After many weeks and months of no ice skating Miss A is back on the ice. Back to dancing next week!
Yes this is my first blog post in months and months. I will try better this time to make blogging a thing!
I have missed it.
Hope you are all well. Lots of love from me! x
I love going to shows, especially a good panto at Christmas time. We were invited to the Blackpool Grand Theatre to see Peter Pan.
The Blackpool Grand theatre is amazing! So beautiful and well built. It is perfectly designed. No matter where you sit, I am sure you could see the stage really well! We have never been to the Blackpool Grand Theatre before. Really impressed!
The Peter Pan pantomime was excellent. I was laughing so much during the performance, even the children were. It catered for all ages. I especially loved the fact there was a Queen theme going on. Love Queen! My son especially loved the acrobatic pirates. He was laughing so much, he was red!
The cast includes Tom Lister as Captain Hook, Steve Royle from BBC Radio Lancashire as Smee, Jack Heasman as Peter Pan, Christina Meehan as Mrs Darling, Rachel Grundy as Tinkerbell, Natalie Hollingsworth as Tiger Lilly, Ruth Betteridge as Wendy, comedy acrobats The Nitwits as The Pirate Crew and the Barbara Jackson Theatre Arts dancers.
From the website:
Meet Peter and the lost boys, Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell and get ready for a family show full of fun, fairy dust and pirates galore. Set sail for Neverland and take on Captain Hook and prepare for out-of-this-world flying effects, galleons of laughter and the hungriest of crocodiles.
One thing I will say, the 2 hours and 50 minute running time is a little bit too long, we were not fed up in the slightest but it is kind of a little too long, for my son especially. However, it was a fantastic performance and we all want to go and see it again.
So what are you waiting for? Buy some tickets and enjoy the show!
To find out more about the panto visit https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/event/peter-pan-pantomime/
Master A loves educational toys and he really likes Thomas & Friends. As some of you know, Master A has developmental delays and he is on the autistic spectrum. The Thomas & Friends Smart Tablet and the Flip and Learn phone has made him very happy and he spends a lot of time playing with them both, often both at once.
The Thomas & Friends Smart Tablet is really good! It teaches the child quite a number of things. It teaches them about recognising letters, numbers, colours, characters and destinations. I do love educational toys like this. It is suitable for children ages 2 years and over. I know Master A is 6 but he is more interested in toys that usually for children younger than him. He does like toys suitable for his age but he loves the toys that make the noise and are interactive a lot more!
The Thomas & Friends Flip and Learn phone is brilliant to help children learn about numbers and colours. It also pretends to take selfies..very cute! Master A loves toy phones. He likes the real phones but he can get rather addicted to apps on real phones so anything else to keep him busy is perfect, and this phone along with the smart tablet has really helped keep him entertained.
Master A has speech problems and I have noticed him repeating the words that these toys say. This can only be a good thing!
You can find the tablet at places like Amazon and Argos and you can find the phone at places like Smyths Toys and John Lewis.
I have a Thomas & Friends Smart Tablet to give away. Follow the instructions below.
Manchester is amazing, there are lots of things to explore and do but we haven’t done much in the city to be honest. Usually it’s shopping at the Trafford Centre, sticking to the same shops too. I would love to stay in serviced apartments Manchester for a few nights, giving a lot more time in this wonderful city! We did this with family a few years ago while exploring Birmingham and it made it a lot easier!
I wish we spent more time in Manchester but what with Miss A’s various hobbies, it isn’t easy. But given an opportunity to go exploring, how exciting!
It is always lovely to try something new and apart from having dinner at a favourite restaurant of ours (Frankie and Benny’s) and visiting the shop that is a must, the Disney Store!
First stop was the Museum of Science and Industry. What a wonderful place! It was enjoyed by all. There is something for all ages here, more time was needed here to be honest but we wanted to do a few more things. Next time, we will spend a lot longer there. Master A especially enjoyed it. There were things for him to do and it was visually very good for him! He didn’t want to leave, nor did any of us!
