Routine?

Over and over again I have been told that autistic children thrive on routine and I know that when Ethan was a baby he set his own feeding routine and we happily followed it but I have always thought we are more organised chaos than strict routine. I also feel Ethan is quite happy to take things in his stride as he has always managed well in all of the new situations we have put him in.

It's the little things that happen that make me realise yes Ethan does follow a routine, not a strict routine but he likes things done in a certain way.

I was made aware of one of Ethan's routines today when when were getting dressed after swimming. It was time to put our shoes on and I never realised, before today, that I always put Ethan's right shoe on first and tie the bow. Well in the changing room I put on his right shoe, didn't tie it up, then his left and started to tie the bow. Ethan made a noise to protest that he didn't want me to tie the bow and then gave me his right foot as if to say "No this one first".

It made me smile, Ethan is definitely a creature of habit! 

Moving Up...

At Ethan's swimming lesson today we were told the following magical words...

Ethan is ready to move up
to the next group!

I couldn't believe it, I feel like I have been waiting to move up to the next class for ages as we have seen so many other toddlers come and go. 

So after Easter we will be in the next age group. This means that our swimming lessons will now be in the leisure pool and not in the teaching pool I will therefore have to swim with Ethan as I'm too short to stand on the bottom of the swimming pool. This will be a challenge for both of us but one that I'm looking forward to. 

I do think we should take Darren swimming before our official lessons start as the last time we went swimming in the leisure pool Ethan had a meltdown in the changing area as it if different from the teaching pool area. I want us to be prepared for the change.  

The Realisation That Our Son Is Autistic

It has taken me a while to be able to write this post as I wanted to wait until we had received Ethan's diagnosis and as this will be my 100th post I thought no time like the present. I have also wanted to write this post in the hope that it may help others on their journey with autism as reading other peoples blogs and experiences helped me with the realisation of autism, they still do!

If you have stumbled across our blog because you think your child may be autistic I want you to know that the way you are feeling now will improve. It will take time and I think a journey with autism will always be full of highs and lows but acceptance and even getting a diagnosis surprisingly does help.

Autism isn't the life expected or planed for but its the direction life has decided to take us in.

I have read many blogs and forums where mothers say they always knew that their child was special*. I had no idea but I also had no experience of autism and a very limited understanding. To me autism was always mentioned alongside the MMR injection and ironically I did look into getting Ethan's injections done separately. I do not believe that the MMR injection was the cause of Ethan's autism as I now know he was showing signs of autism before having his MMR.

Ethan was behind his peers with his development, something that I wasn't that worried about as I know that all children are different and develop in their own time. I now know that Ethan was showing two major red flags before his one year check, one was the fact that he wasn't sitting up on his own and the other was that he wasn't picking up any objects and putting them in his mouth.

Now you may ask yourselves why wasn't I concerned that my son wasn't doing these things and looking back I know I was because I asked, in passing really, my doctor and the health visitors about it, I stupidly thought that they would tell me if I should have any concerns. I also think that our health professionals weren't very approachable, they made me feel that any concerns I had where stupid ones and worrying over nothing. A fine example of this is when I couldn't breast feed Ethan, we had no problems doing it the problem was that Ethan didn't feed for long enough and when I spoke to the midwife about it I was told that I wasn't trying hard enough and was giving up too easily. I now know this can also be an autistic trait, obliviously too young to be picked up on, but if that lady had handled me better perhaps I wouldn't have thought my concerns where stupid and not important. I'm sure someone along the way put it into my head about not being one of those mothers that stress over everything, if only they could see us now.    

Ethan actually had his one year check when he was just under nine months old. I told our health visitor about him not sitting up as she checked him over and she raised no concerns. She then produced a small blue block and put it in her hand and said he will pick this block up and put it in his mouth, I told her he wouldn't. Ethan didn't he just looked at it! At that point she should have seen these as red flags and referred us somewhere. Ethan still would have been too young to asses for autism but he would have been in the system. The heartbreaking thing is in his notes she wrote lovely thriving baby, no mention of the not sitting up or the not picking up the block.

