Barney grumbles

My boy Barney lost his first tooth this week. At school! It had been wobbly for some time. He was fortunate enough to receive £1.50 from the tooth fairy, which he was delighted with. He insisted that he didn't sleep a wink all night, watching out for the fairy, but he didn't see her. Bless. Here is a photo of his new grin. It's been a Barney filled week. He's been needing a lot of attention, and Marty and I have spent a lot of time talking about him. I talked to the doctor about him this week and am going to see his teacher tomorrow. Barney has always been a big character, full of personality and energy. He is a little star and I wouldn't change him for the world. But the time has come to see if we can learn ways to better help him deal with everyday life. He's a complex little character, and needs an awful lot of one on one attention. The doctor wants me to take him to a child centre and have him assessed for Aspergers or other similar things. I think it would be good to find out why he thinks so differently to everyone else and why he struggles with some everyday situations.

This week Barney and I made some cress egg heads. Or should that be egg cress heads? He decorated some empty egg shells and we put some cotton wool and cress seeds into them. He can't wait to see them with their green hair. Here are some 'before' photos. We will post a photo of them when they are grown too.














This evening I spent the early evening playing with Barney. He loves to play this cafe game under the duvet on my big bed. We go under the duvet and suddenly he is the cafe owner and I order make believe food for him. Barney finds it hard to play as he expects people to follow his rules and do as they are told. Playing with someone who doesn't understand this generally results in tears and a lot of frustration on his part. But today when we played cafes I tried to change things a little. Instead of ordering normal food I pretended to be a monster looking for a monster cafe and tried to order some very strange concoctions such as brain moose, bug salad, worm bolognaise. At first he was a bit taken aback and worried about this change in play. But after a few attempts he started to really enjoy himself and we both had such a laugh together. The funniest moment was when he asked if I'd like to order some 'poo pipes' and then collapsed on the bed in a fit of laughter. It was such fun.