Back to work blues

We've had a terrible day, probably the worse since I took him out of school.
That old chestnut of maths has reared its ugly head again. I'm not altogether sure that the CGP workbook is quite right in the level of some of the questions. I'm sure that the NC doesn't require 6 and 7 year olds in year 2 to minus really big numbers, I can't find any reference to that being a requirement, yet half way through the work book, the pace has really picked up and he can't cope.

I do get really sick of him dilly dallying around day dreaming and not trying though, that really bugs me! I'm not sure what we're going to do about maths as he can't cope with this level. I'm really stuck to know what to do.

After I finished todays work we did a whole load of jobs in town and went to the library. Charlie got lots of history reference books and I got a few crime novels too.

This evening Charlie has read - surprise - and has also done another DWN lesson - the dolphin this time as requested by me. His writing was particularly neat which he was proud of, although slightly too big.

Ha, I've rebelled and not used a title - blogger take note!

I was broadband less from Friday lunch time until Saturday mid-morning, apparently the exchange went down for the village - oh it was foul - felt so cut off from the HE world scary stuff.

Seems a bit weird on the blog ring at the moment, it hadn't even got quite back to normal after the mass CP exodus, and now there's the Melrose exodus too! Wish I had gone but hadn't decided to re-home ed until it was too late, and there was the treatment to contend with to. I intend on making the summer camp though - wild horses wouldn't keep me away, and looking through the archives has shown that Merry has historically posted the initial discussion on this very shortly after returning from Melrose - so that's something to look forward to! I won't be doing HESFES because ermm well its tents, and I so don't do tents, caravans I can just about cope with if I don't think about it too much, but tents no chance.

Charlie boy and I have just slobbed around this weekend, with both of us reading and Charlie drawing lots too. We played Connect 4 today and he really couldn't get the hang of it lol

Back to work for me tomorrow (well I work at home bykwim) - my box of work is sat here looking at me - need to fit in library, post office,rubbish tip and food shopping trips too.

In typical TMI mode, AF has turned up today 4 days early which never happens and weirdly I had no advance warning. I know that all the fertility drugs can mess with your cycle but I was under the impression that it typically makes people late, very late like up to 2/3 weeks. Oh well I won't complain really because it means that I will re-start the first stage of drugs in April slightly earlier. Getting sort of excited about my clinic appointment on Thursday and it will be good to firm up plans with doctor.

Titles should be banned

I hate thinking up titles, the box should be removed and the date should be sufficient. I am going to lobby Blogger immediately.

Charlie is still miserable about his hair, especially as I keep calling him Thug Bug, I think he looks like the Mitchell brothers.

Today he has played manically with the Geomag panels I bought yesterday, yes it's true, the evil mother that sold the ordinary geomags on ebay last year has relented after SOMEONE mentioned the offer on these in Woolworths on their blog. Why isn't there a warning when you join the blog ring about the compulsive buying bug you will catch? First it was DWN and now Geomag panels.

We paid a trip to the tip today with a car load of crap. Good thing I've got a Scenic.

I've just made some squidgy choc chip cookies and am eating one hot for the oven - yummy. Charlie is safe in bed

Still sobbing.....

The lovely lady at the barbers said there was only one thing for it as she went at Charlie's hair with the scissors. I hate it, he hates it lol He really doesn't suit short hair and my only saving grace is that it grows so quickly that I'm hopeful in 4/5 weeks it will be long again. He's really upset and says that he doesn't feel like him - awww bless



Home ed group was fab. Six families including us went, and I met two families that I hadn't before, and everyone was so nice and friendly. The child played so beautifully together. Ages ranged from 1 to 12 and there were 11 children and only one girl! We had a great time and Charlie picked up the youngest, little J and gave him a ride around the room, much to J's delight - he's such a mother hen. The parents sat around drinking tea/coffee and chatting and much fun was had by all.

Just for Alison and Sarah

He really didn't want me to take a photo lol No, he didn't do it, I am ashamed to admit that I did. I was trying to trim his fringes as it was all in his eyes, and well, on the bridge of his nose. He moved and my hand slipped at the critical time and I ended up cutting off far more than I intended! He really doesn't suit short hair because of his long forehead, and I can't look at him this morning. We are shortly off to the hairdressers/barbers for emergency work!

