hey, hey it's friday...

[signandsmile]

How are all you lovely ladies?

Ds has done first full (5 day) week at school, mixed results, he managed, but he has been 'away with the fairies' with tiredness, and his TA has said he hasn't been able to do so much work, and has been quite 'shouty'. He has also had a marked increase in verbal stims, echolalia and the other one; (where they are not repeating you, but just repeating something they have going round in their own head, can anyone remind of what that ones called?)

However he managed without meltdowns, and is off to a party on Sun,

I am feeling smug, as the college work that was threatening to drown me last week is now only lapping at my toes, . and I have arranged visits with most of my own SW students, so I feel I have 'got stuff done' .

I've had a brilliant, awesome, amazing, fantastic week. :)

My 3 are all now doing really well.

Wow, Indigo, that's great to hear,

Hi both! glad your week was amazing indigo! and all is going on the right track :)

Well done on your DS sign on his first full week! no wonder he is tired bless him. Hope he enjoys the party!

Ds has sort of got rid of his cold now and now on full energy instead of half which was still WAY more than the rest of us put together. He went back to school for the last two days which gave me chance to rest a bit and try to rid myself of the cold too. Still there but not so stuffy just the cough from hell to get rid of now!

All in all its not been a bad week. Thrilled to say I had a phone call from Maudsley and DS GP referral has officially been accepted!! Funding has been agreed and the person at the ARD Services said the clinicial has been asigned and I should get a call from her within the next 10 days with a choice of dates! NEARLY there and so so feel I can see that light at the end of the tunnel apearing again :)

hi coff, that's good news, (and a testament to all your hard work!)

Glad things are going well for you all.
Don't know what that stim is called, SIGN,but my DS does it all the time(wakes up in the night shouting things too !)

Had a better,calmer week all round here,I'm glad to say (as I said last week,DS is the least of my problems at the moment)

Having a quiet night (as usual) going to do some reading and have a glass of

We're off to Gambados for the autism night - Yay!

(soft play area that sells wine)

Hi

Well done miniSign for getting through a whole week of school. Hope he can recharge his batteries over the weekend.

Sounds like you are being very proactive and organised as well.

I have managed to fill in my new calendar and diary that arrived in the post this morning. Haven't had a calendar for years, because the dog kept eating the last one. Really need one now though as everyone used to rely on my memory and I appear not to have one anymore!

Indigo, its lovely to hear everything is going so well for your dcs.

Coff33, sorry you are still poorly. Hope you can get some time to rest and recuperate.

Fantastic news about ds's Maudsley referral. Brain fog today, so not sure what the other bit about ARD services means, but congratulations anyway.

Good week here, other than my VEP tests on Tuesday, which went well with the exclusion of my left big toe! Surprised to find out I have an appointment with the neuro next Thursday, as was told it would be February and I hadn't had a letter. Fortunately I thought it was odd that its been a month since my last appointment, I've completed all my tests and I'd not received a follow up appointment. Sure enough the appointment's been booked for a couple of weeks but the letter never arrived! Good job I rang.

I also have three parcels that have been tracked to the sorting office after not turning up - all of them say they rang the bell but noone was in, which is blatantly not true, as I was here, stuck in bed after my lumbar puncture on each occasion and we haven't had one single 'we called but you were out' card.

Ds1 is doing really well at school and ds2 is doing equally well and currently in a tug of love between two potential best friends.

It's dd's birthday on Sunday, no party though - thank goodness. Just us and Mum and dd just wants to do some dancing, blow out her candles and have some 'balloons I can hold' (translation - helium balloons). I do however, somehow have to make a blooming fairy castle cake between now and then, which will be interesting as I still have back pain, the parasthesia has returned down my left side and I'm completely exhausted. Still, if I can produce a Pichu cake for ds1 when I'm fainting every five minutes, I can manage a fairy castle for dd I suppose.

Cross posted.

Into, glad things are calmer with your ds. Hope any other problems are sorted soon.

Starlight - that sounds great. Have a good evening.

Have fun Star! Soft play and wine! oooh!

soooo glad you are having a calmer week into heres to a good weekend for you :)

It is a good job you phoned up moosemama! You are having some trouble with parcels arent you Wasnt it you that had all those parcels go missing at christmas?