I try not to get angry about this but I'm sure you can tell it upsets me. What I ask myself is do these people who we go to with our newborns not have enough training in the signs for special needs children? In America every child has the CHAT assessment done at 18 months, a test that originated from Cambridge University! When I took the CHAT test to our doctor she had not seen it before.

I also believe that the area that we were living in was too over populated and there isn't enough staff. Everyone is too overworked and busy to take notice of the little things. There is also a lot of pressure on quotas etc and at that time the government was having a healthy eating drive and the health vistor wrote down in Ethan's notes lots of information about his food habits. As I'm sure you are all aware that this is a nation wide problem and not just a problem for our area. 

So what have I learnt from my experience of Ethan's one year check now that I have the benefit of hindsight. 

We must fight for our children because no one else will. 

All I know is weather it was down to lack of experience or incompetence Ethan was missed. 

Fast forward to Ethan's two year check. At this point if I should have had any concerns it was the fact that Ethan was non verbal, but he wasn't just non verbal he didn't make any noise what-so-ever. Again I was obviously concerned as I was asking people about it in conversation but all children develop differently and I was telling myself he will talk when he is ready. 

My mother-in-law was dropping hints to me asking if Ethan was deaf as she was already concerned that Ethan was showing signs of autism but there was no way she could just come out with that bombshell it was something we had to discover on our own. So I told our new health visitor of her concerns and she referred us for a hearing test and speech therapy. I do also think that autism may have crossed her mind because in her notes she wrote that Ethan makes good eye contact and shows affection something that you possibly wouldn't expect an autistic child to do, but she didn't mention anything to me. 

When she left I decided to do a little web research. Now I had done this before but I never stumbled across the information I did that day. I put something along the lines of my two year old isn't talking and the search results come up with lots of references to autism.  

The bottom fell out of my world!

My beautiful boy couldn't possibly be autistic. Autistic children don't like noise, make eye contact, like to be touched my list of what I thought autism was went on and on. 

The more I panicked the more I searched the web. The penny finally dropped when I saw a video on you tube of another little boy 'playing' in the garden and looking at him I was watching Ethan. Little did I know that Ethan had so many autistic traits but it was just Ethan's way we never questioned it and that is the point that I felt sick to my stomach as I knew it was true and everything was starting to make perfect sense! 

I immediately called Darren. I can't remember what he said or thought he just listened to me ramble on. I'm sure Darren must have done his own research as I can honestly say I don't remember Darren ever telling me my fears were silly or wrong so at least we have been on the same page from the start. 

I have been through so many emotions since that day, anger, grief, guilt, fear the list goes on and on which I know its all part of the acceptance process. 

Autism isn't Ethan, autism is just part of Ethan's personality. He is an amazing little boy with a fantastic nature and I wouldn't change him for the world...

*PLEASE NOTE I use the world special as I hate using the term different or even not normal as in every mothers eyes their child will always be perfect is just with autism they learn differently. Ethan will always be my special little boy.

Mini Apple & Banana Muffins

I managed to drag myself off of the sofa today and finally away from watching the Steps concert for the millionth time this week to try to make some healthy snacks for Ethan. 

I found this recipe on the Change 4 Life website in part of their be food smart campaign and thought we would give them a go. 

There are two positive things about this recipe the first is I would class these as a cake so we may hopefully be able to replace the angel slices with these. The second is that they contain banana which Darren can't stand therefore this means they will be in the kitchen for longer than five minutes. Darren did try to eat one as soon as I took them out of the oven but I was kind and informed him of what they contained. 

They were very simple to make and I was able to make and bake them whist Ethan had his nap. They can also be frozen which means if they are liked I will be able to batch cook them. 

I can proudly say I actually cooked these from scratch!

Ethan's Verdict

Ethan did eat one of these after his lunch but I asked him if he wanted a cake which to him is an angel slice so he did try to give it back to me when he saw it. Thankfully leaving it with him meant it did get eaten, we tried another one after dinner just to see what his reaction was and he turned his nose up at it. We will try again tomorrow lunch time, I'm hoping he takes to them. 