Thankfully his hair grows very quickly!

Hair disaster and other things

There has been a terrible disaster with Charlies' hair and the less said about it the better.

In home ed land, yesterday and today Charlie has done around 6 pages of a CGP maths workbook and today he has also done the Singapore Maths assessment so that I can try to decide whether to get that as well when I order the Sonlight Core next month.

Apart from that we have done a fair bit of cooking, rolls yesterday and scones today and Charlie has - yes you guessed it - read loads. Various non-fiction books today and yesterday. He hasn't picked up a novel since Saturday night. Going to have to do something about that!

It's the first South Gloucestershire home ed group in Cam/Dursley tomorrow afternoon - so we're both pretty excited about that. I'm just praying I can find a hairdresser kind enough to sort out his hair before then!

I am thoroughly enjoying my week off, although it was originally taken to allow me to recover from the HUGE needle being shoved in unmentionable parts and also to allow me to chill out after embryo transfer. Obviously the latter didn't happen, but I am still enjoying it.

Off to the clinic a week on Thursday for the review appointment with the doctor, so glad I have something positive to fix on, I don't do brooding. Well except over wanting a baby that is.

Charlie had the DK explore magazine last week and we did the plaster cast lion face yesterday but it split - Charlie was very upset! Must remember to look for acrylic paints tomorrow for his clay pot.

Life is a rollercoaster

Oh the irony. To start at the beginning - Wednesdays appointment was not good. There were only 7 leading follicles with the remaining 5 fallen behind and too small. This meant at this point that I wouldn't have enough to egg share as you must have minimum of 8 eggs. So I made the decision then that if they only retrieved 7 eggs, all were to go to the recipient.

Having got home I had to do my usual stimulating injection and then wait up until midnight to do the trigger injection. That was incredibly painful as it's a different drug, and still today the injection site is very painful.

Drug free day on Thursday - yay! I took Charlie to my parents and stayed for dinner and then my dad drove me to the station. Train journey into London was uneventful and I arrived at the hotel around 9.00pm. Food and drink were banned from midnight - sob.

I got up at 6.15 the next morning and made my way to the hospital to check in at 7.30. After sitting around for 40 minutes, eventually the porter came to escort me to my hospital room. To my surprise I was given a private room rather than being put on the day case unit.

More sitting around until at 11.30 they came to walk me down to theatre. I woke up 45 minutes later in the recovery room having been dreaming of lions! The nurse told me I had 12 eggs collected and I was over the moon!

After being taken back to my room I had lunch and several cups of tea and my dad arrived about 2.00pm. Eventually the nurse from the fertility unit phoned to say that the eggs had been split 50/50 and we left about 3.30pm.

I wasn't in any pain at this point but my legs were a bit shaky and I was over the moon about getting so many eggs when I had resigned myself to giving them all away.

The pain hit me around 8.00 that night, really high up and agonising. I didn't get any sleep on Friday night as the pain kept me awake.

The embryologist called at about 9.45 on Saturday to say she was really sorry but none of my 6 eggs had fertilised, and that it must have been the eggs as the sperm donor had proven fertility. I was devastated by this. I would rather have had no eggs for me, than have this happen, it was so unexpected.

I spent a few tortuous hours wondering how on earth I was going to be able to save up the required £6000.00 for a cycle of ICSI when at lunch time my lovely consultant called.

She was so sweet, saying she was so sorry, and they aren't really sure why this happened. But, the recipients half had all fertilised - yippee! Then I started crying (and I so don't do crying) with relief that the other woman had been successful and my eggs weren't scrambled. So, because of this I can have another go at egg sharing!

I have to ring the hospital on Monday morning to make an urgent appointment to go and see my consultant for a review meeting and discuss further treatment plans.

I'm still in agony, and rather gutted that none of my eggs fertilised but slightly relieved that I can have another go and better yet, help another woman achieve her dream of parenthood.

Just a quickie

Off to London again for what I hope will be the last scan oh and a blood test. Can't believe that I will have to be sat on that train again tomorrow night as well. I'm sure the train managers all know me by now.

