Tuesday 14^th.

It was dad's turn this Half Term week to stay at home and enjoy some quality time with Charlotte. Today Charlotte had a 9.20 Appt with the Opthalmologist, (Eyes), at Frimley Park Hospital. Her eye tests confirmed that the stigmatism has improved whereas her longsightedness in both eyes is slightly worse. This is fairly normal as at her age the eye is not growing as fast as the rest of her, it generally starts to improve again by Junior School.

She then had an 11:30 appt with a Consultant at the Frimley Childrens Centre to determine whether they would proceed with the Botox injections, as recommended by the Physio she sees at Aldershot Centre for Health. After an examination, discussion and signing of the consent forms Charlotte has now been placed on the waiting list (estimated 6 weeks).

The Botox is to be injected in the calf muscles in her left leg. This loosens the muscles and the effect usually lasts around 3 months. It gives the physio a window in which to really work on improving her posture so she find walking easier with the walking frame. It is a not uncommon treatment for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

Before she started at the Henry Tyndale Special Needs School in Farnborough last September crawling was still her preferred method of movement , she would only use the walking frame for very short distances before switching to crawling. However the last few months have seen her use try to use the frame more although she tires easily and still has to be put in the pushchair for long distances. Anything that can help possibly help her is worth trying.

Sunday 11^th.

We took Charlotte to her first Pantomine, Aladdin at The Princes Theatre in Aldershot. It was a special showing for Special Needs Children onl. It lasted about half an hour because she would not sit still and trying to hit the person in front with the wand she had been given. She is becoming more aware of what is going on around her but did not understand it. Hopefully next year may be different but so much depends on being able to communicate with her. Last January when filling out her special needs statement we could only think of a couple of words she could say and now she hasd 30 or 40 so hopefully next year she may even be talking.

Sunday 6^th.

Today we put up our Christmas Tree & Decorations. It is the first Christmas Charlotte has shown an awareness of things going on around her and she seemed excited about the tree,lights and the decorations, we have waited 4 long years for this.

She may not be walking or talking but it is another step forward and gives us hope that day both may happen, and we may get to share the excitement of Christmas with her./p>

Tuesday 25^th.

Charlotte's last day at nursery. After 3 years, it's time for Charlotte to leave and I was very proud of her as she did her rounds and said "bye bye". She doesn't really understand that it was the last day so it was just a normal day for her saying "bye bye" but I was quite emotional as we drove home, and as we did a huge rainbow appeared, I thought that was a fitting end to her time at nursery.

Sunday 23^rd.

21st October 2007 was a very special day for us. It was the day that Charlotte came home from hospital. It was the most magical of days and at that time, the happiest day of our lives. We didn't know what the years to follow would hold, in some ways that was a good thing in others it was hard being patient and still is with so many questions remaining unanswered. I guess at that time if we had been told that Charlotte would have Cerebral Palsy, hearing loss, developmental delay and learning difficulties, be attending a special school and not walking or talking by 4 years old it would have been difficult to cope with that. We have grown with Charlotte, come to terms with issues and got on with whatever came our way and have always looked at the positive. We could never have imagined that we would have a 4 year old so determined that she would amaze us with every milestone she met. she may be developmentally around the level of a 2 year old but she is an amazing, beautiful, funny, mad little girl with a wicked sense of humour and we love her to bits.

So, it was a sheer joy that on the corresponding Sunday in 2011 that Charlotte took her first steps unaided. Just 2 steps and then she fell, but the excitement of seeing something that we thought would never happen was fantastic. Charlotte was so excited that she had managed 2 steps without her frame, that she kept shouting "again, again" and then doing it again. It may only be 2 steps, but we are now sure that 2 will lead to 3, then to 4 and so on. It may take months to reach that third, but we know it will come. It was again, the most magical of days, on the most important of anniversaries.

Wednesday 7^th. Charlotte’s first day at school.

It’s Wednesday 7th September 2011 and it’s Charlotte’s first day at school. We can hardly believe it. In some ways it seems only yesterday we were going through the trauma of her early birth and then in other ways it seems such a long time ago. It goes without saying just how proud we are of Charlotte. She is amazing, and we don’t use that word lightly. I know she is ours and everybody says the same about their child, but we will say it also. Charlotte is an amazing little girl and we are so proud of how far she has come.

Charlotte’s starts Henry Tyndale school in Farnborough for children with special needs. She will wear a uniform of grey trousers or skirt, white polo shirt and royal blue sweater. She looked so beautiful on her first day in her uniform and so grown up. She was all ready to go. At 8.23am we pulled out of home and arrived at Henry Tyndale at 8.50am. Charlotte became excited about being somewhere different. She is not aware or understands that this will be her permanent place during the day. So, she just thought it was a fun day our somewhere different. She had visited before so it may have appeared as if it was just another visit. I (mum) was surprisingly calm, I thought I was going to be a blubbering mess, but Charlotte was coping so well that I just felt very proud but not too emotional or tearful as I kissed her goodbye.

School phoned at 11am to say there had been some tears from Charlotte as I went but that she had soon settled and had been to the soft play area. At no time did I worry about Charlotte’s well being. I am 100% confident in this school and it’s staff. They are wonderful.

I left early from work to pick her up and was really excited about seeing her. As she walked out of her classroom I just burst into tears, I really wasn’t expecting that but I just looked at her standing there, looking all cute in her school uniform after her first day at school and I just felt so proud that it all got the better of me. I gave her a massive hug and kiss and she looked really happy to see me. She went and showed me the steps she had been using to practice her walking upstairs. I was just really tearful but really happy too. So, it ended up being quite an emotional day in the end.

Our little Lottie Lou had started school !

Monday 15^th. Speech Therapy

Charlotte had an appointment with her speech therapist today. She had not been seen for several months as its quite difficult getting her to sit still or even speak at these sessions so it was just a catch up session to see how she was progressing. For the first 30 minutes Charlotte was completely silent. She is never silent at home so it was quite frustrating that she decided not to talk. So, her therapist decided just to let Charlotte play whilst we chatted about what she was saying at home. Charlotte then decided to talk a little more. Rita was using bubbles to try and get Charlotte to say "more" or "again". So, Charlotte sat next to them and picked them up and said "bubble".

This is Charlotte's most complicated word so far and she said it beautifully. Charlotte probably has about 40 words. She gets a few wrong, like she says "gok" for "sock" and "bink" for drink. But this didn't seem to worry Rita too much and said it was quite common. We chatted about the fact that Charlotte doesn't say any words with "OO" in them. She said that a lot of children start by pronouncing this "OW". She then said that because Charlotte may be replacing the "S" with the letter "G" she may well, for example currently pronounce "Shoe" as "Gow". To our amazement Charlotte crawled over, picked up the Shoe we had been using in her therapy session, and said "A Gow". I think Rita's point was proved and Rita said that Charlotte probably understands and tries to say alot more words than we realise. We would never have realised she was attempting to say shoe with "Gow".

Rita thought that Charlotte was now starting to make steady progress with her speech. Not fast, but steady. Steady is alright with us. At Christmas Charlotte had just 3 words and 7 months months later she has 40. We were all thinking that Charlotte may have a speech disorder as Rita had mentioned this possibility at Christmas, perhaps linked to her Cerebral Palsy. Now, she believes based on what she is hearing now from Charlotte that this possibility is becoming less likely and it will be a matter of just monitoring Charlotte's progress. We are over the moon about how far Charlotte has come this year and are now a little excited that hopefully some time soon we could actually be talking to our little Lottie.