On We Go

Welcome to May, this year is zooming by.

All seems to be ok in the T residence as we just flit from appointment to appointment running back and forth for different things.

Hubby's diabetes is stable. His levels haven't changed for 2 years but the hospital still want him to bring his blood glucose levels below 7. He has been stalling at 7.5 which is still rather good but not in the hospital guidelines so a slight change of pattern is needed. He now injects insulin before meals and in different places to where he used to. He goes back in 3 months for a review.

Matthew is still struggling a little at school with organisation and concentration. I spent an hour in a meeting the other day and I am still no clearer on the next move with helping him. Matthew is a complex little character who does great for so long then he drops behind again and has to work hard at things again. It does all seem a bit pointless at times, THIS is what Matthew is and they seem to be trying to make him into someone and something else. The school "interest" just knocks his confidence more as he feels he can't live up to their expectations.

In a little over 2 weeks time, Matthew is off on a residential camping trip with the school for 4 nights. They are away Monday to Friday and he is so excited. We have his sleeping bag, ground sheet, torch etc. It's just a case of getting together all the clothes and wash bag. He can't wait to go.

James is doing ok. Coming up this week we see the occupational therapist. Someone who may be able to help him with making mundane jobs easier. Doing up buttons etc. He has come on so much in recent weeks and as much as I do admit I think we are making progress by these appointments, I also fear that it may be damaging his education. He is losing a day a month easily to get to these appointments. On Monday he had a 50mile round trip to a speech and language assessment meaning he missed all the afternoon then, and this OT appointment is at 12 so he could go to school for 2 hours and get back for the last hour. I keep telling myself it will benefit him but it feels like a waste of a day. His speech was doing ok, his understanding and reasoning perfect and quite above levels for his age. The lady said he was very forward and was held back a little by confidence of getting answers wrong and he doesn't like being noticed in a large crowd. He'd rather blend in. She also said the same thing I have been saying for months, part of his lisp and unclear wording comes from his missing tooth that is lodged in his gum due to an accident as a toddler. He cannot make the "Ffffff" noise as he can't do the bunny rabbit teeth they advise to learn it as he cannot push his tongue behind the teeth so it comes out "Sssssss" and the same with his "J" it comes out "Z" as his tongue doesn't quite reach that point it needs to. Overall, they aren't too concerned but are now in the process of getting him speech support within school.  SUCCESS! Still lots more to work on but that's one thing we won't have to travel to disrupting his learning.

Liam has now completed 2 weeks of one on one speech therapy. He is thriving on it. He loves the singular attention and is working on his "Ppppp" sounds to start. He is also being encouraged to use more words like "Is" "Was" etc as he tends to shorten his sentences. For example looking at pictures he'll describe one as "He clapping his hands" The speech therapist, school and I are working together to get the full description of "The boy is clapping his hands" just to make that sentence clear and complete. He's doing well.

On Tuesday he is off on his first official school trip. The nursery class are off to a local farm for the day. It's a slightly extended day lasting until 1pm instead of the usual 11.45am collection. He'll love it. He's always loved his animals. So with my boys all at school until later on Tuesday it's mums day in town to get her hair cut, do a little girly shopping, get Matthew his little bag for camping with all the male grooming bits he'll need. The shower gel, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodrant, maybe even a little hair gel for his disco night. Then I'm going to shamelessly buy myself a magazine and have a lazy half hour with a decent coffee in one of the town coffee shops and just enjoy a bit of solo time. Blissful. :)