It has been a tough week. In a lot of ways, I am pleased we have the girls as dealing with their everyday needs keeps you busy and keeps your mind occupied. One of the most difficult things to deal with is the Police boards up asking for info about the accident right where it happened. We have to drive past them everyday. It’s not pleasant. I know they need help to piece together the chain of events, but personally, I can’t wait until that particular reminder is gone. In addition, I used to look out for Div and his dog walking through the village whenever I drove though. That’s something I haven’t actually stopped doing yet either. We now know that he didn’t suffer and the end was very quick which is something of a comfort. The funeral is in about 10 days. We aren’t looking forward to it.

After dealing with this all week, I had a meeting at Tabitha’s mainstream Pre-school on Friday. I went hoping that they would be pleased with her and her progress and the way she has settled in, and that they would agree that in light of all that, she could attend one extra session. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’m not going to detail it here, but I have a record of everything they said, and I can not believe how negative they were about having her in the Pre-school. She is most definately seen as little more than an inconvienience they are forced to tolerate. I am so angry about the way I was spoken to and some of the things that were said to me were totally out of order. My gut is saying just take her out of there immediately and put in a complaint against them, but my head says let them carry on for one more month to allow them to make more mistakes and therefore allow us more ammunition for the complaint. And so begins the fight to get our daughter accepted into a mainstream setting.

I am very sad to post here that on Monday evening our very dear friend Dave Howe died as a result of a motorbike accident. After a long period of being unwell, he had just begun to get himself back on his feet. Although we didn’t see him regularly, we will miss him terribly. He was very kind-hearted, and very giving and he loved his motorbike and his dog more than anything else. I will always remember him buying a soft toy for Ellie’s first christmas, because he said he didn’t want to get her anything hard that she could hurt herself on.

We will always miss you Div. Take care.

OK, so Tabitha isn’t walking on her own without support, but she is walking with a baby walker everywhere. She is also very attached to me, so where ever I am at the minute, she is either with me or making her way to me. It can get a bit much sometimes believe me.

In other news, I have been so pleased with how she has been going at mainstream Pre-school that I have asked if it’s possible for her to go for one more session a week. They haven’t said yes or no yet, but they have called me in for a meeting on Friday. I am kind of prepared for them to say she can’t get another session, in which case I may well need to argue. This could be the beginning of a number of battles with the education system.

Ellie is continuing to do well at school. I can’t get over how well she is learning to read. Progress is being made all over the place .

Ellie goes to school every morning with her packed lunch. It’s her choice, plus we eat a cooked meal together in the evening so there is no need for her to have a hot dinner at school. I make her luch as healthy as I can for her, no sweets, no crisps and plenty of fruit which she loves. We went shopping today. I said to her “Shall I get some plums for your lunch box this week? You’ve eaten all the ones I gave you this week just gone. Do you like them?”. To which she replied “No. I don’t like them, I’ve been throwing them in the bin”. I suppose she was honest if nothing else.