Grandparents day.
Master R seriously needed a hair wash and de-matting, for a while I thought I might even have to cut a chunk of his hair off. In the bath he floated with my hands barely supporting him and when I gently lowered my hands he remained floating. He wanted to stay in and try on his own when I got out but lifted his legs up and his head went under.
Ms R wrote ‘Grandma and Great Grandad’ at the top of a piece of paper and then drew them underneath with lots of presents. She folded the paper in half and wrote ‘To Grandma and Great Grandad from [her name]’ and then placed it in an envelope and wrote on that too. It was all very neat and she’s started writing lower case ds now, it seems she’s moving to lower case letters one at a time. I’ve also noticed how straight her writing is getting despite never having written on lines, I suppose if you’ve never had lines to write on then you never learn to rely on them. I struggle to write straight without lined paper. It was very good writing and drawing and my grandparents were suitably impressed. Grandad commented that she was doing really well and that she’ll have a head start when she starts school. He and Master R played ball again loads.
We went to my parents house for lunch. Sometimes they’re hungry and we all have lunch, sometimes it doesn’t occur to them until the children ask. Master R completely and accurately relayed the whole floating story to my Mum and she said it was the first time that he’s told her a whole long story about something that has happened to him. Ms R played on the Thomas website while my Master R helped my Dad to unload the dishwasher for which Dad gave him twenty pence for. Ms R raced in and asked for some money too but was disappointed with twenty pence so he exchanged it ten two pences. Even though after a bit of counting and working out she realised that it was still the same amount she felt that she had done well. Master R also exchanged his for two pence pieces as well which meant for the rest of the day they were jingling and dropping money.
We dropped Mum off at work and as we were early and all the children were still at school we went in for ten minutes. The Rs had a quick play in the soft play room and then laid on the heated water bed admiring the twinkly lights in the sensory room. If you were a child with special needs and you had to live in an institution then that would be a very nice place to live. On the way home Ms R was asking why she couldn’t live there and I was trying to explain about children with severe learning disabilities but probably wasn’t doing a great job.
We visited a school friend after school hours for games of hide-and-seek and cups of coffee. Home ed wasn’t really mentioned but school was, it seems that where you buy uniform is an important factor and that even in Year 1 body image is a concern. The time flew by and our intended hour turned into two.
We can’t for the life of us think of what to get Master R for his birthday. Our garden isn’t big enough for outside toys, he has use of Ms Rs outgrown scooter and bike on the rare occasions that we go round to the garages and his room is full of toys which get very little use so Daddy and I have agreed to get him a kitten. It is something that he will hugely appreciate as he is mad about cats and it marks an important milestone in our family home life. It’s the first time in the five years that we’ve been back in England and been a family that we have felt settled enough to get a pet.