Wednesday 30 December 2009

Christmas and New Year

Well, I hope everyone has had a nice Christmas. Ours was ok. We had my dad stay with us for a few days which was nice as we don't normally see family on Christmas day. He was a big help to me with looking after the boys and he even painted our bathroom for us (thanks dad!).

Sam had no interest whatsoever in opening any presents. He didn't even want to look at them when we were opening them for him. He got a bit more interested once the gifts were opened and his favourite one was a slinky that only actually cost me 99p! I think it felt a bit disappointing because we had expectations for having a 'normal' Christmas with frenzied present unwrapping and an excited little boy and the reality was a bit different. Boxing day was much better though without the pressure (or presents) and we had a happier little boy. William was his usual baby self, and is smiling a lot more now and watching his big brother with fascination!

Sam is 3 on the 2nd January and I am contemplating giving his gifts to him unwrapped and seeing what happens. Hopefully it will be less stressful for him. He's battling a heavy cold at the moment so we're not sure yet if we'll be doing anything for his birthday. He LOVES swimming so if he's better we'll probably do that!

Well, I'm really looking forward to 2010 and I'm hoping good things come our way after a not so good 2009. I'm wary of making resolutions but I have a little list of things I will TRY to accomplish:
  • Losing my baby weight (will involve a lot of will power as I am a chocoholic!)
  • Getting the house finished in terms of decorating/organising.
  • Getting Sam potty trained, communicating and settled in at nursery.
  • Being more patient!
  • Winning the lottery (well I can dream, can't I?!)

Hope you all have a terrific New Year!!!

Monday 28 December 2009

First Post!

This is the first of hopefully many posts. I've wanted to start a blog for some time but have been too busy or a bit too nervous to write about personal things for others to read! But the time has come. Hopefully this will first of all keep people updated about what's going on with us and secondly will also help to clear my head of the clutter that is accumulating there!

A lot has been going on with us recently, a lot we've been worried about mainly concerning our son, Sam. He is 3 next week and is a lively, lovely, bright and happy little boy. However, he is currently undergoing assessments for developmental delays with his communication plus other traits/behaviours he has. It's likely that he is going to be diagnosed sometime in 2010 with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder).

Sam is non verbal at the moment with little understanding of language and communicates basic needs by taking our hands and putting them on what he wants. It's so frustrating for both him and us when we can't figure out what he wants so we are going to start to try signing with him and using picture flash cards. Although he's not had a diagnosis yet, we are pretty sure of the outcome and are still trying to come to terms with it. It can be like a knife to the heart to see how different he is from other children his age in terms of what he can't do. But he can do an awful lot too. He is funny, sneaky, cheeky, smiley, fearless, runs like the wind and is the best leaper off the sofa that I have ever seen! :)

Autism can be a difficult thing for me to talk about sometimes and not a topic easily brought up in conversation so I'm hoping that I can relieve some of the stress by writing about it instead. I apologise to any friends/family reading this with whom we've not talked about it before but we may be needing your moral support this year.

Well I have rambled on enough for one post! Thanks for reading.