preparing for holiday

School holidays are here and we are having a lazy weekend while we get ready to fly to Australia on Monday. We had pancakes for breakfast and Isaac had a great time finger painting with maple syrup and Greek yogurt - I don't think his feeding issues are a food phobia at all, he quite enjoys food and likes to try to copy us eating but he just doesn't seem to understand how to get the food to the back of his mouth to swallow. I missed the last 2 feeding clinics because of going to the dentist and unfortunately the SLT is now moving back to her home town in Australia. Still maybe his feeding will improve after his next surgery if he is no longer in pain.




Isaac decided he'd had enough - maybe it's the yogurt in the hair and maple syrup in the eyes!




I have started my usual manic holiday packing list, - 8 purple giving sets, 4 syringes, pump and charger, 5 litres of nutrini, spare PEG button, 20 nappies, pushchair and raincoat, travel cot etc etc while Paul says "Don't know what the problem is, it won't take me long to decide what clothes I want to take"



Noah's behaviour therapist called round yesterday with a bum bag full of toys for him to fiddle with on the plane. He especially likes the little fan that spins round with red and green lights (not sure how popular it will be with other passengers though!) He's enjoyed wheeling the cases in from the garage and was very pleased when I said we coudl practice putting up the new travel cot.



This is a great lightweight cot which says on the blurb "Can be put up in seconds" I think this would only be true if it was a race between teams of trained marines! but actually this time I did it much faster than on my first attempt. Of course once it was up Noah and Isaac had to get in for a play.
you can just see two caged boys trying to escape

and now they have escaped!

We've finally sorted out where J will stay whilst we're in Australia, it's a shame that we'll be away for her birthday but when we booked we didn't think she'd still be with us - she came for a month 7 months ago! J is quite looking forward to her holiday with her former foster carers and likes packing her case. I've been wrapping her presents for when we get back and have a musical card that came all the way from Presatyn market to give her.



We are going to have a birthday tea party for her next Sunday, because we will have extra adult support around then. Her mum is having a proper birthday party for her on the birthday date itself with friends from school. We don't want to compete with that so are just having 2 or 3 girls she likes from church. J unerringly can find the kids who are not in stable nuclear family situations - when I phoned the social worker of one of the girls J wants to invite I was told she was in a bad space and likes to throw sharp objects. (Paul says lemons are sharp objects, I say knives are sharp objects)

When you also remember that we don't get back till the early hours of Sunday morning and J will have just been returned from her week of respite then you can see we may be in for a very interesting afternoon tea!