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"Perfect Days"

Way overdue an update....

...so here goes.

Well, after the thrill of Ethan's 4th Birthday and Baptism the rest of the summer rolled on by up until Ethan started school on 14th September '09. He has really enjoyed the whole school experience but struggled a bit with the big playground initially, especially at lunch time. Too noisy and too many children [for him] I think. He's also never really taken to staying for packed lunch ~ possibly also linked in the beginning to his playground issues although those are resolved now but he's still not keen on eating his lunch at school. He's had a few weeks where he has stayed but mostly he comes home for lunch.

We finally moved house in November '09 so we're practically on the doorstep of the school now. I'm also working at his school as a Teaching Assistant in KS2 with three special needs children which I'm loving. This means that I'm never far away and this too makes the logistics of coming home for lunch even easier as we come home together. If he does stay for sandwiches then I do too so I can be close by if he has a wobbly.

The 4th March, 2010 was World Book Day and here is Ethan dressed up as Long John Silver obviously lol ;). He had a fab day!!

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He is doing great academically. He is reading and writing now and despite being the youngest in his year he is surpassing all expectations for his age. At the outset he was definately more of a Numeracy buff in preference to Literacy but this was no surprise to us as we always knew that he loved numbers. His school report indicated that he was way above his target level for his age in this area. That said he's recently ~ and by that I mean in the last six weeks or so ~ got very enthusiastic about his reading as was proved tonight when he spelt out a four letter word [a clean one I mean lol] using the letters on 'Countdown' ~ 'lips' was the word. Both Si and I were amazed. It's suddenly just clicked for him and he's reading everything from road signs to food packets.

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Although not keen initially to pick up a pencil [it's a boy thing] he's also just become keen to write, draw and colour anything and everything. I love the way that Ethan does things when he's good and ready and won't be rushed. He's his own man.

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On the health front we have good and bad. He was signed off from the hospital two weeks ago regarding his legs, the strange way he sits in a 'W' and the pain that he was getting behind his knees. So, that was great news. He still prefers to sit that way on the floor but will cross his legs like the other children on the carpet in class although is not keen to do that at home. Pretty soon he'll be at a desk for some of the day and at home he sits on the floor less and less as he grows up so I've a feeling it will become less of an problem as he matures. He is certainly getting far less pain, it's very rare that he mentions it now.

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Sadly he has just been diagnosed with Asthma. If I'm honest it wasn't a huge surprise as he's been showing signs for the last couple of winters that things could go that way with prolonged coughs with no apparent cause and coughs after colds that just won't shift for weeks. However, this year he's been alot worse and finally yesterday I took him to be checked as he's been dry coughing for weeks. The asthma nurse says he's pretty classic ~ exercise induced and seasonal asthma. ie he's going to wheeze and cough all winter especially after sports or playtime and be fine all summer. I kept him off school today to try and stabilise him as he's been quite poorly this week and he's very tired with all the coughing at night. Also I wanted to make sure he could use his inhaler confidently ~ he can, like a pro already :). I don't think he'll be well enough for school tomorrow but hopefully by Monday he'll be back on form. He had a much better night last night, barely coughing at all so the inhalers are starting to work their magic.

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So, I think that's about it. He's growing so fast and is still a complete joy to be with. Such a happy little chap with a really wicked sense of humour that is starting to show itself more and more often. We're hoping to get away on holiday this summer now we've moved so if we do I'll be sure to post photo's.

Double Celebration!!

Yesterday was Ethan's 4th birthday and also the day of his Baptism into the Catholic faith. We had the most amazing day and Ethan was impeccably well behaved. There's alot to be said for baptising a child when he's older as Ethan was truly able to participate in the ceremony and understand what was happening to him. All in all it was a very blessed day and Deacon J did us proud with a lovely service!!

Here are some photo's to share with you all.....

The actual moment of baptism ~ I have to admit to a few tears at this point. Does he look gorgeous or just really gorgeous??

