SATURDAY MORNINGS AND GIFT HORSES

I started my degree when Fiona was a few months old, a computers degree but after a few months I realised that computers was not the subject for me.If I wanted to do a science based subject then it would have to be an exact science and there is definitely something very inexact about computers! One of the favourite answers given by course lecturers when something wouldn't work was to turn the computer off and re-boot it!
Anyway, I completed the first year of the degree and then transferred to a joint honours Welsh/History degree which I completed in 1995. At the end of the degree I applied for a job in the Museum of Wales library, it required knowledge of Welsh and Welsh history and I had both. They couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge my application, feeling very rejected I went back to nursing.Because of my degree I understand Welsh but constructing sentences and taking part in a conversation is a lot of effort and I tend just to switch off. My children tend to mistake this for having no knowledge of the Welsh language and sometimes I have to remind them that they are NOT talking a secret language when they chat to each other in Welsh! Each of them went to Welsh language schools for part or all of their education so their conversational skills are of course better than mine. However, even with all the knowledge that they have of Welsh it has never really been a language that was spoken at home.We lived in England until Anastasia was 7 and I insisted that we came back to Wales so that the girls could learn the language, even though their father is a first language Welsh speaker he did not speak the language with the girls.With this lack of the Welsh language being a big part of our home life I was surprised yesterday when I was sitting at the computer writing to hear a little voice singing and talking in Welsh!

Beauty was playing on the CBeebies(BBC for little children) website and was on her favourite site-The Bobinogs.

Yes it is a cartoon made in Wales but the BBC does have an English language version of all the games and songs but obviously not for Beauty! She seems some how to have found the Welsh language songs and games and insists on playing on those.By coincidence, Beauty's older sisters have a cousin who does the voice of one of the Welsh language Bobinogs! So we have Beauty singing the songs Mynd i'r ty bach(go to the toilet), Beth i wisgo(what to wear)and Ffrindiau(friends).Very surreal, here is a child who is profoundly autistic, has speech delays and yet she has learnt to sing songs in another language and chat to the computer in another language!
Remember this is also the child who taught herself to use the computer.Beauty can zip around the web, in and out of websites with remarkable ease and she has also taught herself to use the mouse and can use the space bar, arrow keys and enter a name to play a game! I wouldn't have known where to start to teach her all that!
I really feel that the computer has helped Beauty a lot, more and more she is transferring what she has learnt on the web to real life.

This is Punky, named after the pumpkin in the Cinderella
story, Beauty named him herself.

Cinderella is a story that Beauty really loves and we listen to it at least once a day. After listening to the story, Beauty was able to transfer information she had gained from the story and know that the Pumpkin Head decoration that she found on the shelves in the kitchen was also a pumpkin and she named him Punky(she did call him Pumpky at the start but now she seems to have settled on Punky).

Last night when Beauty went to bed she also exhibited the signs and symptoms of being a NORMALLY developing child! Would she stay in her bed? Would she heck! At least 20 times(I kid you not) we went through the whole GOOD NIGHT, SWEET DREAMS,SLEEP TIGHT routine. Eventually exhaustion won over her determination. It was quite sweet actually because every time you said,'Right.........BED!' to her and she knew you were coming to put her back to bed, she would turn and run and squeal with laughter and then jump onto her bed just as you got there to put her back into bed! I love kids.
It is 7:35am and I am being 'picked on' by Ariel(Tourettes Girl), she just will not shut up(remember this is the girl who wants to join the army-save us all). Usually when I wake up in the morning I generally ease myself into my day by taking pain killers and arthritis medication and slowly but quietly waiting for my medication to kick in. However, this morning Ariel has insisted on sending me kicking and screaming into my day without any undue delay. She is up early to go to her Saturday job in Ikea and presently we are discussing the merits of her best friend selling her Mini Cooper and buying a diesel version of her Mini Cooper!Oh and the possibility of her and her friends going on a road-trip to visit their University of choice , Exeter for an open day!
Ariel's answer to the situation is, 'You've gotta love 17 year olds!'.................thank you for that deeply philosophical insight into my day.

Nothing on TV last night seemed to catch the imagination of my children so they decide to watch a DVD or a video, we literally have a cupboard full!

Considering all the quality films that we have i.e everything Steven Seagal, anything Disney(well

maybe not quality but Beauty loves them all)

and my favourite Steel Magnolias I was surprised with their choice, Sleepless in Seattle!

Wow was Tom Hanks so young in that! You know those silly questions you get emailed every so often in a quiz? The ever popular question,'which actress would play you in a film about your life' always comes up and my answer is always Meg Ryan. Snowhite's choice is Selma Hayek.

Ariel has gone to work, Fiona and SnoWhite are still asleep(it would take a lot to wake them!), Beauty-after refusing to sleep is still catching Zzzzz's, I think I may join Beauty for a little nap.
This house of autism is worryingly quiet for once.........let's not look a gift horse and all that!