The Farm

Following on from the 'make the most of our last days' trip to Eureka! last week, this week we visit the local pick-your-own farm for some veggies. I knew from the website that they still had some peas left and as the weather was so beautiful I decided to take Bee down to pick some. I was a little uncertain as to how successful it would be as Bee really doesn't like many textures and outdoorsy things.

I'd spent the morning explaining to Bee that we would be picking vegetables to eat while we were at farm, in preparation for the difficulty she may have with it. When we got there she was raring to go, we collection our plastic tray from a staff member and made our way out to the vegetable fields.  

Although there were lots of vegetables to choose from I knew I'd have the best chance of getting co-operation out of Bee if it was something she really liked, so it was straight to the peas. All they had left were sugar snap peas and mange tout, which was good enough for us. 

Bee was happy enough to walk down the narrow, uneven aisles between the pea plants although she was a little concerned by the greenery brushing against her bare legs and insisted on holding my hand. Something silly Mama didn't think about. Sadly, as we're quite late in the season, many of the 'easy pick' peapods were gone and we had to dig around towards the base of each plant to find anything. This was totally beyond Bee from a sensory standpoint and so I did my best to find pods then manoeuver the stem towards her for plucking. This worked quite a few times and we were even lucky enough to find a few missed ones towards the top that Bee could manage by herself.

After a little while the amount of stressful texture around her all got too much and all she wanted was to be carried. Which is lovely, except when you're stuck in the middle of a field, with 2 heavy bags, a carton of peas and a very heavy toddler in the unrelenting sun. I managed by carrying Bee for a short distance towards the end of the aisle, plonking her down in a space while I looked for more peas then carrying her a little further and so on. She was happy to stand and wait while I looked, so long as she didn't have to move through the plants. She quite enjoyed standing and munching on peapods!

 

When we had a tub full of sugar snap peas I carried Bee back to the pram at the end of the aisle, where she sat eating peas and drinking water, ready for some quiet time after the stress of the greenery. On the walk back to the farm shop to pay for our haul we passed the broadbean section, I grabbed some of those and a raw corn on the cob from the maize field, which Bee loved eating! 

By the time we'd purchased our veg (with a few extra fresh corn on the cobs from the farm shop) Bee was refreshed and ready for the park. Sadly it's not very good, consisting of just a tall, ladder-accessed bridge and slide. Not at all suitable for Bee. After lots of asking "why" she couldn't play on the park she contented herself with sadly watching from the sidelines and chewing on her doll. My heart ached for her.

Sad girl

I managed to persuade her away from the park with the suggestion of playing with her ball on the field. Eventually she agreed and we went hand in hand back to the car to find her ball.

We took a picnic blanket and her big Minnie Mouse ball and had lots of fun playing catch and chase on the field. The park became a distant memory, all disappointment forgotten. Soon it was time to collect Daddy from work, well timed as my girl was beginning to flag. She was quite happy to continue her veggie picnic in the car though!

Celebrations

Well it's been an interesting month or so. I turned 30 at the end of May and spent a busy week with family. My uncle has a birthday a few days before mine and we had a lovely day with Bee, my mum, auntie and uncle at my grandparents house, enjoying a joint celebration with lots of presents and munching on two lots of cake! 

For my birthday I'd chosen to spend the day in one of my favourite places: Wales. I'd wanted to visit Llanberis for a long time and even though it's a long drive my birthday was the best opportunity.

Sadly the morning of my birthday was overcast and rainy but we packed the car up anyway, making sure we had lots of warm jumpers and coats. It's about a 2-hour drive to Llanberis so we set of early, grabbing a McDonalds breakfast on the way. Yummy!

LLanberis is beautiful. It's a small village at the foot of Mount Snowdon, within the incredible Snowdonia National Park. It's the site of the famous Welsh slate mines, both the abandoned and still working. Slate quarrying is very wasteful, only approximately 10% of the slate is used and the rest is discarded.
So much of the landscape is shaped by the huge rock faces of the quarries and mountainous piles of waste slate.

An interesting historical note (I'm fond of those) is that the two lakes running along side the quarries were once significantly bigger but were infilled by thousands of tons of slate and the newly-created land built on. 

  One of the reasons I'd chose Llanberis, aside from my love of that part of Wales, was because there's a lovely steam train that runs along one of the lakes and a ruined castle to explore: perfect for Bee.

She got very excited once she saw the train arriving and couldn't wait to board. We had lots of fun playing with the old-fashioned window before setting off!



The journey took us along the two-mile stretch of Llyn (lake) Padarn then back along the same route once the engine had turned. We watched the steam from the funnel fly past our window, listened to the chugging sounds, counted the boats and the lake and took lots and lots of pictures. Even Bee wanted to help!

After the train journey we took a walk into Llanberis village for some dinner, we were all getting hungry. We'd promised Bee something nice and she kept repeating "nye eat ow" - nice eat out. She can get a little impatient and doesn't always understand that when you say something is happening it doesn't mean it's happening immediately!

