After 4 million minutes, it's finally time to say farewell to dummies

No, you read that right.  It's taken over 4 million minutes, or over 3,000 days, indeed over eight years for us to be dummy free in our house.  In that time President Obama was elected (twice), we've had several economic crises, Twlilight, the Lib Dems in and the Lib Dems out, Twilight was replaced by many with The Hunger Games and we are on the verge of Brexit.  It's been a while and I cannot even imagine how many dummies we have bought over this time.  There were at least 20 in the house the day they got thrown out - that was last Saturday.

Three meal mumma

The hilarity of our mealtimes is something to behold, reminiscent of feeding time at the zoo. My kids eating habits are so different and so without even including my hubby and I in the dinner rota, I seem to be required to concoct three meals at most sittings. It's not all the kids 'faults' that they are fussy eaters, but there is little denying their differences.

Is it OK to 'choose' a child?

There is no doubt this is going to be an emotive subject.  If we could choose to rule out disabilities in our children, is that something we want to be able to do?

Not everyone chooses to have children. Some people are desperate and have difficulty, some like me get them first time round and some others have no plans for kids and get them anyway. But not many will have sat down and thought, I know, what I've always wanted in my life and what would make it complete would be if we could have an autistic child. Or a child who was blind, had Down's Syndrome or an extreme pain disorder?  What if you could choose not to have a disabled child?

Learning through play - how do you play chess?

By tomorrow all three of my children will be in education. Jane will start half days at pre-school, David will be repeating his reception year and Anthony has just entered year 4. It has flown by.  But of course having three kids in education as I've described actually means only one of them will be sat at a desk for most of the day.

Will it matter or make a difference?

Will my actions matter? Will pretending to be a speech and language therapist everyday make a difference? And even lately, will this post, a letter to Tess Stimson, result in something more than just a few page views?

Why I don't mind hanging around on street corners (with my son who has autism)

I spent more than a few minutes last year hanging around on street corners... with my kids.  And mostly because of our son David, who has autism and a wonderful thing he's started to do.. on street corners.

An apology to those disturbed by my autistic kids in public

This post was written is response to an article by Tess Stimson on Femail "After a woman was vilified for telling a disabled girl to be quiet, one FEMAIL writer told off a noisy disabled boy - and wasn't ashamed of her actions."  The writer responds in the comments.

At the beach for my son with autism

He turns away from the sunlight. It's bright... it's soo white. His eyes crease, his nose crinkles and his big brown eyes become little slits on a chubby looking face. He looks down, seeks the shade and seeks shelter from the wind behind me. But this isn't a bleak desert or an isolated part of the 'mid-west', this is simply our son David, at the beach.

The sensory sky

Despite being summer, we've quite had a few bright but blustery days. There's been periods of grey skies, and at night there have been some high winds. As I'm stood watching the sky turn grey over the playground, it is slowly emptying. We often go later in the day when it's a bit quieter but we are soon the only family there. 

Medal Craft activity for the Olympics

Helping kids understand or engage with sports events can sometimes be a challenge whether they have autism or not.  As the Olympics are in full swing, why not engage them with medals, everyone likes to be a winner.  This medal making activity that we did at Me Too & Co has some great ways for developing motor skills and can celebrate whatever you like.  Jane was particularly interested in the being on the swim team.

What I found in my autistic son's bag

Another term over, another term of the oddest looking artwork and shortest stories arrive at our house. I'm sure for many parents and guardians looking through the plethora of items sent home at the end of the school term is an absolute delight.

The early works of future artists, writers, engineers, scientists etc are celebrated and catalogued for future generations. The best pieces make their way to the fridge or are framed for all to see.  But it's not quite the same in our house.

Share your #madeupmilestones

We may not all travel the same path or at the same speed but we are all on a journey. Be proud and share your #madeupmilestones with me.   I was inspired by Toni who writes at Gym Bunny Mummy, and her emotional piece about her son missing milestones. Her story is a common one and one we have definitely experienced.

Yay for the holidays?

Holiday. "An extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling."

Leave. Recess. Time off from work (yeah right).

It took five years for my son to kiss me on the lips and I'm not stopping him now

That's right.  Until David was five years old, we didn't kiss on the mouth.  And now he's five and a half years old and we do .. I have absolutely no intention of stopping him.

Despite having a partner who works in the media I came across this rather bizarre 'news' story in The Telegraph about Victoria Beckham kissing her daughter on the lips via other bloggers supporting her actions.  Nothing bizarre about that in my opinion.. the really daft bit is that somehow it seems to have upset people?

Autism Parenting: Probably the best 'view' in the world

Can you think of the best 'view' in the world?  I bet it's not the same as mine.

I've been fortunate enough to see beautiful sunsets over electric blue seas and sparkling snow covered mountains but I've never had a view as precious as the one I had one evening last week. 

Why my autistic son would be a great father

Anthony, our eldest son with autism, used to say that when he grew up, he'd like to be a..  dad.   Possibly also combined with a part time job as a either a dentist or super villain.

Favourite Friday: it's not supposed to be 'Them' vs 'Us'

"I'm prepared to go in fighting." I've read and heard the phrase so many times from parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) that I've lost count. I may even have said it myself.

By definition a SEN child needs additional support.  They are "A child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them."  Where a special educational provision is "provision that is additional to or different from that which would normally be provided for children or young people of the same age in a mainstream education setting."  (Children and Families Act 2014 Section 20 and 21).

Read the full post here.

Every Friday we share the most popular post from the previous week in case you missed it. See all our favourite posts here.

Favourite Friday: The heart ache of one shoe, my son's despair

It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't understand.

Have you ever been so distraught that you can't function? Has anything ever upset you so much that you simply can't cope with anything? Think uncontrollable tears or absolute fear or rage? Or all at once? Now imagine feeling like this because your sister has only got one of her shoes on. That's what  life is like for our autistic son, David.

Every Friday Rainbowsaretoobeautiful published the most popular post from the previous week. You can see them all here

Read the rest of this week's Favourite Friday post 'Autism parenting: The heart ache of one shoe, my son's despair'

Favourite Friday: Sporting red plastic belt accessories for half term

It's not just the kids that people look at oddly because they have autism.  Never mind their peculiar behaviour, screaming collapses, strange way of talking or just complete lack of speech, I'm 'odd' even when I'm on my own thanks to my latest clothing trend. Red is definitely not my usual colour, but it has been this week.

Every Friday, Rainbowsaretoobeautiful publishes the most popular post from the previous week. Read the rest of Sporting Red plastic belt accessories for half term here.  Why not catch up here and see all the Favourite Friday posts.

Favourite Fridays: Speech sounds developing with Toy Story

David has for a while now been using Makaton sign language with some speech sounds to communicate. We've been concerned that as well as autism, David may have some other speech difficulties because he has never really said more than one sound for a word. He'll say 'p' for 'up' or 'da' for down. He can ask for a yogurt 'gu' or an apple 'pul'. But this has rarely extended beyond this one syllable or easy syllable shapes.

Syllable shapes refer to the way that we put consonants and vowels together to make words. Without wanting to be too much like Countdown, speech therapists think of syllable shapes as putting consonants (sounds) and vowels (sounds)  together. So David's 'da' would be CV (One consonant + one vowel).  A CVC word would be his version of apple 'pul'. The more complicated the more advanced the shapes. Read the original post here

Every Friday, Rainbowsaretoobeautiful publishes the most popular post from the previous week.  Why not catch up here and see all the Favourite Friday posts.