My Verdict

I really like them and they contain fruit so that's a bonus but I don't think you can really taste the banana so if I had never told Darren I'm sure he would have eaten them all by now!

Not In The Mood For Food!

I have never been good with the food I eat, surprisingly I don't eat a lot, I just eat all of the wrong things. I'm not a lover of fruit or veg but I changed my eating habits when I was pregnant and with the help of Annabel Karmel we ate very well whilst I was on maternity leave. I even started to loose weight! 

Fast forward two years throw a very tired working mummy and an autistic toddler into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster. Needless to say our eating habits have slowly and surely gone downhill. 

Ethan used to eat really well but since September and our continuous bouts of illness he isn't eating much, sometimes not at all. This could be put down to two things the terrible two's or autistic traits. According to all the information I have read autism can bring with it fussy eaters and a love for carbs, Ethan loves carbs!

At the moment we know that Ethan will eat the following, on his terms

• Eggs
• Bananas 
• Yoghurt's
• Chips (McDonald's!)
• Beans
• Weetabix
• Toast with Nutella
• Angel Slices (another of Ethan's obsessions!) 
• Garlic Bread

My terrible excuse for things going downhill is the lack of choice and not being able to buy the quantities I want from ASDA home shopping. I have searched and searched their website and although they say you can order quantities I can't get it to work. 

I have not been making the time at the weekends to make meal plans so I'm just ordering easy options an hour before my delivery order deadline. It was easier in the summer as I could plan our meals during our commute as it was light enough to see.  

I have also simply run out of ideas. 

So today whilst we have been fighting this viral infection I have used our Heffalump, Steps Concert Sofa day to create a meal plan and shopping list. I have finally placed an order with TESCO's, which I find offers so much more choice, I just hope they find the house tomorrow. 

I have chosen meals, all new recipes for us, from my slow cooker recipe book that have a sauce which may encourage Ethan to try them. I'm also taking a slight step back and have decided to make fruit puree's from Annabel Karmel's book so that we can somehow sneak fruit into Ethan's system. So hopefully, viral infection permitting, we will be trying some new meals at the weekend.

Viral Infections and Conjunctivitis

Since last Wednesday Ethan has been ill, a different ill from when he had tonsillitis and croup but ill none the less. 

It started off with a cold and he now has a horrible cough, a cough that sounds like it should come from an adult not his little body. He isn't eating again but thankfully he is drinking, milk more than water but fluids are fluids. When he had tonsillitis he wouldn't even touch his beaker. On Friday the doctor confirmed that he had a viral infection and on Sunday we had to take a trip to our local walk in centre as Ethan now has conjunctivitis.  

Its been a tough week, Ethan has just wanted us at his side the whole time and the only thing that is keeping him happy is Pooh's Heffalump Movie. I think we are going for the world record for how many times we can watch this movie in a day. 

I think we are both starting to get cabin fever!

To make matters worse Ethan has passed his infection onto my parents and I'm slowly and surely losing my voice and starting to ache all over. 

Since starting nursery it feels like we have rolled from one infection into another, bring on the warmer weather...

The Best Laid Plans...

I'm a planner, some have called me a control freak! I like to know what direction my life is going in and what we are working towards, I even set myself goals. Darren and I have had many conversations where do you see us in five, ten, twenty years... 

Since the realisation that autism is now part of our lives looking into our future upsets me, my bad, sad days. I have lots of questions about Ethan's future that I would love answered, will Ethan ever talk? Will he ever call me mummy/tell me he loves me? Will he be able to hold down a job? Will he be able to live an independent life? Will he ever be loved or have a family of his own? Will we be able to cope? My list goes on and on.

The fact of the matter is no one knows what the future holds for us. No one knows what Ethan's full potential is. I have to learn how to live in the moment and take each day one at a time as you never know what tomorrow will bring, a concept that is completely alien to me! 

Today saw the very sad loss of a friend which again proves that life is too short and there is no point stressing about things that we can't control.  

If 2013 teaches me anything it will be Live For Today and I'm sure that many of my friends and family will agree with this as this year is definitely throwing things our way that we were never expecting. 

