#emotions #elves #caring #lockdown #digitaltec #autism #anxiety #mentalhealth

A bit of sun, bathing, no fake tan no sunbeds just some sun cream, ice cream maybe a few Malibu’s 😀 Greek music and dancing, a BBQ the works but most of all a great imagination .

Eyes closed you can almost imagine you were actually on a Greek beach I am lucky to have a memory of my time there to go back to,

The kapozee ( watermelon) souvaliki and chips down by the harbour, the amazing meals and dancing in the castle which was also a night club Family all singing and dancing ouzo , The bold and the beautiful playing in the TV with English subtitles the smell of the sea the bright vivid colours, the afternoon naps . Holding hands as we walked.the kids teaching me to sing the coca cola song in Greek. Uncle Theodosia wearing my hat, the long walk up the acropolis to visit the Pathanon, the Greek gaurd that you have your picture taken with not wanting to get to close definatley wouldn’t want to mess with them.😀

I will show you what I mean In Photo’s you have to excuse quality they were taken on some disposable cameras way back in 1992 😀 that’s how long ago I was in my other home Greece.🇬🇷

A few of my favourite moments

That is exactly the feeling I had this weekend , warmth family , love. I am super happy to relive these memories multiple times.

This blog is taking ages because I am still using phone computer is still a work in progress . Sunday was super chilled the tempreture here dropping to cold to go out so relaxed,

I have been reminiscing a lot this week and was looking at some old photos I had taken after my Josh and Niki were born the photo shoots were presents from my hubby .

I really enjoyed the pampering plus how better to feel after you become a mother .

Monday was back to work Hayley is with us this week , she came with her favourite things the kareokee matching and her favourite Boney m CD. I love this about Hayley she is the life and soul of the party.

It has been a week of singing, dancing baking 😁♥️

I made a bit of an misjudgement as I got caught up in the excitement and posted photos before letting Niki see them first the other day, it was a bit of a melt down that occured so had to go back and delete the ones she wasn’t

happy with, sometimes I forget to get the ok first. I just have to try harder to remember that it future.😀 These ones she said we’re ok to post. It is one of the things I find hard because some of the imposed phots I think are the most relaxed an beautiful ones but I respect that it is there choice to.

The other thing was my brother was shopping and the shop was not good at social distancing, and ended up with him being attacked by a group of four people , the police were called he has a black eye and three broken ribs,

I had to go get his car and take it back to his house while he was at the hospital it seems sometimes in this country that people are aloud to attack you and because you defend yourself and your family and hit back they won’t be charged with assault, law is supposed to protect victims, you are supposed to be able to defend yourself especially in a situation four

against one. So this week has definatley had downs as well as many amazing moments .

Today was a pretty special day other then food shopping, Hayley has had a pampered princess day, after much thought and discussion with Mum and dad we decided to let her buy a tablet she may not be able to read and write but with support she can begin to learn to do new things she has been joining in with the kids on Tik Tom and learning new things plus it’s great to help her have something she can keep in touch with family by faceting them while we continue to live in a

socially isolated way , originally we were thinking of a smart phone but because of her eyes sight she needed something a little bigger and easier

for her to use. Plus I want to add some apps for her learning.

She has been so excited all day, I managed to order it online and when I went food shopping I picked it up from store. I put it in a box for her to open and we videoed the moment so Mum and Dad could be part of the magical moment, you know seeing things through others eyes is a truly special thing, you want to make that new experience and way of learning super special for them.

I will add video to my media for some reason it won’t let me add it which is frustrating 😡 why give the option and it not work.

Niki helped set it up think she wanted to be part of this new experience with Hayley, we have her Facebook sorted and all the privacy set up to keep her safe , we have Tik Tok so she can join in with Niki and the other kids in

family messenger so she can video chat with family and her boyfriend.

He did some tonight on it complete 2 in under five minutes , she messaged dad with help telling her way letters to press and she has her YouTube play list of all her favourite songs. I just have to now add a few more apps to help with learning her letters something like grid but for Samsung .we will work more on sentences together.i. Going to make the app icons bigger just so she can see them better and press them. We are just waiting for the protective casing to arrive which is definatley needed as she has trouble with carpel tunnel and sometimes drops things and can’t grip great . So you see we are moving on with her in a new bright exciting way it’s going to take patience and care but she will learn

It is these moments you really appreciate your work and the good you can do, these moments of making someone so happy , and that’s what she actually said I am the happiest I have been at this moment, it has been a hard few weeks being away from the day center and her friends losing her aunt not being able to follow her own routine or go and socialise at the pub with her friends , because the reality is when you have learning disabilities it isn’t easy it’s super hard I mean many adults without any issues are struggling and they understand life and the world and what they need to to do , for Hayley , Niki and Jake it is more unsettling and scary on a very different level, and they have all show such resilience strength and respect for the new rules we have at the moment Niki and Jake have had an impact on there depression but they are talking about Thier emotions and how they feel

INow as things are slowly begining to move towards more movement and there is talk about schools returning soon what can we do to help our kids transition back with the least amount of anxiety, role play school in a social distancing way speak to school about taking a few photos of layout of the rooms so they know how things are going to look, have a list you can send to parents of what is expected of the kids before you even think about opening the doors, it doesn’t hurt to prepare a child in advance to wants expected I have found especially with my kids that there anxiety is lower when they can plan things out in there head in advamce.f a change is going to happen social skills can play a huge role we have used it with school before when Jake moved up to year six his anxiety and school refusal was so high that we got his teacher to send a photo of herself the classroom layout , his teacher also talked about her special interest which was turtles so he did a turtle project that first day anxiety was not there as he was focussed on carrying his project in for the teacher he forgot he was scared.

There are so many thing to concentrate on during the next steps it is achievable. If we all work together .

Any way I will have to stop writing now this phone is really laggy I think it needs a big update doing maybe then my apps will work properly

Much love Faye ❣️❤️😁