As I wrote earlier, Little Munchkin has learnt to climb out of his crib. So, last weekend we bought him a bed. After a week of sleeping in it, I can say that the move occurred with surprisingly few difficulties. The was one day when he spent about two hours getting out of bed every minute or two. He'd get up and open the door, I pick him up and put him back to bed. Ina minute, he'd get up and open the door, I put his back to bed, and so on. After that night he understood that as long as he does not come out of his room, he can just sit and play with his toys until he decides to go to bed and sleep. Now, if he does not want to go to sleep and just gets up, plays, and then goes to sleep. It is exactly what we wanted. Unfortunately, today he overate and drunk a lot of milk. When he tried to run around, he ended up vomiting. We had to give him and his room a major clean up before he could go back to bed. Anyway, he is sleeping in his own proper little bed now, like a good big boy.

On Saturday, we decided to go to a farm. It is a 'pick your own' farm. The weather was lovely. We picked a lot of strawberries, red currants, carrots, cabbage and beet roots. It is not cheaper than buying it in a supermarket, but at least Big Munchkin would understand that carrots do come from the ground and they do come covered in dirt. She loved it. Though she is harassing me about making a strawberry cake now. I guess, I would have to do it tomorrow. Little Munchkin also had a great time, until he found a big and very muddy puddle. He slipped in the mud and fell backwards into it. Fortunately, I had a spare set of clothes for him. We had to pretty much give him a bath in a sink in a local toilet, as he was incredibly dirty.

On Sunday, we went to see another one of English Heritage properties Audley End House and Gardens. This year we again bought membership with them. This place was lovely. Beautiful palace and gardens. We had a picnic in the garden. Kids had a great time running around the grounds of the palace. Unfortunately, our camera has not recovered fully after the juice incident. The zoom does not work. Most of the other setting are also not working properly. I think our next camera will be something very small and very cheap, e.g. easy to replace.

Out of the unpleasant news, my DH realized that he did not book his vacation time slot at work correctly. Instead of booking three weeks, he only booked two. Unfortunately, his boss has already booked the other week for himself. Unless, my DH will manage to rearrange team vacation schedule, which is very unlikely), we have a dilemma - either I will have to fly with two kids alone a week earlier than my DH, or we all will have to cut our vacation one week shorter. The problem is that changing our tickets is very costly - £150 per ticket. Plus, I really don't want to fly all the way to India for only two weeks (that is providing that we can still find the tickets for new dates). I really don't like the whole situation. We will know better next week what is going on. Though I am very cross at my DH for this mess entirely of his own making.

On Saturday we had a cake at home to celebrate Big Munchkin's Birthday. On Sunday we had a Birthday Party for Big Munchkins. We decided to do it at the soft play centre. It was a bit expensive, but at least I did not have to do anything other than bring the cake. I was very stressed about it: would everyone come, would the food be decent, would Big Munchkin enjoy it. Everything went fine. Tough next year we are not going to do anything like that. We might just go to Disneyland or something. Big Munchkin was very good about inviting her friends. She really invited just her friends. She did not even invite all the girls from her class. There were 12 kids and that is including her and two little brothers. Unfortunately, I spilled the juice from Little Munchkins cup all over the camera. It stopped working, so we have not been able to make any pictures.

This week my DH was in New York. So, I was all alone with the kids. I am very tired, more than usual that is. Even though they were generally OK, I found it difficult to sleep. When my DH is here it is easier since I know that there is a back up. If something goes wrong at least there is someone else. When he is traveling, I find it very stressful that I have to rely only on myself. I can't even have a glass of wine for fear that in case of emergency I have to be able to drive.

I just realized that I did not write about two developments with Little Munchkin. First, he learned to un-dress himself. So, a few minutes of silence and there is a naked boy standing in his crib. He also learned to climb out of his crib. Five minutes of silence and there is a happy boy walking out of his room, and again, and again, and again ...

