Happy 5th Birthday To My Blog!

It's my Blog's 5th birthday today!

I have written, rambled, complained, laughed, and shared a fair bit over that time.

Thank you for reading it, and emailing me your comments and similar stories.

Shoe Shopping

It's official, J is now taller than me. Albeit by only a few centimetres, but still, my Boy is taller than me - I'm tall myself, so he's going to surpass 6ft over the next year I reckon.

As his feet are now pushing into an adult size 12 (UK), I am trying to source online shoe shops that cater for large feet in both length and width, and that have velcro fastening, not laces - and not extortionate prices either! He has flat feet, a trait I and his father have passed onto him, and this makes shoe shopping a real stress.

There was a time I would brave the shops and take him to be measured, but he was always frightened of the person wielding the foot measurer, and as he didn't know if it was going to hurt, he was scared.

He would shake his foot away from them, or just as they were moving the slider down towards his toes, he would take his foot out.
This happened several times in a well known, popular shoe shop in the UK, which when he was very young, was very good, but as he got older, and his disability became more pronounced (noises, flapping etc),  (as well as the looks and stares from the public), I found the staff were not able to understand him, and even if I pre-empted them about him, and that he doesn't want chit chat, or stalling/faffing about, they still just didn't really bother. I am sure a lot has changed these days, as awareness of autism and learning difficulties has increased massively, and that staff are made aware (and possibly even trained / or have personal experience), but it's not a shop I would take him back to.
This is especially so, after an incident with one staff member, when on a visit to measure and fit my second son's feet for his first shoes, this staff member was rude directly at J, pointed at him, called him thick, and then told me I was making it all up that he had special needs and that it was down to me being a bad mum. Why did she do this? Because J happened to step onto the automatic foot measuring machine that is for teenagers/adults to be measured on, standing up, and she told him to get off. I immediately removed him from this free standing, accessible machine, and explained why he didn't understand, and her response was what I have written above. I made a formal complaint of course!

I then resorted to buying my own foot measurer, similar to this one, but not so intricate,  

and attempted to coax him into allowing me to take his measurement, but he hid it from me - an indicator that he did not want his feet measured by me either!

I would then measure his wet foot imprint on the bathroom floor several times, straight after he had stepped out of the bath. This used to be quite handy, and quite accurate, especially because of the severity of his flat feet. 

Nowadays I am able to take him shoe shopping (to one shop only, called Brantanos ),  and he is able to choose the style he wants, and try them on without an assistant standing by with her feet measuring device, trying to make him sit down.

Now when we go shoe shopping he knows the style he likes, and will often buy the exact same shoe as the one he's already got - next size up obviously. But as he's now almost outgrown their maximum size ( they do go up a little higher, but the choice is very limited), I do have to start looking elsewhere.

The only problem we still have is that he refuses to wear his shoes properly. He folds the back down and wears them like a slipper. The school and I are both working on correcting this, and I have been told he does wear them correctly once at school. It is at home, when we go out, that he refuses. 

When the weather gets warmer it gets easier, as I give him a 'two strap' pair of sandals to wear, similar to these below......

Sandals like these are very useful, as they provide support for his large, flat feet, and allow his toes and heels to breath. 

He does like Crocs sandals too, as they are wider, and allow his feet to breath, but they are very

subjective to each person, and I personally don't really like them (unless in a job setting such as a hospital or on children). But that's just my opinion!

I am hoping his feet slow down in growth and that he stays around a size 12, just so that it makes shoe shopping easier, and less expensive!

A Busy Few Days Drawing

J has been using his magnetic drawer a lot over the last few days. These are several photos I've managed to capture, before he pulls the lever down and erases them.

These are (left to right), a red flower and a blue boat, according to what J told me when I asked. Although no colour can be created with these magnetic drawers, J knows exactly what he wants to draw.

These are characters from a children's BBC programme, from a few years ago, called 'The Tweenies'. From left to right he has drawn (and pointed to name them ), Bella, Jake, Fizz, and Milo.

As you can see from this stock image of The Tweenies (who are not standing in the same order as J has drawn above), J has captured their hair quite well.
Bella has the bows in her hair. Jake has the mohican hair style. Fizz has her hair long, without bows. Milo has short, spiky hair.

These are six rectangles. Random, but he drew it!