Since starting these IVF drugs I have had such weird dreams - that never happened to me during pregnancy but on drugs - blimey. They are both vivid and bizarre and it's happening nearly every night - most strange what nuns piss can do to you!

Charlie managed something educational yesterday - the last 4 pages of his maths workbook. Two were just ordinary pages and the last two were the big test at the end of the book. He did so well and got them all correct which is a major achievement as the sums were starting to get really hard. He was so proud of himself and made me cut the certificate with all the stickers out of the back of the book and pin it on the drawing board.

Today's wake up was "Hi Mummy. Mummy do you know what the biggest lake in the world is". This child is truely strange, the way he can open his eyes and come straight out with these questions really amuses me!

Easter Bunny Came Early

Or at least that's how one friend put it when I gave her the clinic update.

So, things are looking really good. I had 10 huge follicles yesterday which is very promising and a nice thick womb lining which is even better, as that is the biggest indicator of IVF success. The lady who will be receiving half of my eggs (anonymously) is all nicely lined up and in tune with my cycle, so no delays there which is fab. Apparently she is extremely excited, having been on the donor egg list of 700-900 women for the last 5 years or so.

So next visit is Wednesday for another scan to check the follicles and a blood test to check estradiol levels. If that all comes back ok it will mean the nasty evil trigger injection at about 1/2am ish on Thursday and then the big operation/egg collection on Friday.

Charlie was so excited to see the follicles or eggs as I put it to him - he was jumping up and down in the scan room! Poor little mite is sooo desperate for a baby sibling.

Last night's injection really hurt, more than any of the others so far - ouch. I have to keep sniffing too - why oh why - that stuff is so disgusting.

I was really impressed that I stayed bright eyed and bushy tailed all day, I didn't even feel sleepy on the train on the way home! I did go to bed really early last night though - 10.30pm.

I must be nuts...

..as I've just stayed up all night on purpose to ensure that I don't do my usual trick in going back to sleep. I've now perfected the "wake up to BT wake up call,sit up in bed, stick sniffer up one nostril, sniff once, puke, lie down again and stay comatosed until 10 or 11am" bit. So drastic measures had to be called for today with needing to catch the train to London. Might be meeting my brother for lunch as he's doing a site visit or something like that anyway.

Lazy, lazy day

Although I did manage to get up considerably earlier than yesterday.

Charlie and I played Jungle Book Groove on the playstation this morning which was pretty amusing. That boy hates to lose!

After that he made lunch - oh how I love having a child of this age - so capable.

Then he did some maths and science workbooks, and really surpassed himself maths wise. His maths confidence has really improved since leaving school and it's great to see.

I spent some time researching costs for our planned Disney World Florida holiday. It was a bit weird filling in "infant" for a child not yet conceived, but necessary just in case this first IVF works!

We're off to London again tomorrow for the very important follicle checking scan. I realllllllyyy need to have a good amount of follies and more importantly, for them to be good sizes. I really need to stay on track with the timetable they have given me or else there'll be real problems.

Todays injection hurt like hell, and I now am sporting two huge bruises on my stomach from the injections that made me bleed last week - pah!

Errmmm unschooling??

As we've done bugger all "educational" the last 3 days in a row can I claim unschooling?

Charlie has basically spent the last 3 days with his nose firmly wedged in non-fiction books. Does anyone else have a child that wakes up, looks at you, says "Morning Mummy, what's a silo?" or is that just my boy? He's always doing this, waking up and asking random questions before I've even thrown the alarm clock across the room to shut it up and silo's it was today!

We returned our library books and got some more, predictable Charlie's are non-fiction although I grabbed Tales of King Arthur for him and he has started that and appears to really enjoying it.

I've looked everywhere for the first issue of Horrible Science and I just can't find it anywhere, so I'm off to check eBay in desperation in a bit.

After we came home we had to take my work back to my parents and pick up my train tickets for Monday. Yet more discourse between my mum and Charlie, she really winds him up the wrong way and he in turn is rude to her to the point of shaking his fist at her and throwing cushions. Sigh. I don't know why but when I ask him, he says he hates the way she teases him and the way she always echoes what I say. What he means by that if I say "Charlie get off the table" she will say it either straight after me or at the same time. It makes him feel like she is trying to mother him, which she is as she is soooo controlling and that winds him up. She had agreed to stop but she hasn't and today her pearls of wisdom were that I had to stop him as by cuddling him when he's upset over his run-ins with her, I'm making him a wuss. FFS!

