It's Finally Here

Well tomorrow is the big day, Bee is starting school. It's the ultimate cliche but I can't believe the time has passed so quickly. It seems only yesterday we had the summer stretched out in front of us and now school has crept up to surprise us and I'm not ready. I'm not ready to let her go.

For nearly 5 years it's been just me and her, while her Daddy works I've been the one at home. She's my kid, my star, my monster, my Bee, my everything. I've seen every moment of development, every achievement she's made from the small to the huge. She's my constant companion and my best friend. Spending these precious years with my Bee has meant everything to me.

Tomorrow everything will change. Things will never be the same once morning dawns and school beckons. Tomorrow marks the day Bee will start making large strides away from the security of my side to the uncertainty of the wide world. We'll have weekends and holidays but no longer will we have our little daytime world of two. From tomorrow a complete stranger will have care of Bee for more hours a week than I will.

The house is going to seem so empty without her little voice. I'll miss the constant "mama, mama, mama, mama, why, why, why, me too, what you do?"

Foz tries his best to be supportive but I think it's harder for him to understand as not much will change on his end. Bee will be here as he gets home from work as always and they'll have their weekends together.

I'm worried about how she'll cope. I'm worried the days will be too long for her, I'm worried she'll get knocked over and picked on, I'm worried she won't cope with the lessons, I'm worried she won't sit at mealtimes, I'm worried, I'm worried, I'm worried... 

Aside from the worry (and the self-pity) I'm very excited about the challenges that lie ahead for Bee. I know that no matter how difficult or prolonged the 'settling in' period is that eventually Bee will loved school as she loved nursery. I'm excited about some of the things Bee's new teachers have planned for her and I'm very confident in all of them and their ability to help Bee thrive. 

 

The first day of school marks another milestone in my Bee's life and already she has achieved so much more than we could have dreamed. She makes me proud every day.

I love you Bethany May and wish you so much joy and happiness in your new adventure xx

Puppets!

Bee has found a new love - puppets!

Recently we attended a puppet show at the Play & Sensory Center and Bee was mesmerized! Methinks a certain something may be finding it's way into Bee's birthday gifts....

Sad Goodbyes

Well it's finally happened. Bee has left nursery.

Bee started at Sandy Lane two years ago, still a baby and overwhelmed by everything about such a new environment. It took her a long time to settle and not cry at every drop-off. Yet despite the inauspicious beginning, she thrived there. The facilities and staff were incredible, as proved by there repeated 'outstanding' OFSTED reports. By the time her second year rolled around I couldn't drag her away. We've had so many wonderful times there, from farm trips to Sandy Lane's very own Forest School...

 

Sadly Foz had to work on Bee's last morning so my Mum and I collected her at the end of the nursery session. We'd prepared handmade gifts for all 11 of her teachers and it was an emotional goodbye with more than a few tears from all of us. Nursery gave us a lovely folder with lots of pictures and text about all the things Bee had done over the last two years, it's very special as parents don't get to see what their children get up to otherwise.

After leaving nursery my Mum and I took Bee to McDonalds for her favourite treat of chips! She's so spoilt!

I can't speak highly enough about Bee's nursery. The difference her from the baby she was to the little girl she is now is in large part down to their wonderful care and support for us a family.

Thank you Sandy Lane, we are eternally grateful. You have done a incredible job preparing my girl for the next stage in her life. We'll miss you and Bee misses you. Every time we drive past she says "mine" and signs 'nursery'.

An Afternoon of Sun & Shopping

We had a lovely day out yesterday at Bents Garden Center with a family friend, Bee's Uncle Stu.

We usually start with something to eat in the amazing (if expensive) restaurant and today was no exception. Moroccan pancakes for me and hot beef sandwich for Stu. The sun was beaming down and, although there still a cool edge to the wind, we decided to eat outside. This weekend we've seen the first real sunshine of the year and it's been wonderful to share great company and food under the clear blue skies. Bee had a plate made up of bits from both mine and Stu's and did a sterling job of tasting all the different foods. She stuck to the broccoli and peas in the end. That's my girl!

Of course Bee finished way before and was soon mithering to be set loose on the playground she could see from our table, pointing and  asking "me play here mama?" and "me pah, me pah". She meant 'park'. I made my impatient little miss wait until we'd both finished eating. I can't let Bee loose to play unattended. Firstly her danger-awareness, anything from surface level changes to strangers, is zero. Secondly she often needs assistance on play equipment as her gross motor skills are under-developed and she needs to be lifted on and off or helped in other ways. After 10 (torturous for her) minutes Stu and I were ready and we headed over to the park.

