Evening folks
I have just read the thread and then instantly forgotten most of it again. 
I am shattered so am going to dump all my news in one big load and then collapse. Feel free to ignore my mahoosive post if its too much for you. 
We have had a stressful, but overall good week.
Ds2 is ill and am on edge worrying about him as he's had pneumonia at around this year for two years in a row and currently has a cold and cough.
Anyhoo, the good stuff. Had ds1's IEP review yesterday. Did stacks of prep to make sure we had every possible piece of paperwork and evidence with us and was beside myself with nerves BUT it was great.
First off, he has been allocated an Alphasmart to use in class - without us even having to ask for it. This will effectively get past the handwriting issues that have been stopping ds from completing his classwork. He is still going to be encouraged to use handwriting for note taking and preparation and will still be included in the handwriting lessons and speed-up programme, so handwriting isn't being completely ditched - which is what we wanted.
They are setting up a circle of friends for him and doing work in SEAL group, class and with the EP on building relationships with a view to encouraging this group of children.
We are working together to produce a better method of recording his anxiety and emotions relating to school which actually helps him to identify how he feels and use that inforation. This will tie in with the work our fantastic EP is doing with him. We've come up with a good plan between us, so everything crossed that it works.
We went along expecting them to say they had concerns about him going on the residential trip. In fact we were concerned they might say he can't go, but they had already discussed it and thought of ways to actively include him and minimise any anxiety he has about it. They massively put my mind at rest about it as well.
They have also officially referred him to the CLD inclusion team.
Oh there, was tonnes of other stuff, all good, they even said they would pay for some equipment for him, even though we had already offered to pay ourselves.
I came out of there in shock, but in a totally good way. I could never have predicted it in a million years. I was so sure I was going to have a huge fight on my hands.
Of course its all yet to be implemented and I need to keep on top of it all, but it did feel like they were genuinely keen to help and we were all singing from the same song-sheet. Now there are more external agencies involved, I suppose it would be harder for them to not do what they've promised in writing without questions being asked, iyswim.
So all was cheery in the Moose household until tea time tonight, when the little darlings decided to have a hyperactive half hour and break just about every house rule all in one fell swoop. Sick of having to shout to be heard above the general mayhem and of them ignoring me telling them to stop, I told them that if they didn't stop what they were doing and I had to raise my voice again, I would send them both straight to bed. Two seconds later, with them both still doing what I had just told them not to, they managed to maim each other and then retailiate by laying into one another. So - I sent them to bed, where they again laid into each other and ds2 pushed ds1, who hit his head on the wall.
Cue total meltdown, on a scale hitherto unheard of. OMG! 
I ended up having to leave him screaming and pacing up and down upstairs, while I dealt with a frightened dd and tried to rescue the burning dinner.
Dh then walked back in the front door (returning from the vets with our seriously ill dog 
) to be greeted by one child equivalent of an air-raid siren (ds2) and ds1 as he has never seen or heard him before.
The whole thing lasted at least another hour. Ds1 insisted he didn't understand why he was put to bed, despite me relating several times, that:
"Ds1 you broke x rule. I said if you broke x rule again, I would send you both straight to bed. You then broke x rule again and as a result, managed to injure each other - so I sent you both straight to bed. You have been sent to bed as a direct consquence of your own actions. You were both clearly warned first, but you chose to ignore my warning and that's why you have been put to bed."
Still no joy - he had it in his head that because ds2 hurt him when they went upstairs, ds2 should go to bed, but he should be let off.
In the end, I just said, "I have explained to you why you have been sent to bed, several times now. We are not going to discuss it again, lie down and go to sleep." He continued to wail for a while, but has been quiet for about 40 minutes now, although dh has just checked and they are both still awake.
Dh, bless his little cotton socks, is going out tonight (he never goes out and whenever he does, something always kicks off - not that the boys actually knew he was going out tonight 
). He took it upon himself to nip to the shop and came back with a big box of chocolates and pot of Haagen Daz ice cream for me. 
So that's us. Phew what a week!