Ethan holding his beautiful Baptismal candle ~ I'm just making sure he doesn't singe his eyebrows lol.



Ethan with Mike, Nicola and Millie ~ my lovely babies!!




Ethan ~ aka Ben 10 ~ very tired but very happy at the end of a lovely day!!

School Visit....

Ethan had his first school introductory visit today. After his previous issues with separation anxiety you can imagine that, despite my outwardly jolly appearance, inside I was feeling very anxious. He was a bit wobbly before we left the house and I was a bit wobbly when I realised that, on arrival, the mum's were just handing little 'Johnny' or 'Katie' over to the teacher and walking away. I knew that if I stayed today then I'd set the precident for next term when he's full-time so I decided to try and leave but not if that meant hysterical crying and vomiting [Ethan, not me lol]. I also had to make allowances for the fact that I've never left Ethan in a 'school' type environment ever apart from his one disasterous week in daycare. So after explaining to the classroom assistant what a big step today was for Ethan [and me] I told him I'd stay for two minutes and then have to go like the other mummies. So I stood there at the side of the room while he played happily with his new friends and then called out "Two minutes are up Ethan, I have to go now and I'll see you at lunchtime". "Okay Mummy" he called back, "I'm actually a bit busy looking after Ben right now so I'll see you later". [Okay, okay no need to be THAT keen for me to go lololol]. On a serious note I was mighty relieved that it had gone so smoothly [despite sitting in the car crying once I'd left him] and he was also fine when I returned two hours later to pick him up. Knackered yes, but he'd obviously had a great time and he's looking forward to going again.

I was mighty proud of myself at pick-up time when his teacher Mrs M told me that although he is the only child in the whole of his year who's not done pre-school it doesn't show in the slightest and if I'd not told her then she'd never have known. So I must have been doing something right for the last 15 months or so. Home education has been a delightful way to spend another quality year with Ethan and I'd fully recommend it to anyone who has the time, money and opportunity to do it.

We went to McDonalds to celebrate on the way home, well, you have to really don't you?? Photo's to follow when I've downloaded them........

Edited to add photo's as promised ~ taken just before we left for the school visit ....

Not sure quite what was so funny lol....

....and not sure quite why he looked so grumpy either.......

Er now then, what pose shall I strike ~ ah yes, my arms flying at the back like superman, that'll be the one....

An Update...

It's been such a long time since I blogged on here for Ethan. So much has happened since Christmas that I've no idea where the first six months of this year have gone. Sadly Ethan's Grampy died on the 15th April after a short but very aggressive battle with lung cancer. It's kind of knocked the stuffing out of us as you can imagine. It was Ethan's first experience of death and he knows that Grampy Jim has gone to be with God and Jesus or 'those Big Dudes' as he calls them lol. Ethan plays on World of Warcraft sometimes and when we told him that Grampy had died he said "When will he be resurrected then", which is what happens [conveniently] when you 'die' in WoW. Hmmmm!!!??? I told him that Grampy had already been resurrected but by God and now he could see us but we couldn't see him. Bless!!
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So, more positive news is that Ethan has been asking about going to school so he's got a place to start in mid-September in a lovely school on the other side of the city. We always said we'd only home educate him until he expressed a desire to go to school and he's been asking alot of questions about school, making friends, where does Millie go each day etc. so we think the time is right to give it a go. I hope that he settles in well there and that his separation anxiety doesn't rear it's ugly head again. I've a feeling that he's about ready for this now, especially as he's done over a year of home schooling rather than pre~school. I'm thinking positive as don't want any negativity to rub off on him.
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We've put in an offer on a house that side of the city too but as we've sold our house twice and then subsequently lost two previous buyers we'll not get too excited this side of Pickfords pulling up outside the house. It's one of the reasons we looked at schools over there though so I'm praying that it goes through this time. However, even if it doesn't the school is just lovely and exactly what we want for Ethan so even if I have to commute it'll be worth it.
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Ethan's due to be baptised into the Catholic church over the summer. I myself was confirmed a Catholic during the Easter Sunday Mass this year so it makes perfect sense to now have Ethan follow me into that faith.
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Ethan's still doing football weekly and has come on in leaps and bounds. We're hoping that he'll be able to change to the after school or weekend sessions in September so that he won't have to leave as he enjoys it so much. There's a football summer camp being run for two hours a day for four days and we've signed him up for that too. It's in the mornings so hopefully he'll stay the distance and his big sister Millie is one of the coaches so he'll have a ball [pardon the pun ~ groan]. He's also down to do a crash course in swimming over the summer break with Simon. Ethan just loves the water so this'll be a good thing to do when all the other things we usually do have stopped for the summer.

