Marie's Web Log

Hi. Not sure what to say today. My mind goes blank when I sit down to write - not a good sign. Amelia is back at nursery - did I say that before? She seems quite happy to be back, and remembers the other kids and adults. She had a bad (sleepless) night last Thursday, but we're not sure of the cause.

Last Friday morning I took Amelia to Honeylands, a local NHS centre for children with special needs. She's taking part in an assessment programme there to see if there's any support we can give her in the future, especially when school starts. This came about because we were concerned about some sensory integration issues she seemed to have, though those have improved since the initial referral last year. She still has a stutter though, so she will be assessed by a speech therapist, and they will also test her visition, which I think is a good thing too.

You tend to hear lots of criticsm of the NHS - it's the national health service, but people with money often opt for private care due to long waiting lists, complaints about poor standards, etc. But our experience at Honeylands was excellent. The people were all lovely, and the amount of resources applied to just one child - and not a very severely affected one at that - surprised me. She goes again for the next two Fridays, and there's a nursery nurse (basically a preschool carer) there with her the whole time, plus the other specialists.

Weather has been quite warm still, but the leaves are yellowing and falling. Last Saturday we took Amelia up to Bristol to go out to lunch, and then to an attraction called Wildwalk which I find quite hard to sum up, but involves the history of life on earth and lots of ugly insects. This was in celebration of her adoption day, which was three years ago on Sept. 16. Hard to believe.