Yes, there's a lovely little baby growing inside! I'm now around 14.5 weeks along (which means I've taken rather too long to blog about this, since my scan was 2 weeks ago!) but life is always busy. I would have hoped the pregnancy sickness would have passed by now, like it did with my other 4 pregnancies. But I'm still feeling awfully sick - from when I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night. :-/ Thankfully I manage to keep most of my food down - if I'm careful with what I eat!
Nearly a month ago, my dear Abigail turned 6 years old. (Yes, that means I'm rather behind with blogging!) She had her best friend Rebekah over for the day, much to her delight. :)
Presents and balloons!
Seems she thought she was a princess! ;-) Abigail likes to make her own crowns.
I'd only got back from Texas a few days before her birthday, so it was just a simple cake she got!
Deborah loves to colour pictures!
This is actually a photo from Texas - Deborah stole Uncle Gerrit's hat! ;-)
Here she is - proof of the crime! :-)
Oops, looks like another picture of a crime in action! Deborah in the middle, with cousins Brooklyn and Shona - and yes, about to whack Brooklyn in the head it seems!
The lovely view from the beach house my brother Nat rented while we were in Texas.
One last photo from Texas! Our hire car - a Chevy HHR, which Benjamin *really* liked! :) He said I had to take a photo of it so his daddy could see what it looked like.
Abigail and "Buzz Lightyear" (Benjamin) playing paperdolls.
Benjamin and his pyramid he made out of Lego! :-) He decided one afternoon that he wanted to build a pyramid and told me to find a photo of one on the internet. We soon found one and he very quickly put this together.Speaking of Benjamin, we've just about reached the end of the process for his ASD diagnosis. We started it in March/April and finally found out last month the conclusion they reached. They've said he has High Functioning Autism (aka Aspergers syndrome), which is exactly the conclusion I reached nearly 2 years ago! :-) I think some parents feel their world has fallen apart and have to come to terms with a diagnosis of Autism. But for us, we already knew it and it is reassuring that the professionals agree with what we thought already. I would like to learn as much as I can about sensory processing issues, as it really plays a big part in the struggles an autistic child has with the world around him. Two books I'm currently reading and highly recommend are:
The Out-Of-Sync Child (http://www.amazon.co.uk/-Sync-Child-Carol-Stock-Kranowitz/dp/0399531653/)
and
Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism: Different Sensory Experiences - Different Perceptual Worlds (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensory-Perceptual-Issues-Autism-Experiences/dp/1843101661/)
The first book is written in a very easy to read/parent friendly style and explains everything really well. The second book is a bit more technical (and probably assumes a basic knowledge of autism and termonology) but I've found it really good and learned a lot from it - probably one of the best books I've read on the subject.
Here's Deborah looking very cute! She's walking now - since about 2 weeks ago and seems like she already wants to run! They grow up soooo quickly!
Here's the amazing play house that my very clever husband started building while I was in Texas last month! It's all finished now and really fantastic. I think the kids will have a lot of fun in it, though perhaps it's a bit cold today with the snow we've got on the ground!
One last photo - I love kids in winter pjs! :-) They look very cosy. But of course, winter usually means colds and right now Clement has a nasty croupy cough. :-( Deborah has had a cold for a couple of weeks now, but thankfully no cough. But Clement is all wheezy today and couldn't even sleep through his nap. I hate to think how he'll be tonight.OK, must get busy around here!
