Friday night, too tired for....

[EllenJane1]

Hey, I've never started this before.

Hope everyone has been enjoying the weather, and looking forward to lots of time off with the kids . I had a good week, except when DH locked my keys in the car and went off to work with the spare set, just before school drop off and work for me. It was the DC I support statement review too! Aaagh.

Intothewest, a social life! Fantastic.
Sign, out to play too? Are you out with Intothewest?
Ben10, really pleased you've still got a job!
Purplepidjin, more photos of the woolly blanket, please. Maybe one of the bunny?

What's his name? Fiver or Hazel?

Oh wow, someone else uses the word! Loved Watership Down as a kid, (my dad read it me and my sister, a chapter each Sunday one of us sat on each knee, and he used to all the voice as well.)

Ellen, his name is Santana, otherwise known as the Black Rabbit of Inle!

He went in the hrududu to silflay the other day and saw Granny and Grandad

More pics will be up soon, i need the space to spread it out. Also, I nearly got to 2' wide today when I realised I'd cocked up and had to undo a load if you can figure out my real name not hard i'm shit at namechanging on fb I've got bunny pics up

Sign, I couldn't cope with one a week, I had to have several a night! Mind, I read WD age 7 because I got fed up waiting for parent to read to me

Hi purple, they charge extra for vans as well unfortunately as they consider them commercial and there's no option for caravelles. We queried it last year and they said if we turned up with it booked under the car/mpv/4x4 category we wouldn't be allowed to sail. Obviously couldn't risk that with ds1 in the back so had to comply.

Our VW mates all manage to blag it when they get down to the port, but then they're all young free and single and could sell fridge-freezers to penguins, iykwim.

So, I am flying the flag for all us dubbers and trying to get them to either add a separate category 'sans supplement' for VW's or to add VW's into the car/mpv/4x4 category.

Fwiw, I am very impressed with Irish Ferries' customer service - Stena haven't even dignified me with a response.

Not heard of Elemental - we are sooooo out of the loop. Our poor old van is languishing under its winter coat on the drive at the moment, in desperate need of some tlc. Need to do something about it soon, we're off to Bearded Theory again in May with dd and a gaggle of awning hogging mates. Can't wait!

I love rabbits, sadly they don't mix well with lurchers or I'd definintely have some myself.

I read your post wrong and thought you were making pants for the bunny.

I haven't thought of Watership Down for more years than I'd like to admit. Thanks for that, Purple! The first proper grown-up book for children.

Moosie let me know if you start a campaign and we'll get Volkszone behind it. Brian can blag the leg off an eskimo probably know

Elemental is at Stansted this weekend. I'll be the one with the Black Rabbit of Inle's DS in tow...

Bunny in pants would be cool, maybe I'll make him a fox costume lol

Watership Down will now be accompanying me to bath and bed Night all

I am waiting to see if they're going to even consider changing their booking categories first. If they don't, I can feel a campaign coming on.

Lol at bunny in a fox costume.

Is there any racing at Elemental? If so, have you got bunny ear-defenders at the ready?

Hi guys, up early and reflecting on a night-mare of a term, having fallen asleep last night at 9pm on daughters bed. Given kids lecture on 'it's Mums holiday too, she needs a rest HA HA, and screen bans will be in place if anyone dares to push the boundaries too hard, comments met with degree of mirth from kids, Oh well.

Three high points yesterday though, SALT rang and gave me 45 minutes on phone as comments from school about her last report, suggested my ds may not be able to access main-stream class. She said her report was supportive of being in a main-stream class, and they had mis-interpreted.

Visual Impairment teacher rang at 7.15pm because ds getting very distressed at being removed from class with screen glare. She was on phone with me FOR AN HOUR. Said she will go in straight away next term and sort it out and will fight my corner to get his laptop in to every class.

I felt they gave beyond the call of duty on the phone BECAUSE THEY REALLY CARED.

Had e-mail from my ds. gorgeous science teacher, saying how wonderful my ds had researched a famous scientist with me and he will spend a break time, lunch time with my ds. so my ds. could tell him all about the scientist studied next term. Oh and ' I have been asked to accompany you son on the trip to Bologne and I would be delighted to spend the day with such a charming young man' !!!!!!! Honestly I could have cried, as TA said she 'didn't want the responsibility of taking him (which hurt), then they were asking us to go, but ds would not have gone with us (teenager on Thursday).
So now not only can my ds go, he can go with the one of the kindest teachers in the school and have his independence. Mind you ds first response when he heard his favourite teacher was going with him was 'GR8 me and Mr. --- can nip off to a pub for a beer and leave the women to it'.!!

