A Christmas Costume Review

I recently received a Reindeer costume to review from Joke.co.uk.

J was very excited when it arrived and quickly tore open the packaging and then proceeded to wear the Reindeer costume for 2 days straight!

The costume is made from very soft material so for a child with sensory needs it was fantastic. J found it very easy to get in and out of, he did however keep misplacing the reindeer head which wasn’t attached to the main part of the costume and was more of a hood/hat. At just £8.49 this costumes is great value for money. It’s sure to get lots of use in our house, in fact J loves it so much that he wants to wear it to his school Christmas party!

There’s a huge range of children’s costumes available to choose from on their site, everything from clowns and superheroes to themes such as Christmas and Halloween. There’s also a range of adult fancy dress costumes available to choose from, which is very handy at the moment with party season upon us, so why not take a look, there’s something for everyone.

 

Disclaimer: No monetary compensation was given for this review. I did, however, receive a reindeer costume to trial and review. All opinions are my own or of my family, where applicable.

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An Eventful Year!

I know it’s a little early but I’m going offline for a few weeks, so I thought I’d do a final post of the year, looking back at my past year.

Wow what a year it’s been!

So we started the year with the floods. It was pretty scary start to the year, the rain was like nothing I have ever seen before. We had a warning to evacuate to higher ground but by then the roads around us were already flooded and there was nowhere to go, lucky for us we live close to the top of a hilly street. Watching the events unfold sent an overwhelming sense of luck and relief through us, we were lucky, just 2 streets away homes were flooded, the main road was completely under water but “our flood” was nothing compared to other towns and suburbs around Queensland. Hubby went to help with the clean up and has said the things he saw during that time will stay with him forever.

Moving on from the flood drama our year just got worse……………………. just before J was due to start school, (which alone has been one drama after another!), he pushed me and I tore my thigh muscle. I can’t tell you how painful this was but I will say that I struggled so much with the pain and using the crutches that Hubby had to take some time off work to look after J and the house. I managed to get around slowly and with a limp but minus the crutches before J started school. *phew* He had a meltdown when we arrived at the school on his first morning before the bell had even gone and there’s no way I would have been able to deal with the situation if I had still been on crutches.

During the second week of school Hubby arrived home from work only 30 minutes after leaving the house to go to work. I was completely shocked, he’s one of those people who is never ill etc so for him to have hurt himself bad enough to come home meant he had REALLY hurt himself. The drama with his back has continued all year with an end result that we couldn’t have predicted! (I’ll come back to this later in the post)

Then we suffered a huge blow in March when I miscarried for a fifth time. Less said about that the better

At the start of the year I thought that I had started to develop some nice friendships with a couple of people here, unfortunately by mid year these had turned sour and one person in particular showed a side to them that I really didn’t like and so yet another blow was dealt. *sigh*

Just to end the year as it started 6 weeks ago J broke his wrist falling off his slide. Although this was yet another low moment it also came with a high, J hated having the cast put, he hated wearing the cast and he HATED having it took off but he coped, in fact he coped with the whole ordeal brilliantly, much better than we had predicted.

It really has been one blow after another this year but along with the lows we’ve also had a few highs. Little things this year have actually been huge highs for us that have put the biggest smiles on our faces

Little things like……….. meeting a couple of old men that my Hubby worked with, with various stories to tell that have made us giggle.

Like J actually eating a proper, hot, home cooked meal! This for me was and is one o the biggest highs of the year, J has now eaten Sheppard’s Pie more than 10 times, (once he’s eaten something at least 10 times it kinda becomes one of his foods”), it doesn’t matter that he makes himself Sheppard’s pie sandwiches that have to be triangles or that he thinks they give him “the strength of 1000 Sheppard’s” (which of course makes him stronger than Dad hehehe), HE EATS IT!

This year J has also learnt so many new skills including how to move his arms in order to swim, how to hold a pencil with less than 4 fingers, how to read, how to pedal properly, (this year he finally started going around in a full circle with the pedals), how to get himself dressed (top and bottoms, next year we’re going to work on buttons and socks), how to use cutlery correctly. The list goes on, he’s done amazingly well this year and all of the little things added together has meant he has made huge progress with his development of skills he was/is lacking in.

Our proudest moment this year was during the last week of school. J has only ever attended 3 parades/assemblies at school, they’re just too sensory overwhelming for him, so just imagine if you can how proud we were of him when during the last week of term not only did he attend the parade but he also got up on stage with the rest of his class to perform Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer AND sang the whole, entire song!………………WOW Definitely the biggest high of the year

As this year is coming to an end, I’m sad to say it’s ending as it began. The powers that be have decided that they can’t do anymore to fix Hubby’s back, nor can he go back to work until it is fixed. Unfortunately our circumstances mean that we’re pretty much being abandoned by Australia and so have to return home to the UK. It’s certainly not something we wanted to be doing but we’ve been left with no other option and so I will be offline for a little while whilst we get everything sorted, (there’s so much to do!). All we can do now is to try to enjoy one last Christmas in Australia, make the most of our time left here and plan for the future.