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Not sure if we'll get a holiday this year due to the potential move in the summer but we're going to have some days away by the beach I think. Certainly a few family days out where Ethan can enjoy visiting places of interest to small boys of nearly four. We're tempted to start camping as it's something both Si and I love and Ethan would be just in raptures I think ~ outside 24/7, what more could he wish for.

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The photo above is of Ethan feeding some puppies at Grandma's house or rather out in her barn. They're labrador puppies and just a few weeks old and he always looks forward to going and feeding them on a Saturday.

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I think that's about it. Apologies for the long gap in updates but life has been tough so I hope you'll understand. Will post photo's of any days out, first days at school and baptisms as and when they happen.

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Every blessing

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Sharon and Ethan xx

Hannah.....

We have recently aquired a new kitten and her name is Hannah. Now, when we got Kai [my Oriental cat] Ethan was at an age where torment was far more fun than being nice. So, Kai was off limits if Ethan couldn't be gentle with him. What a difference a year makes though because Hannah is a completely different story. As you can see he loves her and enjoys her sitting with him so he can stroke her and listen to her purring with delight at his rather clumsy ministrations. Hannah is absolutely tiny so it's a good job Ethan has learnt how to be gentle.

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In case you're wondering Ethan is wearing his sleep suit as this is taken first thing in the morning. He's never taken to those sleeping bag type affairs that do look ideal. He doesn't like his legs being restricted. So, I managed to find sleep suits to fit his size in Mothercare and he stays lovely and cosy all night even if the covers come off.

Christmas 2008...

Finally I've got round to posting some of the photo's from Christmas. We had a lovely day but most of us succombed to tummy bugs and colds from Christmas night onwards. Luckily for Ethan he has the immune system of a small ox so escaped without a single bug for the whole festive season. This was the first Christmas that he'd been able to anticipate and count down to the day which made it even more special.

Here he is standing in front the presents looking rather bemused and no, before you all start to groan those are not all his lol. Those are for all of us. The big santa sack you can see behind him to the right is his. He did very well and got far more than he needed. He hasn't got to the stage of waking very early to open presents yet so the day started at quite a civilised hour.

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He got a 'Glen suit' from Father Christmas ~ this is what Glen wears to teach 'Soccer for Tots' and they've started doing toddler sized kits so here's Ethan wearing his and looking mighty proud. It's still a bit on the big side as you can probably tell but once on he wore it for most of the day until we went for a walk after Christmas dinner.

Ahh yes, he also got a parachute which has given us hours and hours of fun. A very cheap gift and very good for imaginative games. He loves it. No, I hadn't had enough and tied him up for some peace and quiet he's just lying wrapped in it!! No, honestly he is hehe!!!

Here he is with me, I look fairly ok for a rather stressed 45 year old mother of six on Christmas day but Ethan looks like he's been on the wacky baccy ~ mad staring eyes, dilated pupils, fixed inane grin. All scary stuff. Simon reckons it was photographic pressure, his smile had been overworked from too much posing!! "Smile for the camera Ethan." Not his cutest look in my opinion but hey, he was excited!!

