Just have to share with you a 'tears streaming down my face' moment from this week thanks to our youngest darling...
Talking in person rather than on a telephone is one of those things which is generally easier for children with autism - conversational skills don't tend to be their strong point. It's not often that Sophie will even say hello to either set of grandparents (who both live too far away, boo!) on the phone - but my parents struck gold yesterday and caught her at a time she was happy to chat.
It took some prompting from me; I set up the Facetime to ring in between her video watching on the ipad so as not to interrupt. There was still initial reluctance, and a fair bit of hiding under the duvet before she was tempted out to speak (top tip: tickling hands coming over the FaceTime camera are always a winner!).
Once engaged though, Sophie just decided that she was in the mood to chat, and my parents got full updates on Kirby (latest craze game on the WiiU) which I'm sure they understood none of. As they sat on their sofa at home watching her, Sophie rabbited on for a good 15 minutes whilst I took the chance to catch up on chores. Then I heard Sophie suddenly decide that she needed the toilet.
I raced down from upstairs, slightly concerned that I might find her sharing that delight intimately with my parents, but what I found was an empty playroom and the view in this picture. What you can see is the ipad propped up on the sofa, with great care, so that my parents could watch the television while she was gone! She had even chosen a DVD specially for them - the delights of Roly Mo.
You know how some things can just tickle you? Well, I laughed until I cried. You probably had to be there. The best bit of it all though was when she told me that she didn't want to say goodbye to them because she wanted the company. Awwww.
So we turned the ipad around and it felt more like they were in the room with us. Thank you FaceTime - isn't modern technology a wonderful thing?
