First visit

Tonight we met our Social Worker. She is thankfully, very, very nice, and I warmed to her straight away. She has 2 older sons, recognises DS is bright and challenging, and ate 2 of the cookies I made (Hey! First impressions, right?!).

Unfortunately she can only do fortnightly meetings, but she's incredibly flexible about timings, and has even offered weekends if needed (though we don't want to have to do that, and want to make this an equal compromise).

She reckons we'll need 7-8 sessions before panel, says we'll need to do homework, and has already booked in the next 2 sessions.

I think I'm going to really enjoy this, especially cos the challenging circumstances from my past are now out of the equation. I hope so, anyway! Fingers crossed :D

Day out

Today we went to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, with Rory, Martin & Tanya (and obviously Lani and Fredde). You guys seemed to have the best time, and loved seeing the animals. You spent a lot of time looking for farm animals, before realising there were actually Lions and Tigers there (even though they were asleep and didn't want to move!).

You spent a lot of time on the climbing frame, and Daddy and I were very grateful that it was a lovely warm sunny day!

There was a squirrel monkey enclosure, and you stood right next to them and fed them a leaf. They also tried to steal Daddy's sunglasses off his face!

We saw tigers and lions, a leopard, monkeys, goats, guinea fowl, zebra's, capybara, squirrel monkeys, meerkats, bison, zebu & wallabies. You got absolutely filthy with the others, and fell asleep on the way home.

Daddy & I had stayed up to see the Olympic ceremony the night before, so we were very tired. I got around by drinking a lot of coffee and Daddy got around on willpower alone! ;)

We got home in time to watch the GP qualifying in Hungary. Hamilton has pole :D

Music

Today the weather finally broke, and was lovely. Daddy came home at lunchtime (as he'd been away in Sheffield on a work's night out). We sat in the garden on the trampoline, with our drinks.

You decided we should go on a picnic soon. You want a sandwich, an apple and a banana. You then wanted to talk about music, and told us you like blues.

You currently love the Maroon 5 album 'Overexposed', with One More Night, Payphone and Lucky Strike, being your favourite tracks, that you sing every time you hear them. My mobile ringtone  is 'Move like Jagger' as it's the first Maroon 5 song you fell in love with. 'Stereo Hearts' by Gym Class Heroes (feat. Adam Levine), always reminds us of Josh, as we heard it in HMV the day you rode a car in there and pulled CDs off the shelf.

You love singing the chorus to 'Ill Manors' by Plan B, and today you were wandering around the house singing 'Shake it Out' by Florence and the Machine.

Daddy has given you his blue ukelele, and you like to pick it up and sing, dance and pretend to play 'Oh Sugar' (aka 'Love is Blind') by Annie Lennox. You sing along so beautifully.

You have an opinion on everything, you like to share with your friends, you're a whizz on your scooter, and you love talking. You're also incredibly good at it.

This week

DS1, you've turned 3 - I can't believe how the time has flown. I also can't believe I'm still not updating this more regularly, but time keeps getting away  from me.

Your birthday was brilliant. You wanted Spiderman everything, and that's what you got! I made you a Spiderman cake, which you loved, and you got many many Hexbugs from your Uncles and Aunties (Uncle Dave,  Uncle Mark & Aunty Shona, and Aunty Helen). You wanted a skateboard from us, and we also got you a bigger scooter (you call it your posh scooter - it's a No Fear orange trick one). Uncle Toby bought you Alex the Aardvark, who you adore, and created a blog for you, which you followed avidly until Alex arrived! Uncle Toby loves you very much :)

Here we go again...

After a fairly horrific experience (which I'm sure I'll write up once everything is done), we had a home visit with an agency. What a lovely experience.

It's fair to say that Justina was lovely from start to finish. She listened, laughed, fit right in, and DS adored her. How nice to have a worker actually involve our son in what could be a life changing experience for us all. Unfortunately she doesn't do assessments, but still. It was lovely to meet her.

We have to wait for her Manager to sign off on it, but I'm hopeful we will proceed to the next stage and our application will be approved.

I am excited. I'm trying not to be, and I'm sad it's not shared, of course, but different people react and work in different ways, and it's still a process after all.

Only time will tell.

Cinema

So far the films we've seen in the Cinema are:

• Beauty & the Beast 3D
• Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists
• Mirror Mirror
• A Monster in Paris
• Happy Feet 2
• Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
• Puss in Boots
• Cars2

Little boy 'school'

I guess the day had to arrive sometime. Yesterday we went to look at nurseries/school, as I'm going back to work. Mummy works in a school so you want your own school.

You loved the first one, and whilst it was nice, it was small and cramped and not what I had envisioned, though I didn't know why. I didn't have many options. I have to leave the house at 7am, and there are no options locally for me to drop you off at that time. We decided you'd have to be near my work. options seemed limited.

As I was driving home I suddenly had a thought. I stopped the car, checked my email, and turned the car around.

We just turned up on the fly at another nursery I had contacted. The second I drove in I knew. There was space, there was greenery and it was clean. There was a good security system and we had to wait to be buzzed into the building.

The rooms were large, the staff were friendly and the children looked happy. You settled i straight away and were immediately welcomed and invited by staff.

We stayed an hour or so whilst I talked to staff and you familiarised yourself with the amenities and children. OfSTED are always helpful in the way they're constantly changing the goalposts, but I know what I want for you, and that's not necessarily what OfSTED dictate.

I also found out you have one year before you start school. I can't quite get my head around that, but apparently it's because there's only one intake a year now. You will be the youngest in your class, just like I always was.

I have signed you up to a 'school' that believes in routine and reading and play and making. You need challenging and structure and you need a vast amount of open space.

I hope I have made the right decision for you, but I truly believe this is the best place for you and will give you the best start for school in a year.

My baby boy, where on earth has the time gone?! You are 2years and 10months today xx