Well that’s it, the end of our year, here’s hoping next year will be filled with a few more highs and not so many lows.

All that’s left for me to say is MERRY CHRISTMAS and (I hope) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Christmas Everyone!

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All I want For Christmas Is…………….

I’ve been tagged by Belinda over at Land of Little Princesses in post titled All I Want For Christmas.  Many thanks to her for the tag, she has some fab things on her Christmas List, I’m really liking the look of the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, I hope she gets everything she’s wished for

As for me, well I’m still not feeling all that Christmassy even though the big day is now only a week away!! So my Christmas list has taken some thinking about, I love shopping………………..for others, believe it or not for myself it’s a little harder. But here’s my list………………

1.  A Full Night’s Sleep!

A full uninterrupted 5 hrs sleep would be great

2. A New Alarm Clock

The one I have is pretty cute but he it keeps waking me up way too early and I think the radio is broken on it because it just keeps repeating itself “Mum wake up!” LOL

3. A Smile

A smile from my little monkey Christmas Morning would be great…………… another when he opens his pressies and tells me that we got him “the right thing” would be perfect

4. A Family Portrait

We have very few pictures of the 3 of us, in fact I think the last one was taken almost a year ago! Hubby and J both loathe shopping and so I have demanded asked for us to have a family portrait/photo done as my Christmas present from them.

5. An Espresso Machine

Just so that I can put my new coffee making skills into practice

See Mr Santa Claus I’m not really asking for much and I promise I’ve tried very hard to be good all year (and it’s been a very trying year)

In the spirit of Christmas (see I’m starting to get some now hehe) I’m going to share by tagging the following fab bloggers

Super Single Mum

Sabina at Mummy Matters

Fi at Wonderfully Wired

Gemma at Growing My Family Tree

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It’s Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas………..

Yes it is…………………… and no it’s not!

Wow it’s December already, it’s crept up very quickly this year.  Like last year it just feels different and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

J isn’t a huge fan of Christmas, he loves to decorate the tree and to open his (and sometimes ours) presents and cards but that’s about it. He’s absolutely petrified of Santa and has put a complete ban on Santa visiting. He’s told us Santa is not allowed in the house and can leave his present at the door…………outside! He’s having to do lots of Christmas art at school which he isn’t enjoying, art is something he’s never really been a fan of, especially messy art and because he has to do it at school, it’s no longer fun at all for him. He won’t join us with our Christmas lunch, although he will still sit with us whilst he eats his usual cheese sandwich that has been cut into triangles. So you see he’s not really a huge fan of  the Christmas period.

There’s a huge difference in weather for us too. I know we celebrated last Christmas in Australia but we had so much rain and then of course the floods, for over a month now it’s been unbelievably hot and dry and well…………………. it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. I think it’s because I’m so used to having a cold and frosty run up to Christmas. Despite the rain last year I felt pretty much the same, I even sat and watched a huge collection of Christmas movies and cartoons with J. I did this for 2 reasons, the first was to try to get him more enthusiastic about Christmas and the other reason was to try to help me feel more Christmassy. Did it work? No not really, but he did enjoy the movies

We’ve had abit of a bad run of luck this year too and have some pretty huge changes coming up right at the start of 2012. Maybe thinking of and working our way up to and through the really huge things going on at the moment is also contributing to my lack of Christmas spirit. We’ve even decorated our tree early this year, which was great fun but still didn’t get us all in the seasonal mood.

Yes, that is an Angry Bird on the top!

I just can’t put my finger on it but at the moment I just don’t feel all that Chrismassy, which is really unusual for me. I’m usually a big fan of Christmas, growing up my Nan always made Christmas a very special time of the year for me, of course it’s also this time of the year that I miss her the most. I miss spending my special time with her, taking her Christmas shopping etc. When think about it I guess I’m also missing some of my family and friends back home, I suppose it’s just that time of year.

I know it’s still a couple of weeks ’til Christmas but by this time I’m usually full of Christmas joy, I hope we can all get a little more Christmassy over the next couple of weeks and make this Christmas extra special for all of us but especially for J.

 

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Getting Ready For Christmas This Silent Sunday

With lots to mail overseas I've made a start with my wrapping!

 

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Wow What A Year It’s Been!

I honestly can’t believe that it’s almost the end of 2010 already, this year has been such a huge year for us!

We started the year desperate to sell our house, the house that we were still desperately trying to finish a complete renovation on. Oh and did I mention that our lovely new fireplace developed a problem and started filling the house with smoke and the new central heating system decided to pack up over Christmas so we started the year with no heating………… it was FREEZING! In fact it was so cold the windows froze on the inside!!!

