What we've been up to

Well last weekend we had an American student guest through the HOST programme, and as it wasW the weekend after Thanksgiving we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday evening for him. We had turkey, veg and potatoes, but our English palates drew the line at pumpkin pie!! Our student guest was a lovely young man and Little Prince introduced him to the joys of Mario Kart on the Wii, and Little Prince was thrilled that he soundly beat the student on all the races!! We also introduced Student to our annual trash TV addiction - I'm a Celebrity, which he was seemed quite impressed with even though he hadn't a clue who anyone (except George Takei) was!! I think he prefered X Factor though.

On Sunday after English breakfast, Mr Messy took Student for a walk round the village, accompanied by Drama Teen and Little Prince. It was quite a cold day, so I was glad my injured toes gave me an excuse to escape that walk lol. When they got back Mr Messy and Drama Teen went to do a photoshoot of a couple and their young daughter, which left me and Little Prince to take Student to the station. However, Mr Messy and Drama Teen arrived back in time to take him, saving me from having to drive all the way to the station with my sore toes :-)

Mr Messy worked from home on Monday so that we could attend Little Prince's IEP review meeting straight after school. During the morning me and Mr Messy went to the Dry Cleaners to pick up the wedding dress Baby Sis will be wearing at her fake (photoshoot) wedding this weekend. At the IEP meeting the SENCO explained she was very pleased with Little Prince's progress in meeting his IEP targets and he has met all but one of them and one other that he is very very close to meeting. Between us we set him some new targets and discussed being firmer in insisting he uses the classroom aids (specially shaped pencils and writing slope) the OT suggested to assist him to improve his writing skills. Little Prince has been saying he doesn't want to use either the pencils or the writing slope (I think he doesn't want to be so visibly different than his friends) but we have now decided between us that his teacher is going to have to insist that he uses them. I have tried to explain to him that because of his dyspraxia he needs these things to help him and pointed out that he is a lot better at sport than many of his friends, and that they too have individual talents and none of them are good at everything. Hopefully this will help him use the classroom aids without feeling too upset and also preserve his self confidence and self esteem. After the meeting Mr Messy took Little Prince home and I met up with my friends for an evening of shopping :-) They were very kind and didn't make fun of me wearing Crocs and they walked very slowly so that I could keep up :-) Once the shops had shut we all went for a meal at a nearby pub and spent a lovely evening gossiping and chatting :-)

Tuesday night Little Prince spent most of the night awake and crying with earache, he finally got some rest when I brought him into our bed. We paid a visit to the Doctor on Wednesday morning, where he confirmed that Little Prince had a slight ear infection and very congested ears. He prescribed antibiotics and painkilling medicine and sent us on our way. I followed the Doctors advice to alternative Calpol and Ibuprofen and Little Prince was much more comfortable and even managed to fall asleep in the afternoon, which did him the world of good :-) As did having a full night's uninterupted sleep last night, and I'm not complaining about that either!! And spending the day quietly at home was great for me too, as all that shopping with my friends wasn't the greatest idea when my toe isn't fully healed, and I'm paying for it now!!

Today we paid another visit to the Doctor as during the night Little Prince's left ear started bleeding and when he got up this morning there was dried blood all round his ear canal! That totally freaked me out, in my almost 20 years as a Mum that has never happened before to any of my kids!! The Doctor reassured me over the phone and asked me to bring Little Prince in to the surgery to be checked over just to make sure everything was ok with him. She said that the pressure in Little Prince's ear had caused his ear drum to pop and that is what caused the bleeding, and not to worry as it is nature's way of relieving pressure in infected ears. His ears should fully recover in about a month, but if he has any residual hearing problems after that to go back to the surgery and get it checked out. She also said that he shouldn't swim for at least the next two weeks, and to get his ears checked before he does return to his swimming lessons. I think today is the last lesson of this term's swimming lessons, so it isn't such a big deal and Little Prince should be fully recovered by the time lessons start again after Christmas.

Little Prince isn't in as much pain now the pressure in his ear has been relieved, which is fantastic, but he still needs regular doses of painkillers to be comfortable. And he has spent most of the day cuddled up with me on the sofa either watching TV or playing on the Wii, and even though he has done so little he is very tired, which goes to show he is a poorly little lad.