I'm now really worried about what will happen when I have to have my egg collection as he will have to stay the night with them as my mother refuses to come to the clinic with me and take him out for a few hours whilst I am in theatre. There is no-one else to look after him, I don't have any grown-up friends here as I've only been here 2 years and work from home, so I just don't know anyone. He cried and cried when I told him he will have to stay with them, he really wants to come with me but he just can't as there is no-one to look after him whilst I'm in theatre. He's fine with my dad - loves and adores him, but steadily over the last 2 years his problem with my mum has got worse and worse.

Poo in the pool

Thursday

Lovely! So we turn up for the first lesson at the swimming club, nearly make it to the changing rooms when we are told that some dumb mother didn't put a swim nappy on her child, despite it being the rules, and it delivered a present in the pool. Nearly 3 hours later the levels still weren't safe so no lessons in the learner pool. Grrrrrr. Now I hate driving in the dark at the best of times, so that just put me in a worse mood. Sigh. So off we went to the supermarket to do our shopping and oh its lovely and quiet at 7.00pm - bliss - no queues anywhere.

We had a non-descript kind of day. Charlie coloured and drew all day and finally finished his huge farm picture. He was so proud and impressed with himself and it's pretty good.

I worked all day - bleugh - and managed to make myself bleed with my injection today. Must have nicked a capillary. I'm starting to get nervous now, as potentially this time next week egg collection will be done. I have to be at the hospital at 7.30am - groan - so we are definitely going up to London the night before as the earliest train from Kemble doesn't arrive in London until 7.32am.

Now that I've moved onto stimming the time is whizzing by, just keeping my fingers crossed for Monday, as I really need to have e/c on the 28th.

Managed to get myself all depressed last night by watching some crappy marriage thingy on Sky. They even managed to have a fairly awful lesbian couple on there, and that finished me off. I'm normally the strong independent type, but seeing that just set me off wondering how the hell I am ever going to meet anyone again and how this has been the longest I have ever been single. I am a very independent type but also miss having someone. Wah, I don't want to die an old maid. Ok, enough patheticness now!

We've had a really nice day today. After breakfast, Charlie decided to do some maths, more subtraction, then some handwriting and finally he did about 6 pages of his Science workbook.

He also did a little more of his huge farm picture which he is basing on various drawings in his Draw Write Now set.

We had a terrible bereavement today. Frosty lost his head. We're not sure how it happened as the clay had dried out, but Charlie was incredibly upset about it, and he has now been buried in the bin.

After lunch and my injection (3 down now) we whizzed off to Home Ed group. This was the first I have been to and it was at K's house as the hall has yet to be secured for the venue. It was really nice to meet people and let Charlie play with other children. He really enjoyed it and I really noticed a difference in the way home ed children play compared to school children. It may be cliched, but there is no tension, no teasing that I heard and everyone was so friendly no matter their age or sex - it was just lovely.

One of the mums who lives in Gloucestershire - not very far from here - has managed to secure a hall in Cam once a month so that has now been sorted, but I think the expectation is that those whom live in South Gloucestershire might not come as it's a bit far for them. For us it's fine though as we live exactly on the Glos/South Glos/Avon border.

So we're just waiting for the South Glos venue to be sorted, and we should hopefully have two groups to go to.

I managed to sort out some swimming for Charlie. The coach from Yate called to tell me that they only offer private lessons to special needs/disabled children but that the swimming club does learn to swim lessons and there is only 3-4 children in each group. So we are off for a trial tomorrow to see how he gets on.

So a great day all in and I'm going to watch the Chicago DVD I treated myself too now!

Big catch up time

First of all thanks to everyone for Charlie's birthday wishes and mine for my hospital appointment. Charlie in particular really appreciated his birthday wishes, as none of his school friends sent him a card, despite all the birthdays being on our contact list, so the poor mite had a fairly minimal card haul, although his useless so called father remembered a card that actually managed to arrive on his birthday and not a week after. Does he think that buying the largest card in the shop makes up for having walked out of his sons life forever 2 years ago?