Walt Disney World - Day 5 - Magic Kingdom - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

When we got back to the hotel after our morning adventures at the Magic Kingdom we stopped off at the shop to purchase some warm clothes. Hurricane Sandy was still around and the temperature was noticeably colder and it was very windy. This did change our plans for the Halloween party as we were all going to dress up for it, Ethan as Buzz Lightyear and Darren and I were going as Hawaiian Barbie and Ken. It was not going to be warm enough for our Hawaiian clothes and our wigs wouldn't have lasted ten minutes in the wind but thankfully Ethan's outfit was big enough that we could put the newly purchased Disney tracksuit underneath it. 

We did laugh about these purchases as we never dreamt that we would go to Florida and need to buy warm clothes to wear out there but it could have been worse as the last time we went to visit Mickey it rained for the whole ten days. Cold was easier to deal with than being wet and cold!

We let Ethan sleep for as long as possible as we knew he would be up past his bed time tonight but we also knew we wanted to be back at the Magic Kingdom for 5pm as we were expecting it to be busy. So after about two hours sleep we woke him up and got our little Buzz Lightyear ready.

We didn't have to wait long for the bus and it was a very interesting journey as it was full of princesses making their way to Mickey's party. 

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just as the entrance was starting to get busy but quickly got through the security and ticket barriers. After entering the park we made our way to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in TOMORROWLAND to get ourselves some dinner. Everyone had the same idea and the restaurant was filled with lots of people in different costumes, people really had gone to town and I was sorry that we didn't get the chance to wear our costumes. Darren quickly found us a table and I went to get us some food.

Ethan enjoyed eating here as he liked listening to Sonny Eclipse, Ethan even clapped him when he finished each song.

After our dinner we headed over to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin so Ethan could ride it whilst dressed as Buzz Lightyear. I tried to take a photo of them both together but I only managed to get the following photos. 

We remembered to put Ethan in the middle of us so that we could see him in the ride photo and on the way out we got it added to our PhotoPass Plus card. I can't remember who got the highest score but if it was Darren he must have been cheating!

We then made our way to Ethan's favourite ride the teacups! 

And then another flight on Dumbo, its a very pretty ride in the dark. 

After our Dumbo flight it was time to collect some candy and we followed a candy walk that was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Darren was in charge of collecting the candy in our bags, I also need to add that either me or Ethan had any of the candy that was collected during this walk Darren ate it all during the rest of our holiday so I have no idea what was collected!

The candy walk ended near Buzz Lightyear's character meet and greet but the queue to see him was massive, you could easily have been waiting to see him for over an hour and we knew that just wasn't possible with Ethan so we decided not to bother looking for any other characters. I must admit I was a little sad about as you can get great photos of the characters in their Halloween costumes at this party but it wouldn't have been fair on Ethan to do this so we took Ethan over to Club 626 to see Goofy doing some fancy dancing. Ethan loved the bright lights and clapped along to the music but it was too crowded to let him loose so he stayed on Darren's shoulders. 

Time was going really quickly and it was getting close to the start of the parade so we headed over to Main Street to find a spot for us stopping for some PhotoPass pictures on the way and taking some photos of the Halloween decorations. 

Main Street was heaving which worried me about how Ethan would react to being so closed in to all of the people. Guest services had already been really understanding of Ethan's needs and we had been given a GAC card to use during our visit but it didn't permit us to use the disabled area's on the parade routes but we talked to one of the cast members managing the route and voiced our concerns, they very nicely let us into one of the disabled areas where we could stand against a rail and Ethan could easily sit on Darren's shoulders without bothering anyone else.

We actually got talking to another family there and talked about our children and their needs, in-fact we talked so much that I missed taking a photo of the headless horseman at the start of the parade! 

We all really enjoyed the parade and Ethan clapped along to the music, they did have a little mishap though as one of the floats got stuck so the parade ended a little later than expected. Somehow during the parade Darren got hold of even more candy, he is a nightmare!

It was then time for the famous fireworks, I already had a plan so we made our way to the rose garden as I knew this would be a quiet place to view them. This was going to be the first time that Ethan had experienced fireworks and I really had no idea how he would react. He of course loved them and laughed or clapped each bang. 

