Long Weekend

Sorry for the delay in posting! It's been even more hectic than usual..

Saturday I did finally star to see an improvement in Jonathan's colic, starting with an end to the green nappies!

Sunday, we got up early and drove up to Sheffield to meet with some HE friends. The rest of the day was fairly typical for us...

William decided to play dodge whilst his other two brothers were on a tyre swing. On the third attempt (by which time we were all yelling at him to stop and Fiona was frantically running over to him) he didn't dodge.

So, Annette took Roarke and him to Sheffield Children's Hospital A&E! He had quite bad concussion, as well as an egg shaped lump, and he was rather slow in his reactions. However, they let him go with the usual instructions to watch him closely.

Whilst this was going we'd gone back to Fiona's flat for tea. Eventually we got to our Travelodge by about 8pm.

A word about Travelodges: they are great for aspies! Think about it: all the rooms are the same, wherever you go in the country, therefore Samuel always knows what he is walking into and it helps make some of the trip more familiar and therefore less stressful.

I also had an insight when we were getting ready to go. I know that Samuel doesn't "do" getting ready. He can't cope with it, as it is "grey" not black or white. He is either here, or there. Being in that state of being ready to leave here and go there is distressing for him.

In trying to explain this to Joshua who wondered why I'd let Samuel and William go and sit in the car 10 minutes before we were ready to actually go (on the basis that being in the car is nearer to "there" than being in the house waiting), I realised something about Roarke. He never gets ready until the last second, which drives me (more of a list/plan in advance kind of person!). I had a "duh" head slapping moment where I realised that this is *his* way of coping with that grey area. Doing it all at the last minute gets around him having to deal with the "getting ready" limbo.

Monday morning we got up, had breakfast (or rather, they did: how do vegans cope? There was no way little chef could cope with a gluten free, dairy free guest!). We drove to the National Space Centre at Leicester which was Joshua's birthday treat.

I actually found it a very stressful outing. Maybe I'm even less NT than I thought, but I found it very non-linear in layout, which was a headache - literally. Also, there were a number of things that Joshua wanted to do that the other two didn't, such as the 3d movie, and the simulator. Whilst he went and did that with Roarke, I had the other two running around like loons in and out of everything.

Nevermind. The main point is that he had a good day (and so actually did the other two).
We had a tough journey home though, due to traffic, and baby deciding to scream so much of the way, resulting in more stops.

I also was desperate to eat! One portion of McDonald's fries was my "dinner"!

We finally got home at 9pm. I still had to wrap Joshua's presents!

The good news was that Jonathan slept well, peacefully, back in his own bed!

Next day, I was up in a panic, going into "failure as a mother" mode, having realised that because we'd been away I hadn't made a birthday cake. Because I normally bake everything, but now didn't have the time, I had to dash to Sainsbury's to buy some bits. Thank goodness for gf frozen chicken nuggets!

It might have been a rush, but we ended up with plenty of "party" food for his friends.
They turned up at midday, two home ed families and one from church - whose parents are teachers! The conversation between the adults was, er, interesting... I think the guy felt like Daniel in the lion's den!

After food, the older kids went to see Ratatouille at the cinema with Roarke.

Oh, that reminds me, poor Roarke also developed an infected finger over the weekend, and ended up at our local A&E the night we got back! Today he had to go back and get the finger lanced and is currently in agony on the sofa :o(

Otherwise, today was fairly quiet, with us all trying to catch up and Joshua working his way through his new books, plus the other ones that he bought today with his birthday money.

Phew! I'm exhausted from typing that!