Moving the chair out of Little Munchkin's room have helped. In the last few days he hasn't been able to climb out of his crib. I don't think it would help for long, but at least I did not have deal with his wandering around in the middle of the night.

Big Munchkin was not too bad either. I re-introduced the reward chart. Combination of stickers, sad and happy faces, trips to the 'think about your behaviuor' chair and mini ice cream bribes improved her behaviour. Today I took Big Munchkin to the doctor (dermatologist) for another check of her strange allergic reactions, We did a bunch of blood tests, though I don't have any hopes on finding anything useful. On the other hand, it is a first time she is getting a comprehensive blood work done. If there are any issues with her health, it should be picked up.

My DH is coming home tomorrow, so I am looking forward to handing over the kids for a night. Last night Little Munchkin got up at 3 am and did not go back to sleep until 10 am. So, I got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Good night everyone.

Last week Little Munchkin had an assessment with private speech therapist. She was not entirely sure whether he is autistic or not. He does have a developmental delay. She thinks that with respect to his understanding and communication he is at a level of typical 18 months old boy right now. She is not sure if the delay is a result of autism or his autistic symptoms are the result of the developmental delay. Overall, she was positive, saying that if he is autistic it has to be very mild. She had few useful recommendations, but overall her advise can be summarised that he need a lot of time and attention. She also recommended to use PECs therapy with him (Picture Exchange). Simplified, the idea is that Little Munchkin can use cards (photographs or pictures) to ask for what he wants, e.g he can point at a picture of grapes glued to a fridge if he wants grapes. It is very simplified explanation.

Today we had a visit from a government speech therapist, who explained more about this method. She is also recommending it. It sounds tacky, but I think it would be hugely useful when we will be teaching Little Munchkin how to build sentences. They are all recommending that I should take a course for parents on this method. The next course is at the end of August. This speech therapist thinks that Little Munchkin is autistic, but that it is very mild. At this point, they really don't know.

Big Munchkin hasn't been too bad last week. This week we are extremely busy. For the whole of this week I only have one two hour unassigned time slot. Next Sunday my DH is flying to New York for most of the next week. So, next week is not looking very good either. With respect to Big Munchkin's Birthday Party, we decided to outsource it to the local soft play centre. She only wants to invite girls, since 'All boys are naughty'. She made an exception for Little Brothers (there are three of them, including Little Munchkin). In total we are going to have 12 or 13 kids. It is not cheap, but at least, all I have to do is to bring the cake. I am looking forward to getting it over with. The whole Birthday Party business is just too stressful and very expensive. I think next year, I am going to nip the bud of the party before it blooms. I might just take Big Munchkin and one or two of her best friends to the Zoo or something.

This week Big Munchkin was sick. Her temperature went up on the night from Wednesday to Thursday. She spend most of the night vomiting. The next day the doctor said that she's got a stomach flu. We had to cancel our playdate and our French class. She spent the whole day in bed watching cartoons on TV.

The next day she seemed better and I took them to the playground in the morning. Little Munchkin had enough of sitting at home the day before. Big Munchkin lasted for less than half an hour and then demanded to go home. Later in the day we went to the center of London to meet a friend. Obviously we could not go to the Museum as Big Munchkin had no strength to walk. She ate nothing for the whole of Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, my DH was left to look after the kids and I went out to the big food market in central London with another friend. We had a great time trying olives, cheese, sausages, and dried fruits. Big Munchkin felt better, so I took her out to see Charlie and Lola play in a theatre. She loved it. My DH took Little Munchkin for a swim and for a run in the park at the same time.

Today we went to the park to meet our Thursday play date. We ended up going to a playground and having a lunch there. The weather was lovely and we had a good time.
Tomorrow is the last day of our half-term break. Big Munchkin is going back to school on Tuesday. On Wednesday is our first appointment with the private speech therapist. She is coming to see and assess Little Munchkin at home.