The rose garden was a quiet place to view the fireworks but the fireworks are then more to the side of the castle rather than behind it but it was the perfect viewing position for us.

We had already decided that we would leave after the fireworks but the party didn't end for another three hours, unfortunately with a two and a half year old and an early breakfast ADR we had no choice. I think if we had attended this party on the original day planned we would have stayed longer as the next morning was free of any plans but as we learn daily, planning is a thing of our past! 

Darren knew that I was disappointed about our lack of character photos and spotted that there wasn't a wait to go and see Mickey so we went to visit him and found Mickey and Minnie dressed for the Halloween celebrations. As you can see Ethan was getting used to seeing his new friends...

It was finally time for us to leave the Magic Kingdom and I took a few more photos before we headed to the bus stops and our beds...

 

Silly Sock Day 2013

On Monday the 25th of March Ethan will be wearing silly socks to raise money for Autism Anglia and help raise awareness of autism. 

This charity has helped us though Ethan's diagnosis and by sponsoring Ethan to wear his silly socks we will help this charity to continue their fantastic work. 

I will blog about Ethan's Silly Sock Day adventures so you can see what he gets up to, if you would like to sponsor him you can do so HERE 

To find out more about Autism Anglia and what they do please click HERE

Thank you for your support. 

Ethan's Obsessions - Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Ethan has a few obsessions and they do change depending on his mood. Having an obsession can be an autistic trait and one that I know we experience so as we sit, Ethan ill on the sofa (don't worry as confirmed by the doctor this morning its another viral infection), watching the Heffalump movie for the third time today I thought I would blog about it. 

Ethan discovered the Heffalump movie last summer when they showed it on Disney Junior, I was sorting out dinner and I realised that Ethan hadn't moved from the front room for a while. Ethan is a little boy that is always on the go and doesn't keep still or want us out of his sight at any time, this is of course unless he has his hands on the ipad in which case he does still follow us round with it attached to him!

We had tried him with a few movies before but nothing held his attention like this, and even today he is sitting watching it laughing at all the jokes and smiling at me whenever he gets the chance. We can only put it down to the music used in the film and the child like voices used for Roo and Lumpy. Ethan makes us aware that he wants to watch the film by giving us the remote control and he will quite happily watch it all day if given the chance.

I love our Heffalump moments as it gives me a chance to give Ethan lots of cuddles.

We do of course have other obsessions The Gruffalo, The Steps Concert and not to mention doors! All part of our little guys unique personality...   

The 2013 MAD Blog Awards - We Have Been Nominated!

I have been looking on The MADS 2013 Awards blog and have discovered we have been nominated in five categories! They are the following:

Best MAD Blog for Family Fun

Best Family Life Blog

Best Family Travel Blog 

Best New Blog

MAD Blog of the Year

I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that has voted for us but it doesn't stop there. Only the 4 blogs with the most votes in each category will go through to the finals so if you haven't voted yet and you think we deserve a chance at getting an award for our blog please vote before Monday which is the closing date for this years awards. 

You can vote for us here

Our blog URL is http://ethans-escapades.blogspot.co.uk/

A BIG THANK YOU again for all your votes so far...

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day, a day that we don't normally celebrate as we are normally saving for something like a wedding or a house and we prefer to put the money that we would have spent into the savings pot. 

This year I was planning to bake some cookies this afternoon to give to Darren when he gets in, nothing exciting just another packet mix to do with Ethan, but the day hasn't gone as planned. 

Ethan is running a temperature and has a cough and a cold so isn't feeling 100% this means that we had to skip his swimming lesson today and have spent the day on the sofa watching TV. He also won't let me leave his side so we have watched The Heffalump Movie, twice, The Steps Concert from the reunion tour last year and we are now watching Tipping Point, followed by The Chase. Ethan has started to take a liking to these quiz shows but it makes a very nice change to Deal or no Deal!

I did get a nice surprise this morning as I found something in Ethan's bag that I wasn't expecting. Ethan had made us a Valentine's Day card at nursery, it made my day!

Whatever you are doing today we wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day...

