Parties, Presents & Progress

Wow, what a couple of weeks!

Ben playing with a toy car

On Sunday, we had the combined birthday party for Michael (4yo) and Rhys & Ben (1yo).  It was a great success and the kids got HEAPS of lovely presents.  I put on a buffet lunch for everyone which included chicken wings & legs, bacon & egg pie, dip and bickies, fruit platter.  Greg's mum made sandwiches and my mum made sausage rolls and savoury pie things.  There was more but I can't remember what else LOL - oh and of course I was so busy I forgot to take a picture of the food!  I did remember to take a picture of the Dinosaur Cake though (see it at the bottom of the page).

Rhys opening some presents with Jemma looking on

Also, the card in the camera indicated it was full - yep, right when we were filming the singing of Happy Birthday & Michael blowing the candles out.  Typical!!! Grrrrr.

Everyone got a yummo gift bag of home made fudge to take home with them :-)

Vanilla & Macadamia and Choc Mint Fudge YUMMO!

The best present of all for me was Michael's behaviour.  I deliberately had a combined party, so if his social anxiety went through the roof then we had Ben and Rhys to focus on as well.  I also didn't have a "kids" party, but only family.

Michael opening his presents

When the first guests arrived, he ran into his room (this is normal behaviour when someone comes over - it is from the anxiety from having Fragile X).  However, Greg went into his room and told him that the guests had brought a Happy Birthday present for him.  Wow - he came out to accept his gift.  That was the point when he "got it" - it was his Happy Birthday and he was getting PRESENTS!!!!!

Action shot!

Not once did he run in his room again.  He accepted his gifts and loved opening them and playing with them. He even went up to people and SHOWED THEM HIS PRESENTS!!  (with no prompting from anyone!!!)

Uncle Richie helping Ben stand and cousin Max surveying all the presents - what great fun!

For him to interact with people of his own accord is so huge it's mind blowing!!!!

All my hard work of taking him to therapy, Lifestart and doing stuff is finally starting to pay off.  

I'm so happy.

The Dinosaur Cake

We have lots of progress on the playroom too.  The actual structure is finished and it looks brilliant.  I will do an individual post about that in a couple of days.........

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