ARD Services stands for Autism & Related Disorder Services. Had a good read up on their website and it covers virtually everything from ADHD to downs to autism to more rare syndromes that they are experienced in. The clinician has been all over the world researching and talks and writing books so if they cant help then no one can. DH is relieved to and he doesnt show much in the way of emotion as not been brought up to be that way so it was a big surprise out of nowhere and I am glad as that is some weight off his shoulders too.

Hope your DD has a great birthday I love making their cakes. DD made one at school this year for her big sister and it was lovely she did a dolls house with a rag doll slouched accross the top. Decided to go into cake designing now she said. DS said YUMMM can I taste them for you? DD gave him a frown and said no there will be none left!

Yep that was me Coff33. My usual postman has mysteriously disappeared now, but it seems we are still having delivery issues even with the new one.

ARD sounds fantastic and the appointment sounds iminent (sp?) too, which is brilliant. I'm really pleased for you.

I am with your dd. I always dreamed of going into patisserie and cake decorating, but my HE teacher at the time (awful woman) told me I had to do mainstream catering and then segue into it after a few years, so I dropped out of HE. I am still angry about it even now, as little did I know I could have gone straight into studying it at a local catering college. I still love it now, but doubt I could do it professionally even if I retrained, as I no longer have the stamina to make it through a whole cake design in the sort of timeframes that are required and am developing hand shakes now as well, which kind of puts the kybosh (sp?) on things as well.

Hi All. Glad things are going better for some of you.

Moose and Coff33 hope you're both feeling better soon.

Fairly good week here too. DCs back at school and both settled in well. Mornings seems to be easier in getting them out, or maybe it's just because I'm feeling much better .

I got my grant through for my MSc, so that's sorted and I've have started my accounts for my tax. Unfortunately I've lost my user id and password so had to get them to send me a reminder . It hasn't arrived yet so can't do my tax until it does .

I've started sorting through the articles I've printed out for my course and putting them in folders, so my bedroom is looking neater.

Starlight I can't remember... are you in Scotland. I didn't know about an autism night at Gambados. Tell me more.

Hi all

Ds2 has done really well wrt potty training this week which has cheered me up no end

Sounds like a really positive week for you all!!!

Still feel rubbish

Got an appt for 31st Jan to see the paed to get ds1 some melatonin....need to get his sleep sorted.

Beca sorry to hear you're still feeling rubbish. Have a or something stronger. Well done on the potty training front .

creator well, cant really take the credit, it was ds2's effort really!

Am glad though - I was so sure he was ready, but what with one thing and another I am doubting myself and decisions I make/have made wrt to the dc a lot lately so am doubly pleased......and he has been dry at night the last 2 nights too!!!!

MSc??? Wow! good luck x

Hi all. I am feeling a a bit low. Glad to hear things are good for some of you. One day I will post properly; just keeping my hand in!

Hi all nice to see kids are doing well at school!
Sign not sure what its called but dd2 randomly repeats phrases (happy helper, barneyshow,.smells good , to name a few!)

Thibgs ok here got paed letter saying he will refer for ados although 'not for diagnostic purposes more to get a profile of her behaviour'

Hi grumpy sorry you are feeling low. I hope things pick up for you soon x

Creator. Well done on the grant for your MSc! good luck in that. Even bigger luck with the tax LOL thats what I am doing on my flip screen YUK!!!

Hi grumpy Sorry to hear things arent so good....we'll be here!!!! x

Dry at night too - I remember that milestone - bliss. Well done DS2 .

MSc is great. I'm doing it in autism and only have the dissertation now. I'm doing it on the Lego Therapeutic Process. I've learned soooooooo much that has been sooooooooo helpful with DS. It also means I feel more confident talking to the professionals. Particularly when I've got more knowledge in autism than some of them to say.

Oooh! Lots of xposting. Hi Grumpy and Chundle.

Aww grumpy have some wine :) ( can't do emoticon as on stupid fone!)

Hi creator glad ur MSc going well

Just need to get him to pre school now!!!

"Lego therapeutic process"??? Ok, dense question probably but what is that?? Sounds v v interesting!...........

Coff33 Need more than luck for my tax I think.

Beca It's great for those with Dx ASD mid to high functioning range. Concentrates on social skills through team work. You get them into teams, give them roles and they work together to build lego models. There's loads of room for flexibility and done properly it really, really works. I've done it with 3 groups now and seen some results within 3 to 4 sessions. I'll go and see if I can find a link on google.

PS It worked really well with my DS. He likes construction toys.