Saturday

Anyway, he had a lovely birthday. He opened his presents from me and was absolutely thrilled with his Draw Write Now set - he thinks its the best present in the world despite his expression in the second photo!





We whizzed off to Waitrose to buy some bits and pieces and were there for opening at 8.30am (groan), then went on to the party shop in Cirencester to purchase the table confetti. He has loved this ever since I bought some for his birthday last year. We got gold and silver stars and "happy birthday" logos. I also treated him to a happy birthday helium balloon and two more Horrible History novels as well. Incas and Tudors I think were the ones he chose.

We finished tidying the house and Charlie began to get really impatient waiting for my parents to arrive. Arrive they did at 1.00 and after opening their presents - some lovely clothes and a glass painting set - we had lunch, just the usual sandwiches, pringles, yellow and red peppers, carrot and cucumber sticks and tzatziki and another dip too. Then it was cake time!



After lunch Charlie wanted to do one of the Sand Art pictures I bought for his birthday. It was good fun and we did it together which was nice and Charlie was really pleased with the end result.



Then he dragged my dad into the playroom to play on the playstation - what a palaver! They couldn't quite work out the eye toy between them, my mum and I just sniggered.

At 5.30 my dad took Charlie here to watch the floodlit feeding. Charlie apparently loved it, and was really well behaved. My mum and I stayed here as she had no interest in going, and we watched ET and chatted and I cooked dinner.

My parents left after Casualty ended and a very happy Charlie collapsed into bed earlyish for a change.

Sunday

We had a very artistic day today which was a big change. First of all Charlie wanted to do something from Draw Write Now so he chose the robin and was thrilled with the results.



Even I tried it and was impressed and I hate drawing with a passion best reserved for other things!

Then after lunch he got his new clay out (another birthday present) and decided to make a roman pot and a snowman he has christened Frosty - so original.







He *really* enjoyed this and took great care over every aspect of it - it was definitely a hit.

We snuggled up on the sofa after dinner and watched some of the programs on Animal Planet, he really loves that channel and it makes me so happy we have Sky now.

Monday

It was a mad rush to get to the bank before catching the train, but we made it with about 5 minutes to spare. In fact rushing around was a bit of a theme today! Train journey to London was uneventful as ever, Charlie read and did another Draw Write Now picture, and we arrived into Paddington on time at quarter to one. We had a quick look in WH Smiths for the Horrible Science magazine but they appeared to be in the middle of a refurb and didn't have it or much else for that matter. We caught the tube to Sloane Square and then the bus down to the hospital - that was quite exciting as it is only the second time Charlie has been on a bus - we normally get cabs around London.The hospital has a bus stop right outside which was handy.

Everything at the clinic went very well. I have nicely down regged and Charlie loved seeing the scan. The lady was great pointing out the womb and ovaries to him, and he was visibly moved and said to me "wow Mummy - that's where I grew" bless. The nurse then sent me down to the Pharmacy to pick up my drugs and then more sitting around before going in to see her. She showed me my injection and new revised sniffing schedules and then made up one injection and made me do it.

Then the embryologist came in to discuss the donor sperm. Unbelievably there is only one available with blonde hair at the moment, so it was him I chose as both Charlie and I are blonde. He's some kind of super brainy student doing a PhD in astro physics or something like that, he's also very sporty, which considering I'm not, was quite amusing.

Then it was time to pay the bill and book my next scan. That will be next Monday to check that my ovaries are growing lots of eggs. Charlie keeps stroking my tummy and saying to it "grow eggies grow" rofl, he's so funny.

By this time we had been at the clinic nearly 2 hours and I was getting worried as if we didn't make the 4.16pm train home we would have to wait until 7.30pm. So we ran up Chelsea Bridge Road, threw ourselves into Sloane Square tube station and then ran all the way up from Paddington tube to the train, making it with 30 seconds to spare! Pretty impressive for an unfit 29 year old and a just 7 year old I thought.

Another uneventful train journey home, stopping off to pick up my work from my parents and then home for dinner.

