Month: August 2017

Ok, so its not really a curious incident, I just happen to be reading ‘The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime’ at the moment… which I have to say, doesn’t have me gripped as much as my usual romantic/funny/sexy ‘guilty pleasure’ reads… but I’m sticking with it!

So, back in March we started what was to be our ninth summer of having a caravan down in sunny Devon. We love escaping down there for the weekend.  Its only an hour or so down the road but it always felt like a little holiday. However, this year started to feel a little different. Continue reading “The curious incident of the Dog and the Caravan!”

That was the big question I was asking myself at the beginning of the six weeks holiday. Do I let my ‘keen to know everything’ daughter our plans for the school holidays?

I know all too well what its like.  Once you let the cat out of the bag, you don’t hear the end of it, with the same questions circling day after day.  So first off, I went with “We have some things planned but I will tell you nearer the time (like an hour before!)”   This didn’t go down too well.  We had attitude and meltdown of how bad this holiday was going to be, how it would be the worse ever, I was a rubbish mum…. you get the picture.

So, after an hour or so, I switched tactic, thought ‘sod it, can’t be any worse than this’ and decided to tell the kids a couple of the things we were doing.  BIG mistake! Continue reading “To tell or not to tell? Is it best to keep plans a secret or not?”

Oooooh, I had a right day of it yesterday! Talk about up and down like a rollercoaster! 🎢

I’d gone to bed the previous night in a bit of an anxious state – huffing and puffing and all that! I’d woken up not much better!

The kids were at their Grandads for the day and getting ready was a tad more traumatic than normal. There seemed to be more distress with the hairbrushing than usual which included Ellie throwing herself on the floor and a couple shouts of “I hate you!”.  I blocked it all out and kept calm – feeling pretty proud of myself!

However, the commute to work gave me thinking time and by the time I got into work I was feeling a little broken. Continue reading “What a day of DRAMA!! Monumental milestones, big decisions & the runaway dog! “

What started out as a rainy looking Monday turned out to be a beautiful sunny one, which was good as we’d been invited to a play-date in the forest.

The kids were told just two hours before we were leaving, so that Ellie’s anxiety didn’t rise too much – though we did have worries about who was going to be there and that they would all look at us when we arrived! Continue reading “Our successful day out in the deserted forest! “

For a couple of weeks, Hubby and I have been planning to have some ‘time out’ together – to gather our sanity, regroup and let loose!  Nothing too extravagant – a night away in Bristol which is an hour up the road, some drinks, something to eat… more drinks!

Turned out that my wonderful Dad was able to stay overnight with the kids on Thursday of this week, so that was our perfect opportunity to ‘escape’ for exactly 24 hours!  We were soooo looking forward to it!  However, the events of Wednesday night were about to throw a big fat spanner in the works. Continue reading “The Guilt Trip! Wanting ‘time out’, enjoying a rant and other things…”

So happy to be finishing the day with a much more positive blog!

We went to Kidz Rock this afternoon which is the final day of the Somerock weekend which is a big music festival in Bridgwater, Somerset (Google it!).

Two tribute acts were playing – Ed Sheeran and Little Mix which the kids were both excited for.

As we approached the site, the familiar shaking started and panic was setting in. Worrying that people were looking at her, that it was busy etc, etc.  Thankfully another lane opened up as we joined the queue to get in so that was one hurdle quickly jumped. I could see that Ellie felt anxious at the size of the circus ‘big top’ and the few thousand people at the ground, but once the ear defenders went on, the stress seem to settle. Continue reading “Happy Sunday! 😊😊”

Oooooh, that sounds a bit deep…. probably is for a Sunday morning tbh, but then I’ve had a good night’s sleep to recharge so this blog may be a little more coherent than it would’ve been last night (and not because of drink for a change!).

I have to be honest, we’ve probably had the worse start to a six weeks holiday in terms of Ellie’s behaviour… and its really starting to take its toll. Continue reading “Autism, Meltdowns and Mental Health… An honest view of not dealing with it!”

Wow! That’s a cynical title if ever I saw one!   This picture of the kids sums up our feelings of the whole process… and it makes me chuckle every time I see it!

It took two and a half years of consultants appointments before we had Ellie diagnosed at age five. During that time, only one consultant, the last one we saw, had some idea of what we were talking about in terms of Ellie’s virus, her food intolerances and her regression, but even then she couldn’t really explain it. Continue reading “Consulting Consultants and what they either don’t know… or don’t tell you!”