We've had another busy week and have begun Christmas in earnest. No tree yet, but we have decorated and the girls are getting rather excited. I've bought nearly everything but wrapped only a bit of it so far, so I have some busy evenings ahead!
The highlight of our week was a trip to London last weekend for lots of events, which certainly added to our Christmas spirit! You can read more about Stick Man and Sooty at Winter Wonderland in our other posts, but suffice to say they loved them! Sophia, Tatiana and Steve also saw Zippos Circus at Winter Wonderland, while Lara and I went to check out a new child-friendly dentist that is opening soon.
Lara has been busily watching the temperature plummet, waiting for her first ice excavations, so was delighted to find some on the way to the station. Her next project is determining melting point, and working out what factors contribute to or prevent melting. Great hands-on, real life science.
The train up was a bit busy but Lara coped better with it than before. Some of her ticks and coping mechanisms are changing or even disappearing, while others are coming to the fore. She has started flapping her hands recently, a classic autie tick, which she didn't do before. In some ways she is beginning to understand herself better, but in other ways things have definitely got worse.
Meticulous planning, appraising her of what's happening in advance, and lots and lots of talking about scenarios and events does help, of course, but it can be exhausting. I'm feeling even more overwhelmed by it all at the moment, especially with masses of work to do too, and so not coping at all well unfortunately, but the five of us soldier on. It would certainly be nice to have someone beyond Steve and my mum to talk to once in a while though!
Winter Wonderland was fun, not too busy early in the morning so the girls coped well - and loved the popcorn and candy floss they were handed!
While waiting for the others in Leicester Square, Lara was entertained by a bubble man and ran around frantically popping as many as she could reach!
A busy day rushing about culminated in meeting my dear friend Charlotte for an amble through the crowds on Regent Street. We were elsewhere when the parade was on, but lots of the characters were still there. The girls even wanted to brave the busyness of Hamleys, brave souls!
We wandered up to Oxford Street, admiring the pretty Regent Street lights and the fireworks, before being treated to the girls' hopeful wish list in the Disney Store! (Thank goodness for Black Friday and 25% off I say!) Just look at this face!
Our engineering, rock climbing, archaeologist daughters having a rare princess moment!
Back at my mum's, Lara and Sophia treated us to a Sooty-inspired puppet show, followed by a combined ballet-acrobatic performance. Somehow they were still going strong at nearly 10pm, despite such a busy day. I blame the Pizza Express stop at Baker Street! Happy faces all round though, so I think they enjoyed their day!
The next day was a bit more subdued with a lie-in, lots of crafts including some work as fashion designers.
Back at home, we have decorated for Christmas, started some fun Christmas crafts, been to the woods and the beach a few times, and generally slobbed a little. I think all our busy recent days have caught up with us all a little bit! Blue Planet and Russian history documentaries have dominated our viewing, as well as plenty of Christmas films. You can read about our favourite Christmas films here.
Lara has had an epic LEGO Christmas project on the go all week which she has roped Steve into, while the other two have enjoyed going to the cinema a couple of times as part of the Into Film Festival (free tickets for school kids and home edders). Everyone is desperate to do some baking, so I must put that into the plan for next week, along with another multitude of activities! Ah well, all good fun.
See you next time x
The highlight of our week was a trip to London last weekend for lots of events, which certainly added to our Christmas spirit! You can read more about Stick Man and Sooty at Winter Wonderland in our other posts, but suffice to say they loved them! Sophia, Tatiana and Steve also saw Zippos Circus at Winter Wonderland, while Lara and I went to check out a new child-friendly dentist that is opening soon.
Lara has been busily watching the temperature plummet, waiting for her first ice excavations, so was delighted to find some on the way to the station. Her next project is determining melting point, and working out what factors contribute to or prevent melting. Great hands-on, real life science.
The train up was a bit busy but Lara coped better with it than before. Some of her ticks and coping mechanisms are changing or even disappearing, while others are coming to the fore. She has started flapping her hands recently, a classic autie tick, which she didn't do before. In some ways she is beginning to understand herself better, but in other ways things have definitely got worse.
Meticulous planning, appraising her of what's happening in advance, and lots and lots of talking about scenarios and events does help, of course, but it can be exhausting. I'm feeling even more overwhelmed by it all at the moment, especially with masses of work to do too, and so not coping at all well unfortunately, but the five of us soldier on. It would certainly be nice to have someone beyond Steve and my mum to talk to once in a while though!
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| Sophia loves peering out at all the houses and gardens she passes on the train |
Winter Wonderland was fun, not too busy early in the morning so the girls coped well - and loved the popcorn and candy floss they were handed!
While waiting for the others in Leicester Square, Lara was entertained by a bubble man and ran around frantically popping as many as she could reach!
A busy day rushing about culminated in meeting my dear friend Charlotte for an amble through the crowds on Regent Street. We were elsewhere when the parade was on, but lots of the characters were still there. The girls even wanted to brave the busyness of Hamleys, brave souls!
We wandered up to Oxford Street, admiring the pretty Regent Street lights and the fireworks, before being treated to the girls' hopeful wish list in the Disney Store! (Thank goodness for Black Friday and 25% off I say!) Just look at this face!
Our engineering, rock climbing, archaeologist daughters having a rare princess moment!
Back at my mum's, Lara and Sophia treated us to a Sooty-inspired puppet show, followed by a combined ballet-acrobatic performance. Somehow they were still going strong at nearly 10pm, despite such a busy day. I blame the Pizza Express stop at Baker Street! Happy faces all round though, so I think they enjoyed their day!
The next day was a bit more subdued with a lie-in, lots of crafts including some work as fashion designers.
Back at home, we have decorated for Christmas, started some fun Christmas crafts, been to the woods and the beach a few times, and generally slobbed a little. I think all our busy recent days have caught up with us all a little bit! Blue Planet and Russian history documentaries have dominated our viewing, as well as plenty of Christmas films. You can read about our favourite Christmas films here.
Lara has had an epic LEGO Christmas project on the go all week which she has roped Steve into, while the other two have enjoyed going to the cinema a couple of times as part of the Into Film Festival (free tickets for school kids and home edders). Everyone is desperate to do some baking, so I must put that into the plan for next week, along with another multitude of activities! Ah well, all good fun.
See you next time x