The Lodger and Us

This is real. This feeling.  This comfort. This feeling of being surrounded by like-minded people. A warming safety feeling. No stress. No panic. No fears. The joys of the Prader Willi family weekend. A time when you release your child to the elements, safe in the knowledge that if anything was to happen the Prader Willi Police (PWP) are everywhere. Watching. Like undercover agents hiding in the shadows. But not actually in the shadows.  We are a fun crew. A happy crew. A proud crew. We look out for each other with a nod and a smile. A simple nod of 'I've got this, fear not'. It's lovely to embrace these moments. The Lodger loves these weekends. If excitement wasn't sometimes such a chore it may well be exciting. A time when he can meet all his like-minded friends and enjoy the freedom although he's being watched by so many knowledgeable eyes.  Another dad once told me; "We, the parents are the experts of this syndrome". And those words have never ...

Lodger, where are your legs? I don’t know. Where did Mummy leave them? I don’t know. Da. Yes Lodger. Why do you need them? To put them on you. Why? So we can go out. Why? Where are we going? To the shop. What shop? The fish shop. Why? To buy fish. Why are we buying fish? For lunch. I love fish. I love lunch. Where are my legs? Obviously not his actual legs. They are attached to him, luckily. Enough issues without removable legs. The Lodgers legs are his action boots , his plastic leg holders that help support his ankles while we wait for the muscles to grow.  I’m wondering if they ever will. The Lodgers Action Boots Where’s the fish shop? Near the hotel. What hotel? The swimming hotel. (W here we have gone swimming ) Why? Because it is. Why? Look a bird.  The art of ongoing distraction 101. Sometimes. Where? You missed him. Where? Over there. I don’t see him, Da. Da. I don’t see him. What bird? ...

If you've spent any time in The Lodgers company, you'll know he is a fan of telling stories.  I've just spent the last thirty minutes listening to the story of the summer holiday retold by The Lodger. It's a popular subject of his and due to his superpower of incredible memory recall, no detail is spared. The Lodger remembers the smallest details that would well be forgotten by most. It's a family tradition at this stage, that we cut it fine with ferry departure times. We were actually well on target for being early for once except the cafe we chose for lunch moved at snail pace when it came to service.  Ultimately this led to The Lodgers soup being transferred to a takeaway coffee cup, with the promise he could have it onboard the ferry.  The convoy packed up, loaded the humans and set off to board the ferry with great excitement. Somehow The Lodger and cousins soup got mixed up amongst all the commotion and unbeknownst to us, we left the car deck ...

The Lodger has started primary school. I'll repeat that. The Lodger has started primary school.  If I wasn't the person helping him put on his school uniform, getting his lunch ready, bringing him to school and answering his approximately 10,000 questions on the topic I wouldn't believe it. How can five years go by so fast? On the first day of school, we gathered in the PE hall to wait for the Teacher to call her class. He was subdued (this is rare!). The hall was busy, loud and filled with a lot of parental emotion!!  The Lodger looked up at me and told me he was a little bit sad.  THIS WAS A REVELATION!!! In my mind, I jumped into the air with delight and high fived the crowd.  We've been working with The Lodger for a very long time now to identify emotions.   In reality, I took him to the side of the room and we sat down and amongst all the chaos I got to the bottom of why he was a little bit sad. He needed to meet h...