Shrove Saturday, Our Pancake Day!

No I haven't gone mad by calling this post Shrove Saturday but due to work commitments Ethan stays at Nanny's on Tuesday nights so we moved our Shrove Tuesday forward so that we could enjoy it together as a family. As a child teenager pancake day was something I really looked forward to and I was looking forward to sharing it with Ethan.  

I'm sorry to say that for the past few years we have purchased pre-made pancakes and I was looking forward to making the pancakes from scratch this year and after a few failed attempts I made a nice pile of pancakes for us. 

Darren even attempted to flip the last pancake I made, thankfully it didn't end up on the ceiling!

Last year Ethan quite enjoyed his first taste of a pancake, it was a classic lemon and sugar one. This year was a different story, Ethan has been very fussy with food lately but he took one bite and turned his nose up at it. 

Pancake Day 2012

Being prepared for the fact that Ethan would be fussy this year we also prepared a pancake filled with nutella, a banana (Ethan's favourite) and strawberries and cream which Ethan didn't touch.  

We stuck to traditional sugar and lemon with strawberries and cream on the side. 

We really enjoyed our pancakes, hopefully next year Ethan will enjoy it more...

Learning Makaton

At Ethan's results meeting we were also given some homework one of those being to learn some of the Makaton Signs and start using them in our everyday language. 

For those of you unaware of what Makaton is The Makaton Charity website states the following...

"Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order".

We have been given the following signs to learn

• To Eat
• To Sleep
• To Drink
• Milk
• Biscuit
• Toilet
• Car
• Bus
• Teddy (or cuddly toy)
• Book
• More
• Cat 
• Dog

I started to use these with Ethan yesterday making sure I was at his level when I was speaking and signing. Although I believe that Ethan makes good eye contact with us it brought home how hard it is to make Ethan look at you when you need him to. I'm not expecting miracles with this as I know everything with Ethan takes time but I'm determined to learn it and make sure we use it so that hopefully as some point in the future we can use this to communicate with Ethan. 

Its funny because when I was younger I always said I wanted to learn sign language, I never thought I would actually be needing to learn it to communicate with a member of my own family. They world does work in mysterious ways... 

Printerpix Photo Competition

This month, Tots100 has teamed up with Printerpix to celebrate family photography, and give away a fantastic prize to one lucky blogger. This is our entry for the Family Portraits category. 

This photo is very special to us as it was taken on our recent trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. Behind us is Disney's Wedding Pavilion, this is where we got married in 2008, and we had an amazing day that we will never forget. We never dreamed that we would be able to take our son to see where we got married so soon, if at all. We visited the pavilion on our last day and showed Ethan around, this is the photo we took as we left to capture our visit there as a family. 

“This post is Jane's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition.” 

The 2013 MAD Blog Awards

Nominations are now open for the 2013 MAD blog awards. 

The MAD Blog Awards celebrate the very best of parent blogging and are the UK’s biggest and brightest awards for Mum and Dad bloggers.

If you enjoy reading our blog and would like to nominate us for an award please use the following link.

We would love to be nominated in the Best New Blog category but if you feel we would be suited elsewhere we would appreciate all nominations. 

D-Day Also Known As Diagnosis Day!

Well yesterday was the day I feel like I have been waiting for since the 1st of June last year. That was the day when the penny dropped for me that Ethan was showing autistic traits.

I feel like I have travelled a world of emotions since then and it feels like we have been in limbo for a very long time but I know that we are one of the lucky ones as it hasn't even been a year since I requested a referral from our doctor.

Yesterday Ethan was officially
diagnosed with Autism.

At the moment I feel a huge sense of relief. Relief that my concerns about Ethan's traits were right and relief that we can start moving in a direction to get Ethan the help that he needs to develop and grow.

It has taken me a long time to get to this place and I still have good days and bad days but as a parent I'm prepared that this will be an emotional journey. 

All I know is that Ethan is an amazing little boy and this diagnosis doesn't change him as it is part of his wonderful personality. Ethan is our little superstar!

As Dr. Seuss said...

Ethan Said Daddy!