Tuesday

Today Charlie has been quite busy. He's done two pages of maths, quickly and all correctly, which is great because it was subtraction and he usually struggles with this. He coloured in his DWN picture from yesterday and wrote the sentences too.

He has been most helpful and helped to tidy the sitting room too, and made our sandwiches at lunch time.

Straight after lunch I did my injection, and it is really quite a faff to set it all and takes a while. Charlie was sweet when he could see I was hesitating whilst pointing the needle at my stomach, gave me some reassuring words and stroked my back. He is very interested in the big supplies bag they gave me, with all the syringes, needles, ampuole covers etc in, and he particularly likes the sharps bin!

I would just like to blog here that it hurts a bit when the needle goes in, and the menopur does sting as it goes in, but it isn't as bad as HcG injection I had to have over the years for the IUI's - now that really stung.

Charlie outright refused to go to swimming lessons today, as he said he didn't want to get in trouble. Hmmm, anyway we have negotiated that he will go next week.

I have booked him into 3 activity sessions at the leisure centre for half term week that he decided he would like to do. He chose football, trampolining and short tennis.

We're going to our first home ed group meeting tomorrow at K's house, we are both looking forward to this. Although I've yet to work out how to fit my injection in whilst there as it's due in the middle of our time there!

Hi-ho hi-ho it's off to London we go.....

Just a quick blog before we go off to London for my scan. I was just thinking how nice and easy it is now that I don't have to arrange for someone to pick him up from school. No faffing around when I get back either, having to collect him from somewhere. I am looking forward to all the stares I will get on the train from having a child of obvious "school age". The looks I got in the supermarket on Friday were amusing, some of them were dying to ask why he wasn't in school seeing as he clearly wasn't ill!

He had a lovely birthday weekend, and thanks to everyone for their good wishes. We did lots of creative stuff as well, so I will update later with pics too.

I need to finish all those millions of consent and donor forms before I go too, yikes. Not looking forward to getting wet either - its set to rain everywhere today including rain according to the Met Office.

Right, I'm off to get dressed and sorted out. I'm a bit excited now because I am hoping they will say that my ovaries are down regged and I can start stimming injections today. Is it a bit strange to look forward to having a great big 15cm long phalic shaped probe shoved in your nether regions? I think I answered that myself. Think of me lying there legs akimbo with no dignity at all (again)

Quiet day

My very first down reg headache hit me at about midnight last night and was still there this morning when I woke up. It really felt like my head was going to explode, I have never had a headache like it except when I had a minor brain bleed a couple of years ago. I threw 2 ibruprofen down my throat and collapsed on the sofa, until it finally lifted around 11am. I am so lucky that Charlie has been more than capable of getting his own breakfast for the last 3 years!

He made me a cup of tea too and bought me a banana. At the moment, when he is awake for my sniffs, he rubs my back, it's so sweet!

I did some work whilst Charlie played in his room with his playmobil. His playroom is so under used! After lunch, I made the chocolate biscuit crunch for his birthday tomorrow and Charlie played with more playmobil and sorted out yet more unplayed with toys for the charity shops.

This evening, he has been emptying the bins, tidying his room, putting his clean washing away and he started his new book, which we bought at the Baths last Saturday. He absolutely loves this and has been laughing all evening.

About ten minutes ago, another down reg headache hit me, so I'm off to take more tablets. Can't go to bed yet as I got behind on my afternoon sniff, and the next one can't now be done until midnight!


I can't believe that this time 7 years ago I had been induced and my waters had just broken. My baby will be 7 tomorrow - how is that possible?

All systems a-go

AF arrived today so I rang the clinic to book my initial scan, which is on Monday and they gave me the following rough timetable (so exciting)

Scan on Monday - if ovaries are down regged then I get the pleasure of starting injections ( way earlier than I had anticipated)
24th Jan- Scan
26th Jan - Scan - if I have responded nicely to the stimms then:
28th Jan - EGG COLLECTION (yeehaaa)
31st Jan - EMBRYO TRANSFER

The nurse gently reminded me that depending on how things go for both me and the recipient this could all go out of the window, but still I am very excited now, its great to have an rough idea!

Just an ordinary day here

Yeuck, whatever Charlie had last night, I managed to catch but was pretty much recovered by lunch time and Charlie has been fine all day.