LETS RAISES OUR GLASSES TO THOSE WONDERFUL PROFESSIONALS WHO TREAT US WITH RESPECT AS PART OF THE EDUCATIONAL TEAM AND WHO REALLY CARE!!!!!! (perhaps tonight and not at 7am on a Saturday morning).
Have peaceful !!!! hols if you can everyonexx

Supermum that's lovely! I too fell asleep by 9:30 taking use of ds1 being exhausted by his trip.
Is everybody else on holiday now we don't finish until thurs next week? Don't go back until week into may so next half term is only 3 weeks long!

Supermum YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

morning all

slightly late for the friday night thread! But was asleep just after 9 last night

wow moose, I'm not surprised your health is suffering, that's one impressive week! You're doing amazing Happy birthday to your ds1 and ds2

into and sign, massive [yay] for a night out! I can't remember the last time we managed a night out without the dcs.

ineed, big relief for you all changing school, hopefully you'll be able to enjoy the holidays now!

ben10, fantastic news about your job must be a huge weight off.

purple I'm not on fb, would love to see a bunny pic if you get a chance hope all goes well with the cat, mine chases the squirrels so I'm sure she'd be after a rabbit

Al1son, hope the physio turns out ok

littlemiss, my lot all finished yesterday for 2 weeks, they only have 3 days in the week they go back as there's 2 bank holidays.

supermum, there are some fantastic people out there that work their socks off for our dcs, will raise a glass with you later as have been on the receiving end of some fab support recently myself

ellen, bet that was an interesting phonecall to your dh! Hope he was suitably apologetic.

we've had a fab week, dd3 has finally got her ss place for september [woohoo] finally got the letter through confirming place and additional funding for her 1:1!!!! All the usual crap of the week has gone totally over my head for once

Thanx ninja,

and

Yay to supermum and her Ds's teacher..

Morning all. What a lovely post, supermum! So glad trip to Bologne is sorted, you sound like you've got a good set of professionals there to fight your corner.

Ninja, good news about SS! Fab.

Our lot are off for Easter and the school is having 3 insets between Easter Mon and the wedding, so they are off for more than 3 weeks. The week they go back, the school is closed as a polling station. Means DS2 has only 3 days of school before his SATs!

Further to locked in car key saga, poor DH had 3 messages on his answerphone with my voice getting more shrill and panicky, before I gave up, sent DS2 and DS3 to school on their own, and started walking to work. I didn't even have my mobile. DH caught up with me in my car just before I got to work. His punishment was having to walk back to his motorbike in full kit in the blazing sun. [evil laugh emoticon] (borrowed from Indigo?)

Oh I meant to post last nite but got distracted with pizza and !

I was ill last week and so was DS1 so have been so tired (and a bit grumpy). It has been so hard trying to get DS1 dressed and a couple of days I just left him in his pj's as was too tired to deal with it. To say it was a struggle to get him to nursery y/day after bein off ill the other two days is an understatement. I drove there trying to fight back the tears. When I picked him up he was full of it and just looked as though he had his spark back. His keyworker said he had a great day, followed his timetable, had been really observant and even went over to sit down to get his teeth varnished by a visiting dentist. I think they are sometimes as shocked as me as to how well he does when it is such a struggle to get him there.

It has been great so far today as DS1 has been out and about with DH. We have been outdoors and now DH taken DS1 swimming to tire him out while DS2 has his nap. No probs getting dressed and out of house etc. I was convinced he wouldn't get dressed this week due to sensory issues but am now doubting myself again. My head is in a spin! I am now thinking he plays up during the week as he doesn't want to go to nursery. Help!

Hope you all enjoying some sunshine or at least getting outdoors with your DCs.

Supermum, how lovely to hear about truly helpful professionals that really care. They are out there - we are lucky enough to have a few involved with ds as well. I think it does us all good to be reminded of it sometimes though.

Ninja, great news about your dd's ss place and 1:1 funding.

Ellen, sorry for the car-key debacle. You are lovely, my dh would never have got off that lightly - he would be peeling grapes and waiting on me hand and foot all weekend before I'd even consider forgiving him.

My lot broke up yesterday, go back in Tuesday to Thursday only the first week back and then Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday the following week thanks to the Bank Holiday and Polling Day. I'm really not looking forwards to all that messing about with ds1's routine.

