Grandad's 80th birthday - Part 1

Family lunch @ The Riverside Inn

They said yes

A brief interlude from the good stuff.

Last week we were playing catch at the park.

B was loving the game when he saw the tree.

He turned, stopped playing and spent several minutes facinated with the bark and the texture. A real autistic moment.

And it's something you can't ignore. No matter how determined I am that we will do all the normal things, it breaks through. Like the meltdown he had a Quarry Bank that I didn't write about.

Before half term there were yet more forms to fill in to ask for Statutory Assessment of Benjamin's needs at school. There was another letter to write and I spent the afternoon sniffing as I put down on paper yet again all the things that he can't do and I faced just how different he is to the other children.

Local Authorities don't like to do Stat Assess. It costs them a couple of thousand pounds to do, and they will do pretty much anything to avoid it. I was expecting a no and was ready to then apeal against the decision. But on Saturday a letter came. It was a yes.

The process is a set one, they have to collect all the evidence by the 3rd August. There will be more appointments for B. I will have another form to do (and this one will get the full treatment). If we are sucessful B will get a statement. This is so important. We have been let down so many times. It feels like one last push....

With Grandad....

..... for cuddles on Fathers Day.

Let's go fly...

... Ben's kite!

Happy Fathers Day

It's not been the easier year for A so far - January brought the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes and all the messing and testing and injections that goes with it - but he is the coolest daddy and we love him!

Quarry Bank Mill

Our Saturday trip out to Styal.

Don't you just love the light evenings?

When you can go to the park...

...for lots of fun...

Freckle twins - so gorgeous!

Present from Jersey

Look what Gma and Gpa brought back from Jersey! It's the best present B has had in a long time - he just loves it....

...and so does M....

...it's led to many early evening throwing sessions in the park!

Lose 1, gain 3

M went back to school today (oh, the delights of being in High School!) - but no quiet day for B and I. My freind J had to work, so we had M's best frined C, plus younger sisters R and B with us for the day.

Rain scuppered our plans of going to a park - so instead we went to Liverpol Museum....

...where everyone was as good as gold....
...followed by a stop off at Victoria Park to meeet M once the weather had improved.

LalaLuna (or how B became a star of the stage)

A couple of months ago a friend saw LaLaLuna and linked a video about it on Facebook. It looked facinating, so I booked us tickets to see it at the Lowry.

It was just fabulous! We had seats on the front row, and so were involved in all the interactive elements. Including B making his stage debut! If you watch the embedded video, you will see a little girl on satege playing the whoopee cushion - that's what B did. He was sooooo good and played along brilliantly - it was just the funniest thing to see. Considereing the number of times I have seen him sit in silence on a stage when all the other chldren are singing, it was marvellous to see.

The giant moon balloon was a present from Wolfe Bowart for taking part so well.

The show is amazingly creative, beautiful and very funny, and extremly moving in the end. Really one of the most perfect pieces of theatre I've ever seen.

Imperial War Museum Duxford

On our way home from London we stopped off at Duxford. A has been desperate to visit for years, and while the weather was so perfect, it was too good a chance to miss!

The were planes on the ground, planes in the air, scince experiments to try and a playground - perfect!

Oliver!

Having abandoned A and B in Leicester Square (to see Iron Man 2 for the third time!) - M and I pootled through Covent Garden to Drury Lane, where we saw Oliver! at the theatre Royal. It was the first West End musical for both of us - and was just as fabulous as we expected. Jodie Prenger has left the production now, but Kerry Ellis was excellent as Nancy. Grif Rhys Jones was a brilliant Fagin - and my bonus was Julian Glover as Mr Brownlow.







Gma went to see Oklahoma at the theatre royal when she was 8

Trafalger Square

A hot lunchtime in Trafalger square.