Went back to sleep after my 7.15 sniff and we didn't get up until 10am, I was exhausted.

After breakfast, Charlie played on one of his new cd-roms, Jump Ahead Year 2. He played the mixed subject one that covers all the curriculum. I have to say I find these cd-roms very frustrating, on 2 different games it was completely unclear about how to "do" it if that makes sense. Basically you had to make the goldfish eat the bubbles containing the correct answer to the maths problem. Ok fine. But it doesn't tell you how to get the goldfish to do it. So there I was manically using the arrow keys and trying with the mouse and all sorts. After ten minutes of frustration for both of us, by accident I click on the jar of worms and figured out you had to place the worm on the bubbles. Why oh why didn't the narration say so?? It was one of the reasons I sold the Year 1 cd-roms last year, because we just couldn't work out how to play half the games.

Anyway, once he got going he really enjoyed it and played 6 different games.The thing I really like was how each game was repeated with slight changes about 6/8 times so he really got to practice each skill. We stopped for lunch and then he went outside to play in the garden and do some weeding for me apparently. Two of the horses in the field came and put their heads over our low wall and Charlie fed them some grass and stroked them. We both love this interaction with these horses. There are about 10 in all, and a couple in particular are very affectionate.

Charlie has read some more of The Scarecrow and His Servant and also read a poem he liked,to me from the book I bought the other day.

I managed quite an amount of work myself today, and am left with only one file. A fairly big one, and not very pleasant. A father that murdered his 6 week old daughter in 1999, served only 3 years sentence, now wants contact to the two older children. Reading the injuries that little baby suffered in her short life, has really upset me tonight.

Splish splash

Another joyous wake up call and early morning sniff is done. Last night's sniff was horrendous and made me sick and then dry heaves for 10 minutes or so. Good thing Charlie was fast asleep.

Today has been a horribly bitty day which I hate. First of all G's mum came to collect G's stuff on her way back from school, and said she couldn't come in because of her car battery. Hmmm.....?!

Then it was off to the parents/bosses house to collect work, and we went in for a bit as I was summoned to the offices. I have been ordered to be at their house tomorrow morning at 8.30 to spend the day so that mother can join father at the head office, as they have an extremely important court hearing to prepare for, and they have decorators in doing their kitchen at the moment. Bah humbug, I hate their house. Its big and rambling, and far too many antiques and priceless stuff hanging around, and it always makes me nervous that Charlie will break something, or damage something. Or he will lock himself in the cellar or something. It's so big that when you are upstairs in the office say, you can't hear someone downstairs. So I have to be on my toes and can't relax.

Anyway, got back home and started sorting out the @Bristol trip and updating the database of numbers and ages I started last night.

Charlie wrote some more in his diary about Bath, and then I read him a couple of poems and asked him to draw a picture of what one of them bought to mind. I asked him to really concentrate this time, and tried to explain that one of the reasons he gets so frustrated with his drawings is that he rushes them and tries to put too much detail in and then scribbles when colours. He really concentrated hard, and apart from thinking his person was rubbish, he was clearly pleased with the result which makes a change from the usual tantrums. He is actually a really good drawer, or was, since the start of last term, his drawing skill drastically reduced, which I think is quite telling. Its important to him I think, to try to build up his confidence again, hence the Draw Write Now purchase.

Off we went to swimming lessons. Does anyone else think the way they are run is ridiculous. It really struck me today that 4 teachers yelling to 4 groups of children to make themselves heard, whilst the children are in the pool, and the teachers out, is hardly an effective way of communicating. I really noticed that he hasn't come along much in a year, in terms of stroke development and I am convinced the method of teaching is to blame. Half the children were talking to each other because the teacher hadn't attracted their attention.

I think I may let this 5 week course run as I've paid for it, and then pay for private lessons.

After getting back from the pool, Charlie became struck with a mystery illness, necessitating 5 trips to the bathroom in an hour. Hmmmm, he was very pale and cold afterwards so we snuggled up together on the sofa with the blanket.

By about 8.30 he had recovered a bit, and read his rocks and minerals book. He then demanded to be allowed to watch Child of our Time. He is really addicted to that programe!