just search 'plugins' for a plugin that will do the work for you!

1. Select the image you wish to use and save it to your desktop. Go to this site to generate your .ico file, the file format required to use a favicon. Upload your photo and hit the 'generate favicon.ico' button. You can then preview your favicon in the tab and address bars. Whe you are happy with your image download the zip file to your desktop and extract it. You will get two images, a static one and a moving one. I have only used the static one.

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2. Now go to google sites and log in at the top right with your google logins. This is where you will host your image. I have used google sites because you already have google logins if you use Blogger. On the left, under the heading Google Sites, you will see 'creat new site' please do so but don't call it favicon, call it anything else! I have called mine 'tutorialsitejen'.

When you have that done you will reach this page:

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3. See that I have circled create page. Click this and name your page, selecting the 'put page under home' options, see below:

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4. You page should now look like the one below. See the 'attachments' that I have circled, select this and upload your favicon.ico file.

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5. Your page should now look like the one below. Do not click on the image attachment on your google site, just take the url from the address bar (as circled below) and copy and paste it to a wordpad/notepad document for now. E.g. my url here is https://sites.google.com/site/tutorialsitejen/home/testing . I am going to add /favicon.ico at the end, like so

https://sites.google.com/site/tutorialsitejen/home/testing/favicon.ico  

to complete the url I will need a little bit later on. Save the new url to your document.

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6. While you still have your wordpad/notepad document open copy and paste this line of html from the photo below into it please. Follow the instuctions in this photo below to complete the line of code you need.

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7. Copy and paste that entire last line of html, the one that includes your image url, into your wordpad/notepad document and save it. This is the code you will be inserting into your template.


8. Go to your dashboard, select the design tab and click on 'edit html'.

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9. You should now see a screen like below. DOWNLOAD AND SAVE YOUR TEMPLATE before making ANY changes. I have circled the option in the next picture so no excuses. Then find the line of html I have circled, it will be in the first section so you should not have to search for too long. I have circled it in the picture below. You shouldn;t have to scroll down to find this, it should be visible when you open up the template. If you are having difficulty use ctrl and F to open up a search option at the bottom of your browser window.

Press enter or return to create a new line then copy and paste the line of code we created earlier just under the title data blog title title >.

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The html code AFTER the title data bog title title will differ on each template so don't worry about what comes after it, just put the code in and save your template. Then go and admire your new favicon!

A big thank you to Nickie at Typecast who tested the instructions and now has a lovely favicon.


If you have any questions or problems leave a comment and I will address it. If you have any requests for future tutorials please leave a comment and I will do it.

Where is the sparkle?

 

HRH was sitting on the wooden floor in the hallway, leaning his iTouch on the bottom step of the stairs and holding the current favourite dinky cars. Then he fell asleep, mid youtube clip.

He has lost his sparkle for now, he is sick and on antibiotics. 

My Top 10 iPhone and iPad Apps for young children.

Anyone who regularly reads my blog knows that I am a gadget lover. Readers will also know that my children are gadget lovers and huge Apple fans. We have an iTouch, an iPhone and an iPad. Given my love of all things gadgety and my Apple device ownership I have been getting a lot of emails asking which apps I would recommend for small children. So many people are buying one of the devices for Christmas (woohoo) so I thought I would share the information here.

The apps I have listed are firm favourites of both my 22 month old neurotypical daughter and my 3 year old autistic son. We have been using them, in most cases, for 3 months or more so we have given them fair testing. I got the majority of them for free but some of them will be paid apps by now. I will explain how to get free apps further down the post.

In no particular order:

Toy Story: iPad only. A fabulous, colourful, interactive book. Even better, it is free! There are games, music, painting and reading options. All that is required from the child to use the basic reading part of the book is a swipe action to turn the pages. I love this myself. If any of you have Toy Story fans there are also books available for Toy Story 2 and 3, both paid apps.

Talking Tom: Free app suitable for iPhone and iPad. It does work on the iTouch but you cannot use the voice recording option without a microphone. This app is great for encouraging vocalisation and speech sounds. It is a favourite here. Tom also reacts when you tickle or touch him so it teaches cause and effect.