We ate at a local hotel and during the wait for our food Bee had a mad 10-minutes. She just charged round the space (thankfully there were no other diners) jumping and hiding, screeching and playing with the toys we'd brought. Of course, her hypotonia brings her back down eventually and her little body can't keep up with her enthusiasm. Of course once food arrived (sausage and chips in Bee's case) she was up and back at the table in a flash. With ice cream to follow it was a big winner!


The rest of our visit we spent exploring Dolbadarn Castle, beautifully located on a rise between the two lakes, giving fantastic views. thankfully by this point the low-hanging mist and grey skies had disappeared and all we had was sun!

Part of the path up to Dolbadarn Castle involved crossing a stream with a sheep gate. Bee was very proud that she navigated it all by herself! She continued this all the way to the summit of the rise, without once asking to be carried. Every steep, uneven and rock-strewn section of the path she managed with aplomb, needing only the smallest amount of hand-holding to get through it. I think it was the ice cream that fortified her!

There isn't much left of Dolbadarn Castle, just an empty circular tower with steps spiraling up around the outer wall and the crumbling remains of walls that once formed part of the whole castle. It left plenty of open space for Bee to play chase and catch with her Peppa Pig ball although she wasn't impressed by all the sheep!

By the time we'd explored around the castle it was getting late and Bee getting tired. I knew with a 2-hour+ drive ahead of us it was time to leave. We'd drove the A55 expressway for speed on the morning but on the way home I wanted to drive the longer route through the Snowdonia National Park. I couldn't be that close to that beautiful place without seeing some of it. And it was totally worth the extra 30 minutes or so on our drive home!

I really enjoyed my 30th birthday, it had been everything I wanted: spending time with my beautiful little family in the most beautiful place on earth.

Easter

A very happy belated Easter to everyone reading this. We had a very busy weekend, filled with family, chocolate and Rugby League! Bee, as always was very, very spoilt! I think sometimes family are making up for her first few years when she couldn't eat anything, now she's overwhelmed with chocolate. We're fairly relaxed about it on Easter but afterwards it's rationed. Although her dietician wants her on a high calorie/fat diet I don't think copious amounts of daily chocolate is particularly helpful!

 This year Bee had her first Easter egg hunt. We'd found some lovely small Peppa Pig eggs that were about the size of a Creme Egg but hollow. We bought a bag and the night before Easter I hid them around the living room. I didn't make it too hard, they were all in view if you looked hard enough. Bee still struggles a little with the concept of hiding and can get a little worried/apprehensive when asked to uncover something. I set her off with her little red shopping basket and she got very excited by the whole process. She spent a lot of time turning circles in the center of the room, her arms out asking "where? Where?" She found the first handful on her own but needed some assistance with the last few. We tried to pint her in the direction of the general area rather than pointing out the eggs themselves and she eventually got them all. She was so excited each time she found an egg, she would squeal and bring them to show me and her dad, insisting we noticed that "pi pi" (Peppa Pig) was on them! 

Foz insists that the only time it's acceptable for chocolate to be consumed for breakfast is birthdays, Christmas and Easter and of course after finding so many chocolate eggs there's no way I was getting away with making Bee wait! So, with new Peppa Pig bowl nestled safely on her knee Bee managed to devour 3 of her hollow eggs!

We spent the rest of Easter Sunday visiting various family members starting with my dad, who absolutely showered Bee with gifts: seven eggs, a Minnie Mouse and a Peppa Pig! I don't think the open-mouthed look of thrilled surprise left her face for the entire visit! She consumed yet another egg and was very generous with Minnie and Peppa, insisting that they shared with her by forcing their faces into the bowl. She's so kind!

'Hide and seek' with Bee doing the hiding...

After my dad it was on to Foz's grandma then Foz's parents, where there was more spoiling. Bee stayed the night at her grandparents that night as it was off to the traditional Easter Monday Rugby League fixture for myself and Foz the next day, can't miss Warrington at home! 

Overall we had a lovely day and got to spend some quality time with much of our family with plenty of laughs and treats!

Happy Easter everyone!

Underwater Street

Having a drink on the coach

We went on a nursery trip to Underwater Street in Liverpool today, a play and activity center.

Bee has been showing a lot of interest in buses recently and when she sees one asks "boo rye mama?" - bus ride mama? We've not had the opportunity recently so she was very excited today to be going on a coach. We had to meet at nursery first to be organised into groups and have the required safety talks but soon enough it was time to leave. Bee's nursery had about 90 children on this trip so it was a little like organised chaos with lots going on plenty of noise. I was a little worried about how Bee would cope but she did champion.

After a half hour coach journey we arrived in Liverpool and Bee was very ready to get off the bus, she hadn't enjoyed admiring the beautiful Liverpool architecture as I had! Underwater Street is right on Liverpool Docks, in the building next to the famous Liver Building, in the lower level.

Bee was very happy to see lots of boats floating in the docks and it's occurred to me that a trip around the docks on something like The Yellow Duckmarine might be a good idea, or maybe even the famous Mersey Ferry!

On arrival we congregated for another quick safety talk and then the children were all turned loose to play. It was like setting off a bomb, kids fair exploded out of the meeting and scattered far and wide across the center. Bee was so beside herself with excitement that she couldn't decide what to do first. I knew there was a pretend shop so I led her in that direction.