March arrived and we’d had an offer on the house and were unsure if we would still be in the UK for J’s 4th birthday. He was so excited and desperately wanted a party, his first proper birthday party, so 2 weeks before his birthday we hosted a small party for him. Then during the 2 weeks that followed that party we spent all of our time saying goodbyes to family and friends, hoping that they would keep in touch once we had moved………… some have, some haven’t, that’s a whole other post! The ones that have, (and even some of the ones who haven’t) we miss you all and love you all lots

April arrived and so did the removalists and our moving date. J was an absolute star on the flights over to Australia, the computer games helped too Just a couple of days after arriving hubby started his job so it was up to J and myself to find somewhere for us to live and a playgroup for J to attend. 2 weeks later we were settled into our new home and J was in playgroup 2 days a week. However we soon realised that the house we were renting wasn’t going to be big enough to fit all of our belongings in when they arrived from the UK and J wasn’t happy at daycare. So we moved again, this time to a bigger house but we stuck it out with the daycare for 6 months until it just became too hard for all of us.

Our container arrived in June whilst J was at daycare, he thought it was fantastic when he came home to find all of his toys and his bed etc…….. In July we decided that now we were settled we should try to source out some help with J, we had a feeling that it was Asperger’s but as we’re just his parents and not professionals in this field we needed help, so we spoke with our GP. After J tried to trash his room and was his usual self the GP referred us a Peadiatrician who had seen J when we were previously in Australia.  At the beginning of August we finally got the diagnosis we had been expecting and a whole new adventure began.

Since August J has started an Early Intervention Program at the local school, where he has made progress and more importantly where he has made friends. We have also started going to a Playconnect group which is a parent/child group for families with children on the spectrum, this too has been wonderful and has also enabled us to make great new friends who are also going through similar issues. It was tough going to start with J used to attack everyone and everything but with the help of his charts he has begun to calm down and now enjoys some of his time at the group. And we’ve now made  a couple of friends who I hope will be in our lives for a long time, thanks R and D for becoming a part of our lives

We seem to have had one appointment after another with the Peadiatrician, OT’s, Behaviour Specialists, Speech Pathologists and a Child Psychologist……… and then there’s been the appointments with the school. We’re getting help from the school because J has one or 2 issues with starting Prep…………. he hates the idea!    The past few months just seem to have flown by so quickly!

Last month we decided to go on our first family holiday, once again J was star and coped remarkably well, it was nice to get away and to spend some quality time together as a family. We had great fun

Last month I also decided to do something for me, once J is settled in school I would like to return to work part time. I work in childcare but it would seem that my 16 years experience and my qualifications don’t really count for much in Australia. I have started the ball rolling officially and I’m trying to get my UK qualifications transferred into their Australian equivalent but in order to do that I have to enrol and study 2 modules which apparently are different to the UK ones???  Anyhow I am now enrolled and have a fair bit of study to fit in before May, (when it has to be completed by), I also have to complete a first aid course before my qualifications will be transferred over. It will be a full day so not an easy thing to fit into my life at the moment but hey it has to be done so maybe early next year………..   In addition to this I thought it would be useful to get some Australian work experience so I have put my name down as a volunteer at my local Early Years Centre, (a bit like Children’s Centres for all my UK readers), they been incredibly helpful to us, (they run the playconnect group) so I hope I can now be of help to them.

Now we’re in December and we’ve just had Christmas! J, hubby and I have had such a hectic year but when I watched Father and Son playing and laughing together on Christmas Day I could see that everything that’s happened this year has been worth all the hard work and stress that we’ve all endured just for that moment. J loves the Aussie sunshine and now finally loves playing outside, especially in water, (so long as it doesn’t go near his head LOL), and although we’ve had a very wet Christmas we had a great time………. and we were warm! LOL

To hear J laughing and to watch him playing so happily is simply magical, it was the best Christmas present ever and the very best end to a very busy year.

Now onto next year and the challenges adventures that await us!

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Happy Christmas!

We had a very happy Christmas this year, yes we had rain and we’ve had to postpone our BBQ but we had a lovely day. A friend came over for Christmas lunch, which was something new for me, we’ve only ever had my Nan over for Christmas lunch before and he experienced his first ever yorkshire puddings! He loved them

J awoke at around 5.30am and brought his stocking down to our room, as usual he climbed into bed with us whilst we emptied his stocking to discover little gifts that Santa had left  Stocking done he bounced into the living room and began ripping open his presents.  After opening a few he began to get worried, he still hadn’t found his DS and was beginning to think there wasn’t one hiding under the tree so we dug it out and watched his face light up when he opened his favourite gift.