Preparing for Christmas

Ethan and Millie made some Gingerbread men and here he is icing his with the standard green, red and white icing. Look at the concentration on his face!! I'm not sure how much made it onto the gingerbread man and how much made it into Ethan's mouth but he didn't eat alot of supper that night. Hmmmmm!!!

Here he is helping to dress the tree. He found that the baubles made great footballs [now why isn't THAT a big surprise] and that they bounced really high off the laminate floor - groan!!! He also decorated himself as you can see. If I remember rightly he was taking the decorations off the tree faster than we could put them on. Look at that cheeky face - irresistible or what??

He thought that as we'd taken a photo' of him in front of the tree it was only fair that he took one of us.....and here we are..... you can tell he's taking it because we're both talking to him and directing him with the camera 'up a bit, down a bit' lol hence our rather bemused expressions. lolol

Ahhhh now we've collapsed into a mass of giggles. Goodness knows what Ethan was doing at this point but he did a great job of centering us even if he did catch us looking rather bizarre facially [who said 'no change there then'?? - cheek lol]

Home Schooling fun....

Ethan and I recently spent a day cutting out large basic shapes [triangles, squares, circles and rectangles] and made a life size picture of Ethan with them. Here he is modeling his achievements. Yes, I know he's got his Sportacus suit on AGAIN but what do you expect lol!!

Soccer for Tots - Autumn term '08

Here are some photographs of Ethan taken at Soccer for Tots in the Autum term [2nd October'08]. That is Glen with him who does a fantastic job of teaching these little ones all about the game in a very child friendly way. I've no idea how he manages to keep their attention but he does. Ethan loves it and we've never missed a session yet.

A little gem......

....to share with you all. Millie is off sick at the moment with some fluey type virus. She's been sat on the sofa and Ethan asked if she'd play scatch [catching game with velcro ball catchers] so they did for a while but Millie's head is pounding so she asked Ethan if they could play something a bit less energetic. Ethan suggested basket ball [he's still sports mad as you can tell] but Millie said no, something quieter would be better. Ethan pipes up "It's okay Billie, I won't talk while we're playing". lololol I'm not so sure that's quite what she had in mind.

Just love him xx..

S xx

Consultant appointment...

Yesterday Ethan and I went to see the consultant about Ethan's legs and the way he sits. To cut a long story short there doesn't appear to be anything to be worried about. There is a physical condition that does predispose children to sit in the 'W' position but at the moment Ethan doesn't show any markers for that. The consultant felt that he would be able to detect those markers by this age if Ethan had it - he didn't give 'it' a name.

Also sitting like this is linked to Autism and he asked questions related to that but you don't have to be a brain surgeon [nor a consultant ;o)] to work our that Ethan isn't autistic.

We have to go back in three months to see if there's been any changes. In the worst case scenario Ethan would have to have corrective surgery to reshape the heads of his femur's where they sit in the hip socket to stop the twisting but I really don't think that's going to be the issue or at least I hope not. That's not the impression Mr K gave at all. I think the three month follow-up is just a precaution to be honest.

I have to just say that part of the examination involved Ethan lying on his tummy whilst the Mr K put his legs into the 'W' position - it looked absolutely gross. He couldn't quite believe how supple Ethan is and said he could actually have pushed the legs further if the bed hadn't been stopping him. Ethan looked like a squashed frog with his knees virtually under his armpits and his hips folding the wrong way. I thought he'd complain at this point but no, he's just so bendy but it was a bit yuk to watch. Eeeeewwwww!!!!

As we left Ethan waved and said 'Thank you Man - bye' - I could hear him chuckling as we walked down the corridor. Too cute!!

Photo's still pending but closer than before cos I now have batteries for the camera. I just need some time to fiddle around putting them on.

Happy Christmas all and every blessing to you for a peaceful and enjoyable time over the holidays.

Sharon and Ethan xx

Date for the consultant......

