Back from England and ready to get cracking

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We had a great trip to England and Elliot seems to have coped pretty well with a change in environment and has only had a few “episodes” We are back from the UK and ready to get back to a routine and get on with our plan for Elliot.  We haven’t heard back from PTS yet so I guess I will need to chase this up.  This really seems the American way, Californians are so laid back.  At times it can be a little frustrating especially when you just want results and answers.

After a break of 3 weeks we head back to TSSV with Elliot.  I am curious to find out how he will react as he hasn’t been for some time.  I spend time to explain to him that we are going to play with our friends Hayden, Derek and Sameer.  He was quite happy to do this especially as we were taking Grandma with us.  As we had been away for 3 weeks Miss Debbie asked us to bring some photographs of our time in England.  We didn’t get chance to print anything off so decided to take the ipad with us.  Elliot really enjoyed showing his friend the photos and continued to have a great session with his friends. He had a little upset at the end of the session when the play didn’t turn out they way he expected.  He soon got over this with some encouragement from Miss Debbie to use his flexible brain see session notes below.

Elliot: Session 5

  • Cheers: so happy to show pictures of his trip – he explained who everyone was and what people were doing He used a big voice and full sentences to explain what was happening.
  • Very engaged with his friends today – popped up out of the box; big smiles! Jumped for the popcorn song; made his box into a racecar – drew wheels and a steering wheel. Referenced his friends (used eye gaze for purpose)
  • Challenge: maintaining group peer play, speaking to peers. Was upset at the end of the session when the boys hid in boxes to surprise their parents. Someone else had hidden in “his” box and he did not want to hide in a different box – but I encouraged him to hide behind it with me. He did cry a little when all the children were popping up so their parents could find them. I think he was upset because he was in a different box, but I commented that I was so proud of him for using his flexible brain and trying a different box. He got over the sadness very quickly.

 

Finally I get hold of PTS and discuss what we do next.  They suggest getting a further diagnosis to satisfy the insurance company so that we can hopefully get some money towards the treatment for Elliot.  The insurance company is not helping and we are told to reference a clinical policy bulletin board that doesn’t appear to cover much.  When I speak to insurance company again they are asking for a CPT code for his condition that requires the therapy.  As we haven’t officially had a diagnosis from a mental health professional it looks like this will be the next step.

Happy Birthday Tyler

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We all hope you have a wonderful 5th birthday big guy.  We are sorry that we can’t share it with you.

Today, Simon took his new IWC back to the shop for the rattle that has begun to occur within it, to be repaired.  The folks in the store were definitely not sure that there is a problem, but have sent it back to be checked all the same. Apparently this is going to take between 6 and 8 weeks 🙁

Vicky has taken one of her diamond rings in to have one of the diamonds reset (it fell out when she dropped it in the UK).  It will take a few days to fix up also 🙁

Tim has been checking out mountain bikes today – just hoping he makes a decision swiftly as the longer it takes, the more likely it is that Simon will feel the need to purchase…..

Back in the bay :-)

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Great couple of weeks with the family in the UK, but we are now back in the bay.

2 mega birthdays – Rebecca’s 16th and Sue’s 21st.

The flight back today was really hard work – Oliver was not happy for over two hours of the journey 🙁 He finally fell asleep in daddy’s arms 40 minutes before we landed, then Elly fell asleep as the landing gear was falling out of the plane….  Ended up with 2 mega grumpy boys to get through a horrifically LOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGG security queue.  Thankully one of the security people spotted us and ushered us to the front of the queue.

So, one pap johns pizza, a couple of beers and we are all heading to bed – it is 21:33.

Simon is hoping to get a good nights sleep as he is up at 05:45 to get into work tomorrow…. Wish him luck….

ForkHall UK is almost ready for uncle Tim to move in

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We got back in the UK yesterday but due to traffic on the motorways we did not get back to Yorkshire until after 8pm.  We stopped by ForkHall to take a look through the windows – all looked good from what we could see (was almost dark).

We spent a large amount of today back in the house, and the deckit man has done a great job and the house actually feels almost brand new inside.  There is still a lot to do however – we have taken much of the kitchen stuff out of the shed and begun to get them cleaned in readiness for uncle Tim.  We have also got much of the garage stuff out and placed in the garage again.

Tim is bringing his bed, gardening gear (we don’t have mowers etc) and we nipped out tonight and bought a new suite for the lounge.  We hope Tim likes it, although are pretty sure he will – the bonus is that it is getting delivered next week, so when he gets back from California, he will have bed, couch, TV and therefore will be good to go.

Elly and Olly have LOVED playing in the garden today – just goes to show that we really need to search for a pad in CA that has a garden – even if we don’t end up buying out there, we really need to move from the current pad in September.

p.s. Elliot did great on the flight back here, and Olly did OK. We tried to upgrade the seats before we got on but no such luck 🙁 Perhaps on the way back to CA….