She spent much of the first 10 - 15 minutes running around the various pieces of equipment, deciding which to go on. she's get so very excited that she runs and screeches, flapping her arms and flitting from one piece of equipment to the next, not being able to commit to one thing or another long enough to actually go on it. Once she's calmed down she becomes more willing to actually use the park!

Bee's first choice is always whatever climbing structure leads to the slide, although she rarely will use the slide until we've been on the park for a while. Her confidence in her mobility needs boosting much of the time and she requires a familiar adult to be near her at all times. If she moves ahead she will stop and turn around until I reach her, or take my hand and pull me along with her. Sometimes, on days when I'm having a bad day, I'm feeling tired or stressed, I envy those parents sitting around the edges. Those parents watching their children run around while they drink their coffees and chat. Then I look at my girl's beaming face as she takes my hand and says "me up mama" and I remember that I'm the lucky one. They're the ones that should be envious.

To begin with I had to lift Bee up to the 'bridge' level on the main climbing structure for her to walk back and forth, waving and giddy to be up there. A couple of times she sat down at the top of the slide but no amount of encouragement could get her down and each time she backtracked and moved back to the bridge where she felt more secure. It didn't last long, she wanted to be off exploring the next piece of equipment so I lifted her down and she was away.


It wasn't long before she started asking for the doll I'd been carrying around. Something that always helps is having a doll on hand. Often Bee will participate more if she can use her doll to do the activity first then follow and do it herself, almost like she's using the doll to 'test the waters' and see that it's safe. She pottered around for a bit, deciding what to go on before she headed back to the slide. She started up the steps, putting one foot on and using the bars to pull herself up but her courage left her and she froze, refusing to continue up by lifting her back leg on or moving off the steps by bringing her front leg back down. I used the doll to climb the steps, trying to encourage her but nothing. Bee wouldn't move. Until a small girl, much smaller than Bee, came charging past and climbed straight up the steps. Bee watched her and as soon as the girl gained the top step Bee was straight up after her and followed her down the slide! It took one tiny tot 15 seconds to accomplish what I'd spent 5 minutes trying to do. This little moment is one of the reasons we are so keen on Bee going to a mainstream school with special needs provision. Bee thrives around others that can do things she can't.

Once she'd climbed the steps and gone down the slide once that was it, there was no stopping her. She looked back for me less and charged ahead by herself more. 

After almost an hour we decided to give Bee a break and have a look around the garden center. She was starting to stumble and had already fell over a small, raised wooden bridge after not noticing the level change.

Bents is a beautiful place, full of beautiful (if waaaay out of our price range) things and I always enjoy a mooch around with Stu. On this trip we spotted something that I couldn't leave without: a Peppa Pig ball! Bee fell in love and it didn't leave her grasp for the rest of our day out. Even on our second visit to the park she took the ball around with her instead of the doll. The ball went down the slide first, the ball was pushed through the tunnel...

Bee's Peppa Pig ball created a lot of interest from the other children on the park. Every time Bee dropped or threw it there would be another child racing to pick it up. As first I kind of hovered behind Bee as she went to retrieve it, ready to pounce if she got into communication difficulties but as time passed I started to hang back. Bee will be going to school in September and regardless of what type of school she'll have to learn to deal with other children of all abilities. As always she made me proud, handling the situations with aplomb and more confidence than I'd expected, even though she did come back to me for reassurance occasionally.

We had a lovely day out in the sunshine and Bee had a brilliant time. By the time we were ready to leave she was so tired, both physically and mentally. I think she'd run her little legs to water with her double session on the park and exhausted her mind with all the stimulation and interaction with new people/situations. We made the 15-minute drive back into the town center to pick up Foz and headed home, where Bee was straight to bed and, unsurprisingly, straight to sleep!

Party Time!

Yesterday Bee attended her first birthday party. She doesn't have many friends. Her complete lack of social skills mean she doesn't make any of her own and I don't have many friends with small children that we can socialize with. It was a joint party for four different children, one of which is Bee's little cousin Ryan and I'd been worrying a lot about it. It would be busy, with lots of strange people we'd never met and not to mention noisy. I was worried about the very real possibility of Bee spending the entire party crying on my knee, overwhelmed by it all. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened in busy, unfamiliar situations.

I'd spent two days talking about the party and trying to answer her many "why" questions about birthdays and parties. We'd also watched the 'birthday' episode of Something Special many times, talking about what was happening and how she would get to do similar at Ryan's party. I was just hopeful it would all help.

On Saturday morning we dressed in our finery, Bee was very excited about her party dress and spent much time wandering around the living room pointing at herself and sticking her tummy out. Not so much fun was the hair brushing, but that never is, stupid curls!