....arrived today. Ethan is seeing the Paediatric Orthopaedic Consultant on Monday 15th December at 2.30pm. Simon is taking the afternoon off to come with us and we're hoping that worst case scenario is a little bit of physio.....Please pray for a good outcome.

Many thanks

Sharon and Ethan xx

Hearing Assessment.....

We're just back from Ethan's hearing test and it was absolutely fine. Sally [the audiologist, if that's the right term :o/] said he was such a bright little lad that she was able to test him far more comprehensively because he had an understanding way beyond his actual age. As a result she managed to do a few tests that she didn't expect he'd be old enough for. Ethan behaved impeccably and did everything required without a murmur. She said his hearing is A1 so that's one less worry - just the legs/hips to get assessed now but still not got an appointment yet.

We [Dave and I - he came with me for moral support and to pay for lunch ;o)] then took Ethan to Activity Land for a good play session. Then onto Mc D's for lunch - did I mention that Dave paid lol???

Home now and Ethan's crashed on the sofa watching something mindless on TV for a while before he gets his second wind and starts playing again. No plans for tonight as Ethan's still scared witless of fireworks so today will pass by unnoticed in this house.

I will keep everyone posted about his legs. I do have some photo's to post but the camera batteries have died so I can't upload them until I've bought some more - sigh!!! Must do that soon....

Hugs

S xx

Small update....

...Ethan's hearing test is on 5th November - let's hope it all goes with a sparkle rather than a bang!! Still waiting to hear [pardon the pun] from the consultant paed for the appointment about his legs.

I'll let you all know....

S xx

Minor health issues...

Ethan has for quite a while now 'appeared' to be slightly deaf and as we have a history of glue ear among my children he's going to be sent for a hearing test in the near future. Will update what the outcome is once we've been.

Also Ethan has sat in a 'W' position ever since he could choose his own position to sit in. Now, I have seen a few other children sit like this occasionally but Ethan would really prefer to sit like this all the time. This position is connected with Autism as it's linked to low muscle tone which Ethan obviously does not have. He also cannot sit still 'normally' on the sofa for any length of time without fidgeting or readjusting is position almost every minute. As he's got older the 'W' position has become more exaggerated and alot wider rather than tightening up with age as I would have expected it to. He also complains of quite bad pain when he's sitting normally especially when on someone's shoulders or in a supermarket trolley where he's 'forced' to sit feet forward and lower leg hanging down - the pain is so bad that once you place him back on the floor he actually can't walk for a few seconds. On discussion with our health visitor she suggested a visit to our GP which we've just done. The upshot is that he doesn't feel it's anything too serious but agrees that Ethan is in deffinitely in pain when sitting normally so we're down for a visit to the consultant paediatrician within the next 6-8 weeks or so just to check that we're not missing anything. I suspect some physio at worst, let's hope and pray that I'm right.

Hugs to all. Have some more photo's to post soon so watch this space..........

First Official Engagement....

Ethan went to his first birthday party this afternoon. His cousin Gracie is two tomorrow and Sarah [Simon's sister-in-law] threw a lovely party with "Magic Dave" as the entertainment. The weather was amazing for October; Ethan was in shorts and a Tshirt it was so warm. I've taken a few photo's [yes, yes, I know - 'At last', I hear you cry, the girl remembered the camera].
Anyhow here they are. You can see just how wonderful and sunny it was.

His first stop as soon as we'd handed over the present was the Crazy Coupe cars - he spent hours in one.

He wasn't at all sure about ol' "Magic Dave" and retreated to the very back of the group of children to watch from a safe distance on daddy's lap........

......after a while though he started to get a bit braver and here he is craning forward to see better and he's clapping along and shouting out the answers with the other little ones......[Er Simon - is that a beer I see in your hand???]

.....here is "Magic Dave" in action. He really was very good and threw a bit of inuendo in for us adults. We were very sure that Dave worked part-time for ASDA and was infact moonlighting - isn't that an ASDA uniform he's wearing?? We did take the micky - poor guy!! Ethan is sat just out of picture to the right on the sun bed with Simon......