Line Art: Costs €1.59. A great cause and effect app with pinpricks of coloured light on the screen. When you touch the screen the lights move towards your finger. That is all it does, but it is also great for sensory input, especially if you turn the lights off in the room. Hypnotic! Suitable for all three devices.

Gravilocity: Costs €1.59. Similar to above but more customizable and does 'opposites' and 'kaleidoscope' effects, very relaxing. Either one should do the trick, given that they are both paid apps, but the Line Art is probably a better one to start off with. Suitable for all three devices.

BabyFirsts Play Phone: Free. Teaches numbers in a very simple fashion. Also good for cause and effect as each touch gives an instant payoff. There is also a sounds section where little characters say funny things. A really lovely app suitable for all three devices.

Baby Flash Cards: Free. Teaches object recognition and very simple to use. One touch changes the image and there are 250 images. Very bright and cheerful app. Suitable for all three devices and there is also a paid version.

Peek a boo: Free. Shaking the device or touching the screen will bring up a cartoon picture of an animal and make the animal noise. There are 10 animals and it is great fun. This app is used every single day in our house. Great for cause and effect, teaching animals and their sounds. Suitable for all three devices.

Learn the Animals: €1.59. iPad only. Offers a choice of 4 animals and asks the child to choose the correct one. When the correct one is chosen a reward of a photo of the animal is shown. Great app to fine tune animal recognition and there is a 'Fruit & Vegetables' app too.

Tiny Ocean: €0.79 Cute animation and sounds scenes that teaches cause and effect while being funny. It is suitable for all three devices but the voice recording option won't be available on the iTouch.

ABC Magnets: €0.79. The magnetised plastic letters you have on your fridge are now available in app form. Great for teaching letters and numbers. Very easy to use and suitable for all three devices and a must have for anyone who has a letter/number obsessed child!

I said earlier that I got all of the above apps free, well this is how. There is a great website called Free App A Day that I check regularly for free apps for the three apple devices. It also does free apps for android devices. Another website to check is Moms with Apps who feature a free app every Friday.

For those of you getting one of the apple devices at Christmas check out the above apps BUT when they appear up in iTunes see if there is a similar app that is free. You could use the free apps to see if your child is interested before paying for apps. Often there will be 'free' or 'lite' versions of an app that you can try and then buy the full app if it is interesting for your child.

I hope this is helpful. Please use the sharing buttons below if you know people who would find the information valuable. Feedback is appreciated and if you want me to do a post for older children and adults just shout.

Anyone getting an Apple device for Christmas, enjoy!

The Blanket Trick

*Rest assured, no blanket was harmed while conducting this very unscientific research. Or children, forgot the children bit!

We have discovered something questionable pretty exciting, a new way to help HRH learn. He likes having a blanket over his head. That sounds about as bad as I thought it would. Let me try to clarify. He doesn't do it all the time, he just gets a notion and likes to sit with the blanket covering his head. He prefers company under there. I, and varying family members, join him and while I am there I do some sneaky 'work' with him.

Given the limited space, the heat and need for regular air breaks I tend to focus on his speech. I am never quite sure what I will be helping him with until it happens because I follow his lead and the natural flow of the event. This leads to interesting times under the blanket, but as long as I am working on everyday phrases I am happy.

We have done 'hiding', because that is what we were doing. We have done 'Love you', to which he now says 'uv meee' and proffers his forehead for a kiss. We even got him to taste a chipstick so I might bring more food items in at a later stage. We will practice saying names of family members at some point, maybe when they are visiting and can join in.

On Tuesday we were doing 'hello' and all saying 'Hello HRH', 'Hello Firstborn', 'Hello Her Cuteness' and 'Hello Mama'. (yep, we were all in there). The following morning when I went to get him out of bed I said 'Hello HRH' and he said 'Hewwo Mama'. Result!!

We tested it out at his occupational therapy appointment yesterday and ended up doing everything under cover, everything! Once he got under it he wouldn't come out and the therapists were delighted with what he was doing so we just went with it. He even got into the ball pool. The. Ball. Pool. He hates the ball pool and has not gotten into it, ever!