To make it worse, we are off to Legoland with the boys and Bearded Theory without them in May as well - so all in all a very messed up couple of months in the Moose household.

Well this morning has been interesting for me - I have baked two halves of a ball cake and 4 layers of madeira for stacking and carving, plus rolled and cut out Pichu's ears and tail for drying. Just waiting for the cakes to cool properly now, so I can get it over and done with. (Should let them settle for 12 hours really, but there's no chance of that.)

Unfortunately I seem to have a bit of a fainting problem every time I stand up today, which is hampering progress slightly. This is a new one on me, never had it before, even with a bad crisis. Am getting the whole, stars in front of the eyes and blood draining from extremities, then bam and I'm gone. Tis very annoying when I have so much to do. I used to get it a lot as a child, if I stood still for any length of time (school assemblies, long queues etc) but grew out of it and have only ever fainted early in pregnancy as an adult and no, I'm definitely not pregnant, before anyone asks.

Had to laugh when dh suggested taking a beta blocker might help - er yes, it might help me to assume the horizontal on the floor position and possibly to not get up again.

Oh gosh, maybe the heat not helping moosemama esp if you have been baking non-stop this morning?

Hi Dietcoke, we crossposted there.

Sorry to hear you've been ill. Glad you're having a nice weekend to make up for it though.

Thoughts about your ds and getting dress are:

a) does he wear different clothes at the weekend than he does for nursery at all?

and

b) I know it seems odd and hard to fathom, but he probably can do some things sometimes, even though they bother him - whereas on other days he is already too full up of other stresses and sensory stuff and it becomes too much, so he can't do the same things on those days.

At the weekend, there's no stress, he has all the security of Mum and Dad and home, with no pressure or having to run to a timetable or schedule, so his anxiety levels are low and he can cope with doing things that he might otherwise struggle with or doesn't like, because he's not already overloaded.

In the week, he has to get to nursery by a certain time, he knows there will be noise, smells, other children, different rules and he will have to be social and interact with different people and children, so his anxiety levels are up before he even leaves the house. Even if he enjoys it when he gets there he will still be aware of all the 'stresses' that it places on him.

Ds1's inclusion teacher explained it to me really well actually. She said to think of it as, all people have a bucket for their anxiety to go in. An nt person's bucket has maybe a bit in the bottom or is perhaps half to threw-quarters full when they are under stress or pressure, but children with ASD and similar problems have a bucket that is permanently filled to just below the brim, so it doesn't take much for it to overflow. Overflow can result in melt-down, non-compliance, anxiety based behaviour such as tic-ing and also increase their sensory problems (heightened anxiety = heightened sensitivity).

Re the fainting - the weird thing is its actually lovely and cool in my kitchen. The oven has only been on low, as I'm doing madeira's which you have to cook slowly on a low heat and we have he windows open at the front and back of the house so there's a lovely breeze.

It feels a bit like it could be low blood pressure. The seeing stars and blood draining from extremeties seems to back that up and I sort of feels like its blood-pressure related as well, if that's even possible.

It just happened again when I went to turn the paste ears and tail I have drying in the kitchen. Fortunately I was ready for it this time and made sure I sat down before I fell!

Hi moose, dietcokegirl. Good analogy, bucket full of stress!

Make sure your blood sugar levels are up, moose. Sweet drinks are the quickest to get into blood stream. I'm fat and mid forties but I've still got low blood pressure and a tendency to faint. Make sure you eat and drink.

Thanks Ellen, have been eating and drinking regularly throughout the day, so don't think its blood sugar.

Could be anaemia, have had that quite a few times in the past couple of years, never actually fainted with it before though - other than when I was pregnant with dd. I have been feeling a bit short of breath as well over the past couple of days, as if no matter how deep I breathe I can't get enough air in, although not in a wheezy way (I know, I'm not explaining this very well). I do know breathlessness is another symptom of anaemia, so it could well be that.

Dh has just come back from town with a huge bottle of Floradix for me, bless him.

Yep thanks Moosemama that makes a whole lot of sense!
It is so hard trying to break things down when my mind is so overloaded.

It does sound like low blood pressure then, have something sweet and don't get up too quickly, bend slowly when attending to the cake decorating etc!

Yummy, Floradix, like minadex for adults? (yuk)

moose, take it easy and chuck any left over cake this way make sure you take some pics for us, your last lot were fantastic!

Try tensing the muscles at the top of your legs before you stand up moose, It kick starts the system and gets the blood flowing if you have been sitting.

My dr suggested it years ago cos I have low blood preassure and it does help me.