Back from Holidays!

Back from a fab holiday in Portugal (specifically here, would highly recommend it). Ava was good as gold on the plane on the way to Portugal and slept most of the way back too!

Airports were semi-interesting as it was so busy both ways and you do get the odd funny look from people but sure what can you do? Certainly doesn't bother me or Duffo (super Mom) one little bit.



Ava at the Villa pool with her Dad in her swimming outfit shortly before being put in the coldy pool and freaking out :)

On reflection this was not such a good idea as the water was that bit too cold and man did she freak out! This also led to the odd freak out during her nightly bath as she developed a temporary aversion to water although thankfully this soon went away!




Ava hanging out with Duffo. She got non stop attention all week and loved every minute of it. We saw a huge change in her over the holidays as she is getting really grown up and animated.

Miss her now I am back to work and don't see her every day. Duffo sends me super MMS snaps of her anyway so I see whats going on.



This was more like it, Ava *loved* the indoor (heated) pool. She pushed a ball round the pool and chased a small plastic boat! This was her first swim ever and we all really enjoyed it

Overall the holiday was really great, we needed it badly and it was great to get away! Back to reality now and already getting a poxy cold :(

Almost Holiday Time!

Here is the actual passport for Ava, this may well be the cutest passport in Irish history (well I would say that)

Where There's a Will

Last night I attended a talk organised by Carmona Services at St John of Gods Glenageary. This talk specifically concerned the importance of making a will *especially* when you have a child with special needs.

The presentation was given by a solicitor John Costello who is also involved in St Michaels House and has a brother who is autistic and in full time care.

I must say I found the talk highly beneficial and this post is *my* interpretation of the information provided from my personal perspective.

Should this post already be too long here is the main point(s):-

Make a Will, not next week, contact your / a solicitor today!

• Special needs or not make a will immediately. Contact a solicitor and do it now ! Get it? If you don't and you die bad things can happen (seriously some of his examples were frightening)
  
• Appoint trustees. A trustee is an administrator of finances
• Appoint guardians. A guardian is concerned with welfare of the child.
• Consider putting in place a Discretionary Trust. The speaker said that this is vitally important however I am doing this de facto through my trustees
• Consider a letter of wishes which outlines specific requirements.

Now I will take questions, yes you down the back?

First Day at School

Ava started school today in Kildarton Glenageary! I was tied up with work all day so the Duffo took her. I am going to go up next Monday which I am very excited about. This is the rather stylish outfit she wore.

Duffo and Ava learned loads more signs including "love", "grandma", "teddy bear" and "friend".

Also got an invite to a talk on making a will tonight which I will write up tomorrow.

Maisie-Mail

Got a nice email from our fab friend (one of many) Maisie this morning. You may remember Maisie from such blog posts as "Auntie Maisie and the Fancy Shoes ? Anyway here it is, a lovely email from a lovely lady:-

"hey - just wanted to tell you i just looked at all the stuff in the blog - WOW so emotional and honest and fab and i just feel we have been such a big part of her life too since the moment in the eagle house when you told me i was going to become an auntie right up to now and forever hopefully - every step of the way that you describe is so clear to me (well the parts i was in obv) and how amazing is it now to read (and laugh) about the jazz hands singing and dancing and related to each other stuff - all the things that seemed so insensitive at the time and now you realise they are all part of ava's story and it proves that it's far from tears and bad things around that child it's about laughter and joy and fun and smiles - (no jazz hands) so i'm very proud to know her and be part of her life - and as for you two - you are both just fab parents and even though she can't indicate it to you yet - ava knows that too..............xx"

Ava Is Goin on her Holidays

Yup Ava is going to Portugal end of the Month for her first Holiday.

Here is her passport photo which we stuck on the fridge and it makes us laugh daily :)

People dropping by...in several ways

So I installed Google Analytics (the big nerd that I am) when I started this blog and have just checked my stats and people are actually visiting here in decent numbers, yay!

This has inspired me to do some serious updates this weekend and also update my links and blogroll so I can send on traffic and people as other people are sending me traffic.

In other news:-

• Duffo has quit her big glam job to stay home and look after Ava.
• Duffo has gone to meet the other Mum's from the Down Syndrome Ireland forums. She brought her legendary chocolate cake. I am secretly hoping she returns with some for poor old Dad.
  

Kildarton, Signs and a bit of the ol' Reachin'

So Ava finally starts "early services" in Kildarton House in Glenageary next Monday. Myself, Ava and Duffo are super (duper) lucky to live not a quarter mile from Kildarton! We are also only a mile from Carmona St John of Gods so every day we see people with Down Syndrome (of all ages) coming and going. We also have a superb social worker, physios and everyone at Kildarton is really cool.

Kildarton is superb, it even has a beautiful garden designed by Diarmuid Gavin. We did a quick visit there a while back and it was very emotional to see all these gorgeous kids sitting in a circle singing thinking Ava will be one of them soon. They had an open day and we got to hang out with other parents and being Dublin we recognised some of them.

Also today we got our first 'signs' to do with Ava. They are:-

• Dad
• Mum
• Thank You
• Hi

Finally we are trying to get madam to roll over and are getting her to reach for rattles and stuff. She is doing well but prefers to keep pulling up her jumper :)