The party was at a local function room and was due to have a DJ, entertainer, the works and when we arrived it was in full swing: loud music and a dance floor full of running, jumping, shouting, dancing, chasing, screaming kids and a DJ orchestrating in the middle of it all. 

We found Foz's sister, Ryan and Fox's parents at a table towards the back (relief) and joined them. Bee, although quiet, seemed quite interested in the children on the dance floor and I asked if she wanted to go and do some dancing but "no" was the fairly firm answer, I didn't push her. I persevered though and asked every few minutes until eventually something changed and she suddenly decided that dancing sounded like the most fun thing ever! She was all squealing and flappy arms! Bee took my hand and led me to the dance floor but I couldn't get her to move beyond the fringe. I crouched down next to her, took her hands and tried to initiate some groovy moves but all she wanted to do was sit and my knee and watch. Which was fine and lasted a few minutes before we were back at our table. This to-ing and fro-ing went on for a while, each trip to the dance floor lasting a little longer than the last. But it wasn't until the DJ brought out lots of large modelling balloons that Bee really forgot herself and went in for the kill.

 

Bee really loves balloons and we had a lovely session of squealing and scrunchy face as she waved them all around, greatly amused at their different to normal balloons.

And look: we made a hat!

The DJ set up lots of games using the balloons: who can stick them to the ceiling, who can make the best model etc etc. Bee doesn't understand enough to join in so we moved back to our table as the party took a more games-based turn.

The buffet opened and Bee was the only child that made a bee-line (ahem) for the platter with raw carrot and cucumber sticks, which she thoroughly enjoyed and followed with more toddler-like behaviour: a plate of cakes! Her dietician would be thrilled!

I can make a hat too Mama!

After food it was back to the dance floor for pass-the-parcel. Bee has never played before but was thrilled by the sight of the DJ holding a present. The kids were split into two groups, boys and girls, and we duly took out place with the girls. Bee was one of the youngest there and sat on my knee to play, partly due to her confidence and partly because she still needs a lot of support and direction to join in. I briefly tried to explain what was going to happen but the music started and we were off. The parcel came to Bee and she eagerly grabbed it, pulling at the paper. I had to swiftly pass it to the next child, which Bee looked a little perturbed about but she took it in her stride. As the parcel made it's way around the circle again I kept telling her that we had to pass it along until the music stopped but this time when it reached her she tried to hold on a little longer. I guided her hands across to the next little girl and she reluctantly let go.

"Let go Bee"         -         "Why?"

As the game went along the parcel kept bypassing Bee and each time it did she gripped a little harder and complained a little louder until finally there was a winner and Bee hadn't had a turn. I tried to explain the game was finished and the tears started. In retrospect pass-the-parcel must seem the cruelest game in the world: you show a child a present, let them hold it then take it away for another child to have. Torture. Ah well, it's all experience and to see her joining in with the other children and not hiding at the back was wonderful.

After her pass-the-parcel meltdown her tiredness started to show through, she was happy just to sit by the side of the dance floor and play with a burst balloon, despite my attempts to get her interested in joining in.

The party came to an end soon after and it was time to leave. Overall it had been a very successful adventure and Bee was thrilled to be given a party bag as we left. The three hours we'd spent there had been plenty enough for her, any longer and I think she would have descended into tired tears and tantrums.

Home again and it was party bag time! There was cake, some sweeties (which mama had to eat), some bubbles and a pink bouncy ball. Winner! All that was left to do was enjoy a quiet couple of hours with cake, a cuppa for mama and some Mr Tumble before it was time to pick daddy up from work.

Our first party had gone more successfully than I could have hoped and, although they always reinforce for me just how delayed Bee's development is, each time we do something like this I see the small steps of progress Bee is making with her social skills and confidence issues. I'm so proud of her.

Bookworms

Anyone who knows me will know I have a deep and abiding love of books and reading. It's something my parents instilled in me as a child and even now there's not much I'd rather be doing than reading a good book with a cup of tea. Rock and roll.

I want Bee to enjoy books as I have, to get the same pleasure from them and have her world opened by a love of reading. She owns a lot of books but for the last few months I've been taking Bee to the big library in Warrington town center. It's something I used to do as a child and always loved spending time there, reading and choosing books to take home. She's been very much enjoying it although I think is still getting her head around the concept.

Me: "So are these the books you want to take home?"

Bee: "Me pay"

Me: "No honey, we don't need to pay, we can borrow them for free"

Bee: "Why?"

Me: "Because the library will let us take the books home to read for free but then we have to bring them back for someone else to borrow"

Bee: "Why?"....

