Well its been a long time since I last blogged.
I've done lots of great things with Jackson.
First was Balloon-A-Thon! It was absolutely Amazing. I've never done anything like that before. Organising an event and helping raise money for Charity. I didn't sleep very well the night before ... (Didn't help I had a rubbish cold and cough)
I was so nervous about walking up The Tor as I was unwell as well as organising everything on top of that.
I had nothing to be nervous about as it really was an amazing success! The weather was perfect, Turnout was perfect and it all went smoothly! (Well after my hurdle 2 days before as The National Trust said I couldn't release Balloons on their land!) But in the end it worked out lovely as it looked beautiful with the Balloons in front of The Tor so really they did me a favour!
The best part though.... We raised £1095 for The National Autistic Society!!! Smashed my goal of £500!! I'm so grateful for everyone's donations. You are all amazing.
The whole day was a great success. We had a couple of protesters ... ( I knew we would though as it is Glastonbury)
One guy was shouting about us killing dolphins... Only in Glastonbury!
Packed up the Range and headed off nice and early so we had more time to play on the beach as we thought it would be so busy in the holidays.
Mum, Dad, Jackson, George, Dexter and I arrived in sunny Weymouth for a lovely day out.
As soon as we got there Jackson refused to go in the pushchair.. (Not a good start)
It doesn't sound that bad but when you have 2 dogs (1 being a puppy and is a handful and likes to do a Houdini out of his harness on a regular basis) A child who isn't aware of danger and likes to try and escape your hand grip an leg it towards water or roads. Also now a pushchair to control it is a bit of a task!
We made it to the beach! Relief... Jackson doesn't stay and play where you set up camp ... He runs around trying to stamp on other children's sand castles.. Kicks sand everywhere and also makes a bee line for the donkey trail... So we had to distract him with something..
He loves throwing stones in the sea so we thought we would distract him with that. ( I think my Mum enjoys doing that more than Jackson to be honest!)
We went down to the sea to see if Jackson would paddle and do his usual stone throwing (It wasn't busy so didn't have to worry about him throwing stones and hitting a poor unsuspecting child who is enjoying the freezing waters of Weymouth.
Jackson had other ideas.... Jumping in the sea, Splashing everyone and getting his shoes soaking wet (Which he hates and would get himself in a state because he's wet)
So I thought I would take them off for him so he could paddle and splash. Nope he wasn't keen.... And to other parents I looked like I was torturing my child trying to dip him into the cold water! He was holding onto me ... Clinging for dear life!! (He's been in the sea plenty of times so I don't know what that was all about) My Mum was laughing thinking other parents would be thinking I've never taken my 4 year old to the beach before and now dangling him over the water (It sounds worse than it was!)
But he finally remembered he loves it and had a brill time... I don't know who got more drenched though... Probably me ... Good job I remembered to pack a spare pair of clothes for Jackson! Mum points there as we would of then had the issue of Jackson being wet and hating that.
Jackson refused to go in the pushchair all day and when I managed to put him in it so we could cross a crazy busy road he screamed and screamed and screamed...
Safe to say he won that war as we didn't put him in it again all day!
We went to Bowleaze Cove after lunch and Jackson had us finding letters in the pebbles and rocks. It was great fun. I love watching Jackson and how his mind works. He really is an incredible little boy. His mind constantly thinks of Letters and Numbers. He is so wonderful.
We could only find letters L and I amongst all of the Pebbles. Jackson seemed happy with our finds!
We are coming here for a week in May so it got me really excited and looking forward to our week away. As I'm sure we will spend a lot of time at Bowleaze finding lots of letters as he will definitely remember it.
Daddy Ryan will be there for an extra pair of hands in May which is going to be a lot of help! I just hope the weather holds out for us all!!!
I've noticed over the last few weeks that Jackson has taken a step back in his talking and also his communicating.
He has always had trouble communicating but got to a stage where he would say one word and take you to what he wanted but now he doesn't even say one word. He will just take you to the thing or item of what he wants. My family and I try to encourage him to say what he wants but he will struggle to get the word out and will stutter and struggle.
He babbles a lot recently as well .. I struggle to understand him which has never happened before. I've always understood him.
He also used to repeat a lot of what we said but isn't doing that anymore. He seems to be 'In his own world' a lot more recently.
I am hoping its just a phase as Jackson does go through a lot of different phases and changes but we do want him to get out of this one fast as he was improving.
Its not long until he starts school now. The closer it approaches the more nervous I am getting.
I am keeping a close eye on his change and luckily we have a Speech and Language appointment on 2nd May and also we will be back to our weekly Portage sessions again after the Easter Holidays so I'm hoping that will help Jackson get back to where he was before.
We hear back from the first school admissions this week plus we have a big meeting at Jackson's Nursery on Friday with lots of professionals in Jackson's care all about School entry and about his EHCP (Education, Health & Care Plan)
So its going to be a busy week and also stressful as I really hope everything falls into place for September.
Lots of sleepless nights ahead for me!
Have a wonderful week everyone.
Thank you for reading.
Kelly and Jackson. XxxxX