Whilst the boys are having a cat nap and I quickly eat my lunch before starting the shopping list I thought I would share with you the fantastic moment we had this morning so that it is documented before our busy lives take over.  

Darren had a boys night out last night and stayed over his friends and whilst Ethan and I were eating breakfast Darren text us to say hello. I turned to Ethan and said "It's Daddy!" and Ethan, as clear as a bell said, Daddy!

I couldn't believe it so I quickly called Darren and put him on loud speaker to let him know what had happened and so that Ethan could hear him. 

When we hang up Ethan said Daddy three more times. 

I'm over the moon!

Why you ask? 

This is the first time that I have heard Ethan clearly make any connection with an item and a clear word.  I'm hoping its the connection that he knows I talk to Darren quite a lot on the phone and not that he thinks the phone is his daddy! 

I'm not sure if this will happen again but it shows a baby step of progress and baby steps are amazing. 

We have had a few occasions where we have to double take what Ethan is babbling and ask ourselves "Did he just say...". I have been told that Ethan says Granddad as Grangad and the nursery have reported that Ethan said heart as he was holding a heart shape. We also think that twice this week Ethan has waved and said bye. 

These milestones are rare in our house as with everything in Ethan's world it has to be on his terms, but every milestone is cherished and celebrated.

I'm linking this post with Magic Moments as this was a very rare MAGIC MOMENT!

Walt Disney World - Day 5 - Magic Kingdom - Fantasyland Continued and Lunch at The Crystal Palace

After taking in the sights of the NEW FANTASYLAND area we returned to FANTASYLAND to go for a ride on the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. 

Both Ethan and I picked a carrousel horse and Darren kept Ethan safe. Ethan wasn't sure what was going on at first and tried to get off of his horse before the ride started, Ethan can be quite impatient when it comes for waiting for things but I also put this down to the lack of verbal communication we have at the moment. We can explain things to Ethan but we have no idea if he understands as he can't tell us if he does. When the ride started Ethan loved every minute.

We then headed over to The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. 

Last summer Ethan discovered Pooh's Heffalump Movie and he got very obsessed with it, so much that we added the booking for today's lunch at The Crystal Palace at the last minute to our plans so Ethan could meet his new found friends so I was interested to see what Ethan would think of this ride. To be honest I think there was too much going on and he just took it all in. I was concerned when we reached the Heffalump section as I thought it might be a little scary but Ethan didn't make any noise of complaint.

So after a slightly disappointing reaction we made our way to the Mad Tea Party. I was looking forward to this one as Ethan loves to spin! Darren started to spin the teacup slowly...

...and then made it go faster and faster and faster! Ethan was laughing and screaming with enjoyment, it was fantastic to see. He loved this ride so much that we only had to walk past it and it would make Ethan break into a massive smile.  

We had had a fantastic morning but it was time to make our way for our lunch ADR at The Crystal Palace so sadly we had to say goodbye to the teacups.  

We didn't have to wait long to be called for our ADR time and as this is a buffet restaurant as soon as we were shown our table I went off to collect some lunch for Ethan as I knew he would be hungry. I found him so meatballs and pasta and he got stuck in right away, he was enjoying the food so much that he wasn't bothered by the characters coming to say hello. 

Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore visited us first, I warned them that Ethan was a little messy!

I even got my photo taken this time, Darren must have finished his meal!

The characters then did a little parade around the restaurant and we took this time to clean Ethan up. Darren also went to get some desserts and come back with a plate of cookies that Ethan dived right into.  

Piglet was the next to visit us but Ethan was still to busy eating his cookie. On a good food day with Ethan he really does take after his dad!

And lastly Tigger come to say hello. Ethan paid a lot more attention to him but I'm sure that's because he had finished eating or perhaps Tigger is his favourite.

We all really enjoyed our meal here, there was a great selection of food to choose from and you don't feel rushed to leave. We used two or our table service credits and Ethan ate for free. Our bill came to $10 for the tip. 

We then made our way out of the Magic Kingdom so that Ethan could get a well deserved rest at the hotel before attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. 

I took a few more photos along Main Street as we made our way home.