This is a conversation we've had more than once at the library so far. I suppose for a child who's so used to shopping, visiting a library can seem an awful lot like a bookshop and understanding the differences can be a little challenging. She loves the whole experience though.

My only challenge during our visits is keeping Bee calm in the pram while I browse for myself. She has a habit of shouting "out Mama! Me out!" over and over until I release her. Of course then there's lots of running around and squealing loudly in excitement, to which I follow trying to shush her and explain about our "quiet voices" (yeah right!) 

This week we came home with (amongst others) a Peppa Pig christmas book and an In the Night Garden christmas book. It doesn't matter to Bee, if she sees Peppa or Makka Pakka she's sold! We brought another handful home too as well as all of the ones Mama chose!

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.

Glorious Gloop!

 

This afternoon Bee and I have been further broadening her sensory horizons and playing in gloop! We haven't tried gloop before but I saw it on the shelf at Toys'r'Us and thought "why not?" It's designed to put in the bath but I thought that may be just a little too much sensory overload for Bee and bring on a meltdown so we started small, although still with a bath...

To start with I gave Bee some of her plastic drumsticks and we did mixing, slowly building her confidence by allowing her to interact with the gloop without touching it. She got braver as the activity progressed, handling things that had gloop on them. She enjoyed digging out gloop with her spade and filling a little bucket, then pouring it all back in and laughing as it went splat back in the baby bath!

After leaving Bee to lead the play for a while I took the tools away from her and tried hiding her little Makka Pakka and Iggle Piggle in the mixture, hoping she would be brave enough to put her hand in to retrieve them. She tried, touching the surafce with her finger but couldn't quite work up the courage to place her whole hand in. She asked me for the tools back, wanting to dig out the toys but I re-focused her back on the bath and showed her how to poke at them with her fingers. It took repeated encouragement but she eventually uncovered enough to feel confident picking them out, Makka Pakka first then Iggle Piggle.

As the session wore on Bee became more confident in touching the gloop although still had some small moments when it touched the palms of her hands, which brought on some frantic hand-washing motions until she felt it had gone. Afterwards I took her upstairs for a bath to wash off all the gloop and we had just as much fun doing splashing and washing her doll!

 

Overall we had lots and lots of fun and the gloop went much more sucessfully than I'd anticipated. We explored texture and smell (mmm cotton candy!) and, in Bee's case, taste too! I'm going to continue with the gloop in a bowl for a few more sessions and then *maybe* try a shallow bath. We'll see how it goes.

 

 

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.

Playtime at the Park

This week we had a lovely warm-but-not-hot, rain-free afternoon and so we took Bee off to the park! We've not been in a little while as the weather's been pants and we've had lots of activities to do at home.

Bee had lots of fun toddling from structure to structure, never stopping on one thing long. She's a real flitter is my girl, she reminds me of her nickname-sake: a bumblebee.

One thing this afternoon outing highlighted was Bee's increasing tolerance of grass. When we arrived she hadn't wanted to walk across the field to reach the park as the grass was slightly long and she could feel it touching her ankles and lower legs. She was insistent that I or her Grandma held her hand for reassurance. But despite her concern and obvious discomfort she made it across with no tears or tantrums.

The park is mainly rubberised surface and grass, with paths leading from structure to structure. We tried to encourage Bee to take the shortcuts across the grass to the next play thing rather than the longer path routes but she was only comfortable doing that whilst holding someone's hand. However, as the afternoon wore on she seemed to become more accoustumed with the feeling of the grass and braver with it. By the end of the afternoon Bee was tackling the grass herself without any need of encouragement or reassurance.

That's my girl!

Poorly Bee

I've got a very poorly Bee today, she's had a lot of sickness and pretty much just wants to cry. Towards the afternoon I was able to settle her with some CBeebies and her beloved Mr Tumble. Hopefully she'll pick up after a good night's sleep.

Garden Music

Recently I've been trying to encourage Bee to be more confident outside the house with different activities, hoping that they'll build her tolerance of different surfaces and textures. We've dug in the compost, planted flowers and seeds and played with the garden hose. Next on the agenda was an activity to incorporate Bee's love of music with encouraging her outside: a tin can musical instrument! 

I'd been saving tin cans with the aim of string them together to create a sort-of wind chime/xylophone instrument that Bee could hit using her drum sticks or just bash with her hands so they clinked together. 

Of course before stringing it up in the garden our first job was to paint them!

I let Bee loose with various bright paints and some paintbrushes and she really enjoyed making marks on the tins and 'mixing' the paint in the bowls. I had to encourage her to paint the sides, she only wanted to do the tops. I found she was more willing to paint the sides when I placed the tin on a bottle of paint.