Bee loves to shop, she had a ball. She even, without prompting, interacted with the little girl manning the till and they packed Bee's shopping together!

As much as she loves shopping Bee couldn't maintain her focus on the one activity for long, there was just too much to do! Next it was on to the small ball pool with the diggers, then the water play, the sand pit, the dressing up.... it was crazy but so much fun!

We stopped in the middle of the trip for a bite to eat and a breather. Recently Bee has been enjoying raw carrot and it's lovely to see her munching away on something that, not so long ago, it would have been unimaginable for her to eat.
 

In the dressing up room Bee chose a lovely sparkly dress then proudly wore it round the center for the rest of the session. I was a little worried about whether she'd make a fuss about taking it off but she was a star.

She had great fun in the water play, pouring water from container to container and then into a water wheel, she spent by far the most time here.  

Water play

It's me!

One of my favourite moments was watching Bee discover herself on the TV in the 'newsroom'. She would see the back of herself on the TV then turn to find the camera, before realising that if she did that she couldn't see herself! It was very funny and very cute!

Painting a passenger window

In Underwater Street there's also a Mini, a full-sized Mini car. It's in it's own section and it's for painting on. Clearly the staff don't clean the painting from it that years of children have done and so it's a wonderful, multi-coloured, car-shaped blob that kids can paint all over. It almost blends into it's surroundings there so much paint everywhere! Bee loved it!

By the time the session was over Bee was more than ready to go home. She's been ill recently and so much activity had really tired her out. It was harder to get her interested in the view out of the windows on the way home, she mostly made her tired, moaning noise and chewed on her Peppa Pig toy. By the time we reached Warrington and then made it home poor little Bee was falling asleep. I put her to bed early, just after 5:30pm and she was out like a light.

We had a wonderful day and Bee coped much better than I thought she would with all the children, activity and noise. She joined in with painting, making, building and climbing. She constantly surprises me with what she's capable of.

Feeding Progress

We had a meeting with Bee's speech therapist and dietician this week, which I was really looking forward to as I feel like we're stalled with the feeding progress, or lack thereof. Bee will eat almost anything, from chocolate to raw carrot, the only thing she shies from is the more 'messy' food like rice pudding and yoghurt. We know this stems from her tactile defensiveness so don't push her too much with it. While we're thrilled with Bee's varied taste, our main concern is that she just picks at food and doesn't eat any substantial amount of it. This has created a little bit of a impasse with eating, in that we can get her to eat almost anything but not enough to sustain her, so we're still very dependant on the mic-key button. Of course the obvious answer is that Bee isn't hungry. She's fed 200mls of milk down her tube every 3 hours, that's a lot for such a little tummy, it's no wonder she only picks at the solid food we offer her. To be honest I'm not entirely sure Bee even knows what hunger feels like.

I relayed our concerns to Bee's therapists and they agreed it sounded like Bee wasn't hungry. The speech therapist said that what we needed to do was create hunger in Bee which sounded like a good idea to me! So she suggested a plan which I'm hoping is going to be the turning point for Bee's eating habits:

Currently Bee has five 200ml feeds a day between the time she gets up and the time she goes to bed. During that time I also offer her breakfast, dinner and tea with snacks inbetween. The new plan will involve a change of milk from her regular Nutrini to a high-energy version. This change will help accomodate a cut from five 200ml feeds a day to just three. Two of those will take place once she is asleep in bed, with the third being mid-morning. On the solid side of things we will continue to offer Bee regular meal and snack times.

So the new routine will be as follows:

• On waking Bee will be offered breakfast. She'll be allowed 30 minutes at the table with the food and then it'll be taken away.
• Mid-morning Bee will have a 200ml milk feed and be offered a snack which she is free to move around with.
• Dinnertime Bee will be offered a meal at the table and again given 30 minutes with it.
• Mid-afternoon will be time for snack, which Bee will be free to move around with.
• Tea will be at the table again for 30 minutes.
• After Bee is asleep at bedtime she will be given two 200ml feeds of milk.

Aside from the lesser quantity of milk, the new routine is more structured. I think this will help Bee start to understand food as a sustenence than a toy or a game, which I think she does at the minute. I'm really happy with this new plan, Bee's speech therapist is always brilliant and has never steered us wrong yet. I really hope this is going to be the start of weaning Bee off the mic-key button.

Happy Easter!

A big 'HAPPY EASTER' to everyone!

This year has been the first year Bee has been allowed to have easter eggs and we were very excited to buy her one. We decided on something small as we knew (with it being the first time) everyone would buy her some chocolate and we didn't want her to be overwhelmed. We went with a small Minnie & Mickey egg and some little Lindt bunnies, just big enough to have in a single sitting!

Of course spoiltsport Mama said no chocolate for breakfast but Daddy insisted as it's Easter! 

We had a lovely afternoon, spent with Foz's parents and overall a quiet weekend warm at home as the weather turned out to be cold, wet and miserable, boooo! Bee very much enjoyed her chocolate and has plenty to last her for weeks to come!