Here he is at last sitting at the back of the crowd on Daddy's lap and in fact sat on his own for the very end. He really enjoyed the show and went to bed clutching his signed photograph of Daisy the Super-Cow [don't even ask].

Finally, here we are with an 'all-action' shot at the end of the afternoon. All the older lads started playing footie and this is Ethan just about to boot the ball. He was really quite good at taking turns and his dribbling skills have come on in leaps and bounds so the Soccer 4 Tots is obviously paying off. He had just the best time and really found some courage to face a few things that normally rock his boat a bit.

IT for tots.....

If anyone had ever told me before I had Ethan that a [just] three year old would be able to use a personal computer almost unaided I'd have laughed them out of the room. However, here I am eating my words because Ethan can turn it on, load Internet Explorer click on the link to his favourite sites and play pretty much unaided. He always has half an hour on the PC with Simon once he gets in from work and he's amazing at it. He can click and drag, use the directional keys, know's the difference between a left and a right click and one click and two clicks. It's taught him to recognise words like "loading", "well done", "enter", "full-screen", "home" and any other word you would associate with children's educational and fun web sites, notwithstanding the potential to learn to count generally and also to see letters [capitals sadly] on the keyboard itself. The opportunity for learning without realising that you're actually learning is huge.

Here he is using the directional keys. He's very accurate and can play platform games better than I can.

Here he is laughing which is always a sign that he's having a good time which is what it's all about at this age. Education is supposed to be fun and primarily about learning through play in the pre-school age group, whether learning at home or at nursery.

Personal Awareness....

- Pleased to meet you!! At the moment we're looking at Personal Awareness and today we were looking at our faces. We started by looking closely at ourselves and our reflections in a mirror. We spoke about our facial features ie how many of each feature there were, what colour, what shape, what size and any differences. We discussed whether they were big or small [ie Mummy has bigger ears than Ethan - only just though lol]. We talked about their uses - teeth for chewing/biting, eyes to see, ears to listen- that kind of thing. Ethan actually knew alot more than I realised but he was amazed when I pointed out that we had eyelashes and spent ages touching mine. We also looked at what facial expressions we could make and had a go at guessing if we looked happy, sad, angry etc.

After this we painted our own reflections with happy or sad expressions onto paper mirrors. Above is Ethan with a happy face. He did really well with this as you can clearly see a smiley mouth, nose, eyes and yes, green hair. Don't all three year olds have green hair???

I had cut out some facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows and Ethan painted them [I had to paint the eyes for him as they were a bit tricky] and once they'd dried he glued them onto plain oval face shapes I'd drawn on some paper and you can see that he got them in exactly the right places with no help from me. He even drew some hair and a beard on the one he's holding in the photo' above.

He also managed to do some cutting out today and did the best he's ever done using his little scissors with only the minimal of help. I had the outline of some shapes for him and he managed to cut out a recognisable square, circle, rectangle and triangle. He already knows all the basic shapes but it was a really good exercise in using scissors which is really tricky when you're little.

We're still looking at our Autumn project but I've had difficulty finding many resources that don't involve colouring/painting which are great but have a limited teaching ability. He's very much a kinesthetic and visual learner so it takes something quite hands on to keep his interest. Books on the seasons seem to be as rare as hens teeth. We're going on an Autumn walk with MKhen in Ocotober so with any luck we'll come back from that with some things we can use. Our trip to Willen Lake Park was good for talking about Autumn and looking at the leaves, trees and seeds [conkers, acorns] but not much to actually bring home and record. Trips out are great but until Ethan can actually draw recognisable things and write a few basic words recording them is going to be tricky. It will all come in time and he's really enjoying what we're doing at the moment.

Horse Riding....

Ethan quite often gets to go pony riding when he visits Grandma's house [Dave's Mum] and here he is a couple of weekends ago with his cousin Beth out on the pony in the paddock.

He just looks so grown up on there.