The following day, once the tins had dried I used a nail and a hammer to punch a hole in the top of each one before spraying them with a clear acrylic to make them weather-proof. Once they were again dry I threaded twine through the holes, strung them all together and hung them across one of our fence panels.

Bee has had great fun making 'music' with her new tin can instrument and I'm hoping to make a few more garden musical items to add as summer wears on. If this rain ever goes away!

Nursery Meltdown

Bee loves nursery. Loves it. Every single session when I drop her off she toddles straight in. No clinging to me or crying. I even have to remind her to say good bye sometimes.

Bee's nursery is split into four rooms: the sensory room, the carpeted 'play' room, the 'messy' room where all the arts & crafts are done and the outdoor/indoor room, which is essentially part of the garden with a roof and roller doors that can be lifted up. Our usual entrance is into the carperted 'play' room. We have the same routine each time: coat off and on Bee's peg, find her picture on the board and place it on the 'I'm Here Today' board, kiss for mama and off she goes!

When I dopped her off for today's session her teacher was waiting at the door to the 'messy' room. "We're using this entrance today as we're going to the park" - oooo wonderful! Bee loves the park! We walked through into the room and I crouched down to give her a kiss bye bye. The minute I bent down I could tell by her face something was wrong. Her little mouth was starting to turn down at the corners and she had that look in her eye. She put her arms around my neck and clung like she hasn't since she first started nursery, and I could feel her starting to cry.

It was the routine. The routine had changed. We come through the wrong door, into the wrong room. There was no peg for her coat in this room or board with her picture on it. Her teacher came over and I explained the problem, we decided the best way to deal with it was to take Bee out and back in through the route she was accustomed to. She readily released my neck and held my hand as I asked if she'd like to go and find her picture on the board. The tears stopped almost immediately and she willingly accompained me out of the room and down the corridor to the door of the usual room. We had no coat to hang on the peg (the weather is scorching at the moment) but we had her nursery bag to place in the box and her picture to find on the board. With those tasks two accomplished Bee happily walked into the usual room and didn't look back.

We're starting to notice these little autistic-type moments more and more and they can have an impact on our day-to-day life. We're still struggling between accomodating them and encouraging her to be more flexible. Today I felt it was better to accomodate and ensure she had a good session at nursery, than force the different entrance on her when it was only a one-off.

Building for Bee

This is the first summer that Bee will be mobile and although it's been a miserable May so far I'm hoping the warmer weather is not far off, I can't wait to play in the garden with her. She's still very wary of touching things outdoors, especially grass and soil. We don't have flowerbeds in our garden, just patio, decking and grass. I wanted to give Bee some space of her own in the garden where we could dig, plant flowers, grow some simple vegetables and work on her sensory issues. I'd thought about pulling up a small section of turf so she could have the soil underneath but it occurred to me that she's afraid of grass. No point giving her a patch to dig in if she has to sit on the grass to do it!

The answer was something that Bee could stand at rather than have to sit on the floor to use but store-bought planters are expensive and unnecessarily decorative for a toddler to dig in. So what was the answer?

Build one of course!

My building skills are rudimentary at best and I've certainly never used a circular saw! So it was with a little trepidation that I embarked on my first ever building project. Thankfully, although I built the entire planter myself, I had some expect guidance in the shape of a family member so I managed not to severe any limbs.

The planter is designed to be the right height for Bee to dig in without needing to stoop or stand on her tiptoes. It's large and square so she can dig all the way around. The made from old, reused wood which I'm planning on painting in black so she can chalk on it. Sadly the rain has reappeared so we've not been able to try it out yet.

Ta-da!

Let's Go Fly a Kite... Up To The Highest Heights...

...except that I'm rubbish at kite-flying and my efforts can only be described as fair-to-middling heights. Of course I did have a pretty hefty toddler balanced on one hip, severely limiting my ability to run and catch the wind!

A while back Foz bought Bee a Mickey Mouse kite on impulse and we've not yet had the chance to use it. So today we took advantage of the first rain-free, windy day in ages to spend some quality time out of the house and give it a whirl. It took a bit of trial and error to get it going, I've not flown a kite for years, but it was soon aloft and Bee very much enjoyed pointing at the Mickey Mouse in the sky. It took a little persuasion but I finally managed to pass the handle over to Bee while I kept my hand on the string, her first kite-flying experience!

Once bored of the kite we moved on to the park, which Bee loves! Her favourite is the swings although she is very fond of just flitting from one thing to the next. The only piece of equipment we still can't get Bee to try is the slide, she's very feared of them.