Goal 2!

Well, Sam wanted another kick around again this evening, so Andy (proudly) obliged. Here are a few pics of my lovely boy!

Goal!

Andy needed to wash his motorbike today, so he drove it around the back of the house into the alley running parallel to our street. He took Sam out to hopefully 'watch' and to be honest I had my doubts about doing this. There are no gates to either end of this alley, one end leads onto the main road and the other onto a smaller side street. Either way, if he started running (as he likes to do) we could be in trouble!

But he loves Andy's motorbike even more than running so he stuck around and watched! Then he got his ball from our little back yard and had a kick around with Andy in the back alley. And I mean a proper kick around, he looked like a right little footballer (even had his Chelsea top on)! Then he chased Andy for a bit and Andy kept throwing him up into the air. Sam had such a look of happiness on his little face, it was truly wonderful.

It might seem like a really small, insignificant thing for your child to kick a ball with purpose but for us it was a brilliant achievement. Well done Sam!!

Team Around the Family

So I went to the 'team around the family' meeting today which was held at Sam's nursery. I took Sam to his classroom first and he went without any fuss or crying which was great!

It was nice meeting up with all Sam's professionals and we discussed mainly his education at nursery and the things that were already in place to help him and things that will be put in place to help him learn. We talked about his individual education plan (IEP) and how we are starting off with one goal for the moment and that goal is to get Sam to play/interact with his support worker for one minute. It sounds so simple, but it will probably be quite hard. He needs to want the interaction and to concentrate on it for a whole minute. This will be reviewed near the end of the summer term when we have another meeting. I left the meeting with a really good feeling and lots of good ideas.

One of the ideas is using a visual timetable with photos of the places Sam goes, people he sees, things he does etc. So he can see the order in which he'll do things and perhaps be able to communicate what he wants or where he wants to go. So I've got lots of photos to take!

Afterwards, it was too late for me to go anywhere else and too early to take Sam home, so I got to go outside and watch him playing. He was having so much fun running up and down a hill, a couple of little girls started following him and one kept trying to give him a hug, which of course he was wriggling to get away from! She said to me 'That's Samuel'! So funny, perhaps he has a little admirer!

As a family, we've managed to get transferred from our dentist back in Grange to Barrow instead which will make life a bit easier. Andy explained about Sam and they were quite happy to see him so as well as an appointment for me, we now we have an appointment for Sam to see the dentist for the first time ever near the end of May, eek! We have such a hard time cleaning his teeth that I'm kind of dreading the lecture I'm sure I'll get but we'll see what happens.

Getting the Right Support

Ok, so long time again since I last blogged, got lots going on, especially with Sam.

At the end of this week we've got a 'team around the family' meeting between myself, the health visitor, Sam's support worker at nursery and the Early Years teacher. And also perhaps his speech therapist. Hopefully we'll come up with a plan together of how best to help Sam learn and progress. I have been wanting something like this meeting to take place for ages now, so excited!

The Early Years teacher came and observed Sam at nursery one afternoon last week and had some suggestions for teaching him. Sam is very tactile as I've mentioned before and so she suggested using sensory toys (which they did the following session and he loved it!), also taking the indoors outdoors as he is so calm and happy when outside, and also intensive interaction therapy which is where the teacher mimics Sam in his noises/movements/play in order to get a response/interaction. This is something we do in our house anyway all the time!

Another thing we've been to is a Portage drop in playgroup for disabled children. They only take on a certain number of families but because the Portage worker is also the organiser of the local NAS branch and is a lovely person she invited us along to join in. It's good for Sam and good for us as parents to meet up with other parents. Two of the little boys who are also attending the playgroup go to Sam's nursery and one of them is in Sam's classes. We went to this morning's session and got to go into a sensory room. I really wasn't sure if Sam would be interested, but once the main lights were out and the bubble tube came on he was hooked! He loved the lights and movement, really was enthralled. So enthralled that he didn't want to leave the room! We've been told that we can use it any time it's available for free, just to call ahead and book it! So many doors are opening up to us for Sam and we are feeling very very lucky.

William is doing well, he's sitting up on his own (well for a few minutes anyway!) and he is really moving now in his baby walker! He seems to have discovered his voice this week and has been babbling away like mad (and happily screaming too!). I think he's going to be a chatterbox someday!

Sorry for such a long post, I should really write little and often! Oh well!

Positive Things!

Well, once again sorry for not having blogged in ages! To be honest I just haven't felt there was anything to blog about!

This week has been a thoroughly positive one though. I have been feeling better in myself, the sun has been shining so I've been able to get out with the boys more, I've had extra help as both my parents have been to stay and now Andy is off work on holiday for a bit so that is great.