The session came to a quick end as Her Cuteness vom-baby shared her stomach contents. Thankfully, not in the ball pool. Think about it...............


*photo credit google images

Tradition of White.

Before Firstborn arrived my mother-in-law gave us a set of 3 white babygros. I fell in love with them because I thought Firstborn looked gorgeous in white. He left the hospital in one of those babygros.

When my second and third children arrived I had kept this set and one was the very first item of clothing they wore. They also came home in another of the set. I just wanted it that way and ask my husband you don't argue with a woman who has just given birth.

So for the theme of 'White' this week, I present to you my three beautiful newborns!

Firstborn with my gorgeous sister in 2002

Firstborn holding HRH in 2007

Her Cuteness in 2009

Does anyone else think the resemblance between my children is scary *ahem* strong?

Blog Gems - Air your Archives #4

How many posts do you have languishing in your archives? Great posts that will never be dusted off and brought out to breathe again! Maybe you created fabulous content before you had lots of followers, or maybe you have been blogging for years and your current followers haven't seen your older material.

I have a plan.

Blog Gems - Air Your Archives is a forthnighly linky list where I will give a prompt and you select a post from your archives that fits the prompt. You do not have to create content for the prompt, unless you want to. All you have to do is copy and paste the url of the post into the linky list. Voila, an old post gets a second shot!

To take part:

1. Follow my blog to get future Blog Gem posting information and linkys.

2. Grab the Blog Gem button and place it on your sidebar (html code here)

Putting the button on your blog is not a dealbreaker, some people just don't like doing it and I have no problem with that at all. What I will say is that something like this can't be successful without 'word of mouth' so I would appreciate if you could find another way to let people know that this is available and they are welcome to join in.

3. Enter your link.

4. Read and comment on the submissions of the two blogs preceeding you on the linky list. (Please!)

5. Help me spread the word by telling your blogging friends, sharing buttons at end of post.

It seems to have been a tough week for everyone weather wise. Our friends in Australia have either scorching heat or major flooding. Those of us in the UK and Ireland have had the biggest dump of snow for almost 20 years. How is everyone in USA doing?? I think we could all do with a smile, so that will be the prompt this week, share a post that makes you smile or feel happy.

Now, point us all in the direction of a post that makes you smile:

Allison at Life in a Pink Fibro and I have gotten together to generate some cross-hemisphere linky love. Allison runs Weekend Rewind every weekend and is also based on posting up your favourite oldies. I have taken part this week and it is one of the friendliest bloghops I have ever taken part in! Her linky is closed now, but will be open again next weekend. Remember to go have a look!

My revenge on the Caveman!

People are starting to talk in hushed tones about 'The great snow of '82' and compare our current snowfall with what we had then. Now, back in 1982 I was a child. We had just moved to a town having lived on the side of a mountain for my entire life. At the time the 'great snow' didn't seem like such a big deal to me, I was used to it. I blogged about it briefly here. I do remember that the schools were closed for two weeks and my Mum really wanted them to reopen!!

Now that I am a mum myself I can understand a little better what it was like for my mother. I am sure we drove her wild. My children are much younger and they haven't started to wear me down yet. In fact I am quite enjoying having them all to myself and getting cuddles in bed in the morning. I am having great difficulty in one area though, and I am sure this was what my Mum experienced all those years ago.

Back in the 'great snow' my Dad had to go to work. He worked with animals and they needed a lot of care in the bad weather. Understandable, but very stressful for my Mum. That is the bit I get now. My caveman of a husband is out hunting and gathering for his family. This is commendable, but I am finding it really stressful. The roads here are bad, trucks can't get up even the slightest of inclines and people are having to stay in hotels rather than risk trying to get home. Caveman is leaving the house at 6am in order to get into work. Everyday, until he walks through the front door, I worry about him getting home safely.

Caveman, are you reading? Just know that I ate the bar of chocolate you left in the fridge. Revenge! Hah!

at 20cm in a sheltered spot