Purple & Blue for Me & You

Interesting title yes?! But what does it all mean? Well in the space of just a week I have supported two causes very close to my heart...

Firstly March 26th this year was 'World Epilepsy Awareness Day' for which Purple is the supporting colour (my fav colour) as you may know I suffer with epilepsy & have done since I was young, although it wasn't diagnosed until the year 2000 & formally diagnosed only last year 2012 - I'm now currently on medication which controls it somewhat. I wore a bright purple top all day, along with a purple bra!

Secondly, today April 2nd is 'World Autism Awareness Day' for which we must 'Light it up Blue' myself & my son (who is High-Functioning Autistic) both wore blue in support & I'm about to have a nice relaxing bath with a blue glo-stick for ambience too! But although it's officially 'World Autism Awareness Day' the whole month of April is devoted to Autism Awareness too, which is just great.

Not nearly enough information or awareness about these conditions is known to all so spreading awareness & information is high on my agenda with both myself & my son having a condition each...

I post a lot on both subjects on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest (I have 2 specific boards) which most find useful, although a few people have in the past not favoured the awareness/support/information I share. But why should these conditions be overlooked or frowned upon like they're a taboo subject?

There are an awful lot of people & families affected by these incurable conditions, that can often disable sufferers in daily living - simple tasks for neuro-typical people can be quite difficult to others whose brains are wired differently or that malfunction regularly.

For example; my short-term memory is dreadful & my brain backfires regularly so I don't always remember details like names, numbers & suchlike - only today I couldn't do my online banking as even though I've done this for years today I couldn't get my online bank ID in the correct order - I had to phone up & look like an incompetent fool as I had just 2 digits round the wrong way!!! I sign in weekly too, but my brain wasn't playing this morning.

So you see, sometimes things are much slower for people like me or my son as our brains take longer to process things - it can be quite awkward at times & frustrating too.

Now before I write a novel instead of a short blog, I'm off to have my relaxing soak by the light of a blue hue courtesy of a glo-stick!!!

Why Does It All Go Wrong???

Look at those gorgeous blue eyes & that wonderful smile... Makes everything else seem trivial doesn't it???

Well, this week I am very sad, the first reason being that one of my very best friends Laura moved back to Canada... I am very pleased for her to be going back home, but am sad that I won't be seeing her every week for Latte at Costa coffee anymore.

We will have known each other 2 yrs this September & it was fate that brought us together via a course we were both doing - we just clicked from the moment we met & have been great friends ever since! I shall miss her dearly.

The 2nd reason I am sad this week is because of my lil lady's weight gain, when she was last weighed on April 25th, they had marked down in her book that she was 11lb 15oz instead of 10lb 15oz - now this in itself is not too trivial as the chart is done in kg, so her weight was plotted right on the growth chart.

Well, I had her weighed this week on May 23rd & she was just 11lb 12oz, this is obviously still a good weight but the reason I am sad is because she started off on the 91st centile when she was born & dropped down only 1 centile to just under the 75th centile which she was following quite nicely...

She is now almost down to the 25th centile, which is concerning me a lot as that's almost another 2 centile's she has dropped in just a month. Now the other 2 children when they were babies never dropped too far from the centile they were born on - Cameron started off on the 98th centile & dropped down to the 75th but then he went back up to the 91st centile & pretty much stayed around those 2 centiles... Hermione started on the 91st centile & dropped down to the 75th centile & is still following that perfectly, so you can see why I am just a bit concerned by this.

All of the children have been exclusively breast fed & I am hoping that I don't have to stop early with Anneliese, but I am concerned that my milk supply is not doing enough for her or maybe it's to do with her floppy larynx (Laryngomalacia) as she is quite a sickly baby which the other 2 weren't, I am sure that's caused by this condition!

On a brighter note, all the children have had Chicken Pox now... Hermione was the first to get it on Monday 30th April, she was quite grumpy the first few days but wasn't too spotty & seemed to get over it quite quickly... Cameron soon followed getting it on Wednesday 16th May & bless him he had it by far the worst - he was covered from top to toe & had it everywhere including his mucous membranes (eyes, mouth, throat), he's still scabby now but they're all dropping off! Anneliese bless her had the mildest case ever - 1 solitary spot on her head!!! So needless to say she didn't suffer from it at all.

We've just had a week without Duncan as he's been fishing in France all week & came home last night, I took this picture last Sunday of all 3 children so he could see them all week on his phone... Don't they look good together???

Well, that's enough for tonight, off to play Neopets!!!