Sam started his new nursery class yesterday and despite being upset at first he got to go outside for about an hour so must have had a bit of fun. His teaching assistant asked us if we could bring him in 10 minutes after everyone else has come in as the coming and going of kids and their parents seems to be upsetting him a bit. He is going again tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully he'll be a little more settled.

Next week our area's early years teacher is going to observe him at nursery which I'm thrilled about. Finally something is happening for him. Our health visitor (HV) came to see us about Sam a couple of days ago and she is really pushing things forward. She wants to have a family meeting with some of the professionals working with Sam (like the early years teacher and his teaching assistant, maybe his SaLT) to work out what is the best way of supporting him and looking at his immediate future. I am so pleased about this. When you don't hear anything for a while you start to think you've dropped off the radar!

The HV also wants to form a local parent and toddler group for children with ASD which is terrific. Normal parent and toddler groups aren't always suitable for those kids with special needs no matter how much you want them to work. This way I can meet other mums and dads who are local and in my position.

Today we went out for the morning to Grizedale Forest, a tourist attraction in the lakes with lots of forest walks, mountain bike trails etc. We had a lovely walk, Sam actually walked a lot himself (we didn't bring his buggy) and stayed on the trail and everything when he wasn't having his hand held by Andy. He even got lifted onto Andy's shoulders and was very happy about it. He's only done it now a couple of times, and really doesn't know he should be clinging on so Andy has to hold his hands tightly, but even still this has been real progress for him this morning!

William is still lovely and smiley and growing ever bigger! He tries grabbing everything in sight including Sam (who I am beginning to think is liking the attention).

Well that's all for now!

Loving this Nursery!!

Sam had an interesting nursery session yesterday. When we went to pick him up we noticed he had a reddish tinge to bits of his skin. At first I thought it he'd scraped himself falling or something like that but then we noticed it was paint. The nursery teachers had wondered what he'd been up to as he had gone very quiet and when they found him by the easel they saw that he had emptied a pot of red paint all down himself!! I've tried cleaning him up as best I can, but he is still pink in places!

We found out yesterday afternoon too that there was an parents open evening at the nursery last night, so we ended up going to that. We got to meet the support worker who will be working with Sam for his 2 afternoons a week from April onwards. She was so nice and explained how they would be helping Sam. Once he has been there a few weeks they will be assessing him with a specialist teacher and/or an educational psychologist so that they can apply to have a statutory assessment done by the local education authority (LEA). Hopefully this will lead to getting him a statement of special educational needs which is wonderful. Goodness knows he's going to need all the support we can get him. This nursery really have been making a wonderful effort with him already and now I'm feeling really positive about Sam's future there.

On another positive note, my diet/excercise programme has been going really well. Since the beginning of the year I've lost 11 pounds! All I've done really is cut out the snacking and gone out walking with the boys everyday.

We had a lovely walk this morning around Tarn Hows. For those friends reading this from abroad, we live near the Lake District. There are so many incredibly scenic places to visit and we love this particular one as the walk around the lake is pushchair friendly and it generally only takes us about an hour (without lots of stops). My legs may be regretting this tomorrow!

Stuff

I've wanted to blog for a few days now, but not been really sure what to say. I've had a few low days recently which have probably been down to sleep deprivation and if I am being honest (which I wanted to be on this blog) some post natal depression as well. Some days there is just a big cloud around my head and I can't seem to lift it. However yesterday and today have both been good days so hopefully I can keep up the momentum for tomorrow!

Sam's been a bit off colour this last couple of weeks. He used to be such a good sleeper and now he keeps waking in the night crying, sometimes once, sometimes several times and it can take an age to get him back to sleep. Other times he doesn't go back to sleep at all. He is also eating hardly anything at all. Breakfast is fine, lunch ok ish, but after that he seems to just not be interested in eating or drinking at all, even some of his favourite snacks. Just not sure what to do, perhaps he is too tired to eat? Really hope it's just a phase.

His nursery days are still going well. He's due to start nursery properly in April as it is the term after his third birthday. He will be moving to a classroom called the green room which has a special needs teacher. Over the next few weeks he'll be visiting the green room during his private nursery sessions to help get him used to it. This nursery is so caring I love it! When Andy dropped him in there yesterday a couple of little girls came running over to Sam and helped find his photo on the wall which goes over the peg for his coat and hat. Little things like that really bring a tear to my eye as I'm sure however lovely they were being, he hadn't a clue.

We have started to wean William now. I was getting a bit fed up with him trying to launch himself at our food all the time and getting upset when we wouldn't give him any. So he is on baby porridge in the morning and baby rice in the evening till he gets used to it, then we can start him on more interesting stuff! I did let him suck on a banana the other day, mainly because he lunged at one I was eating. He made light work of it that's for sure! He lurves his grub!

Spring is in the air here! We've had some lovely mild sunny days, long may they last. They really lift my spirits and hopefully also the weight off my bum as I can now get out more for exercise! Yay!