A friend sent him a Power Ranger costume………. the Red Ranger, he loved it and couldn’t wait to put it on, (the material was just like his swim clothes, which he practically lives in), Thanks K

He received so many gifts, another friend sent a Green Goblin Figure, which again he loved. Another friend sent a Sonic top and some Tuc Sandwich biscuits, (J’s favourites), which he loved so much there are only a couple left in the packet! I could list everything but instead I will just say a huge thankyou to everyone who sent gifts, they were all very much appreciated.

J even decided that he wanted a hot Christmas lunch………… ok so he decided to have battered fish, with the batter removed and placed at the side and hash browns but hey he who cares, a roast is so overrated He pulled a whole box of crackers and listened to the terrible jokes that they contained and looked confused as we laughed at them

Then he spent the entire afternoon playing with his new toys. The only meltdown, (and it was only a small one), that we had was at bedtime.

So overall a Very Happy Christmas in our house

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It’s Christmas Time!

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish the world a very Merry Christmas, hope everyone has a great day

We’ll get some ribbon, wrap some gifts                                                                                       Open our hearts and heal some rifts                                                                              Children will giggle with excitement and glee                                                                          As we take out the star to put upon the Christmas tree

You’ll crunch and much on candy canes                                                                                   Whilst peering outside through frosty window panes                                                         Unless ofcourse you live down under                                                                             Where you’ll have sun or maybe thunder!

And Let’s all get fat on Christmas cake                                                                                         Forget the diet for goodness sake                                                                                                 It doesn’t matter how hard you try                                                                                             You just can’t resist the last mince pie

In the sky I see the sleigh                                                                                                       Santa’s left he’s on his way                                                                                                               Ring the bells, hear them chime                                                                                                     It’s finally here, it’s Christmas time!

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A Little Bit Of Christmas Sparkle

J doesn’t do a huge amount of art so imagine how delighted I was last week when, at his EI Christmas party, he presented me with a Christmas Angel that he had made whilst at school

As you can see he put lots of sparkles on it but the biggest sparkle was the one in his eyes when he presented it to me

 

This is my entry for this weeks Gallery theme “Sparkle”.

Now please pop over to Sticky Fingers to see some other great Sparkly       photos

 

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3 Days, 3 Parties!

It’s been another busy week in our household this week ……..  J had his last 2 therapy sessions for the year and no less than 3 parties ……… yes 3 parties over 3 days!     phew!  :)

He struggled with his therapy sessions this week, whilst he did everything that was asked of him he needed a little extra help from me because he simply didn’t want to play.  So after getting through those and deciding how best to use our funding over the next 10 months we were all a little tired, plus it was very wet at the beginning of the week and has been pretty hot all week which has made us feel even more tired. To end the week the rain has now returned so it’s feeling quite humid again.

Thursday came and J was very excited about party number 1, which was at his Early Intervention Centre. However we arrived a little early and were made to wait with 2 other parents and their children outside in the sunshine instead of going inside where they had nice cool aircon and fans, so when we finally went in we were all hot and bothered. J becomes extremely anxious when he is faced with any kind of change, this results in disruptive behaviour, aggressive outbursts etc etc…… so it was great for his EI teachers to see for only the 2nd time, some of the things that I have been worrying about with Prep. He’s always well behaved, listens well and so on when he attends his sessions there, however this was a party so Mums and 1 Dad stayed and obviously his usual school routine was gone so out came the anxiety driven behaviour, at one point he even hit another child’s little sister which has never happened before, he’s usually really good with babies……… it’s just kids around his own age/size that he usually has a problem with, (you see why I’m worried about Prep?).  So anyhow, at least now they have seen what he’s like with change and at the end of the day he attends the EI Centre because he’s on the Spectrum so they should be expecting fun and games…….. right?

Party number 2 was with my lovely friends at my Playconnect group. J was once again looking forward to it but after the party at school I was a little apprehensive because it was held in a different building so wasn’t sure how he’d cope with that little change. He really surprised me!  We spent alot of our time outside, the children all played brilliantly with each other and then we came in to have morning tea and crackers and all of them sat together, even J, around a table.  J had a great time!

Finally party number 3 was a birthday party for one of his friends from school, so mostly all ASD children once again. This party however was being held at Hungry Jacks, (Aussie Burger King to all my UK readers), so I was worried about how he would behave. Once again he surprised me, he even ate a kids meal and let TR blow her candles out!

One thing that surprised me at all the parties was how well all the ASD children played with each other. It was as if they just understood each other’s space and quirks and to be honest it’s quite remarkable to watch. These children are kids who don’t usually interact well with other kids, especially kids of their own age/size and yet they play together, understand each other, respect each other and in some ways care about each other…….. I really can’t put into words how remarkable it is to watch them all playing so nicely with each other.

Well done kids you all did great!

 

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