Next stop, the Disney Store. A very Moana themed purchase. Both kids love the Disney store.
Dinner was at Frankie and Bennys. This was enjoyable. One thing I will say though, the Frankie and Benny’s at the Printworks do not take any discount. We have a Tastecard, they didn’t accept it. Also the codes available on the Frankie and Benny’s app can’t be used there either. We have a very strict budget for dining out so this did make it a bit annoying but the food there was rather good! The new menu finally has something that I like, being vegetarian, the choices have been rather limited. The vegan burger is really good! However bring back Red French Pizza and the vegetarian Calzone and then we would probably visit our local restaurant more often.
The final part to our Manchester trip was at Treetop Adventures Golf. We have been to the crazy golf at the Trafford Centre before but not this one and it was fantastic! There was a bit of cheating going on with Master A but we let him, he was having such a good time! It wasn’t a competition but my other half would have been the winner. However, I managed to win the bonus round at the end, so I got given a free round to use later.
We had such a lovely time in Manchester and this has given me the inspiration to find something new every visit, maybe without planning!
The spending money was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.
I am in two minds about posting this but I think it is important.
On Wednesday, one of my biggest fears became a reality. Miss A had a partial seizure. Why was this one of my biggest fears? I had partial seizures when I was a child.
I often hoped that none of my children had to experience seizures. Well I assume they were seizures, way back in the 80s and 90s I don’t think there was a lot of knowledge about partial seizures. I have done some research about what I went through and they do seem to match the symptoms of some sort of partial seizure. Miss A definitely did have a partial seizure, the doctor(s) said so.
Miss A’ s seizure started with the following word’s. “I feel dizzy”. Those three words were said by me probably over a hundred times to my parents. I thought nothing of it at first as feeling dizzy doesn’t mean that someone is going to have a seizure. Miss A was then stumbling and reaching out for something to hold on to but nothing was near. I supported her and took her to safety, if she collapsed in the kitchen, where she was at the time, she would of hurt her head, we have tile floors. One thing to replace if this is going to be a regular occurrence.
She started to cough. Not loudly but there was a rhythm to the coughing. Her eyes then fixed upwards and to the left. She then started to swallow rhythmically. This was the time that I knew I had to phone an ambulance and kind of knew this was probably some form of seizure. She very quickly after stopped communicating, she said the odd sentence beforehand but this was the point she became completely out of it, not unconscious, just not responding to me. I had a few full blown seizures with fever but my partial seizures made me almost go blind (only seeing shadows/sillohettes) and made my whole body be useless. I never was completely out of it. When Miss A did this, I did panic a little. I remained rather calm, I think it helped that I have been through similar myself and I kind of reassured myself with the fact that she was still breathing and not unconscious so she must not be seriously ill.
She slowly came round while I was on the phone to the call handler. Very confused and repetitive and really didn’t make much sense. The ambulance arrived, she was pretty much back to normal apart from having to think about what she was saying and stuttered a bit.
She was kept in overnight to make sure that she didn’t have another seizure. I think she did have a second mild seizure in the waiting room as her eyes went a bit funny and she was sick.
They checked her coordination, did some blood tests and did an ECG, all was normal.
The doctor, who saw her the following morning, said that from what she went through, the seizure started from a specific part of the brain so just in case this wasn’t a one-off and in case that this is something more serious than epilepsy, they will do an MRI. This is happening tomorrow.
Miss A is such a brave and strong girl. A girl that even smiled when she had her blood test done and her cannula fitted. I was passing out at that age as I had a phobia of needles!
What do I think of all of this happening? I am worried. I am worried because I don’t want Miss A to go through what I did. Mine was more than likely to do with my hormones, Miss A is 9. I started my periods when I was 10.
However I know that we can cope if it is epilepsy, I just hope that it isn’t anything more serious. I am trying not to think about that. I am kind of struggling with the fact that it could be epilepsy let alone anything else. This week had better go quickly. Once we have the MRI results, at least we will know.
Miss A has gone back to school, went to her dance classes and also went ice skating, her choice. For all we know, this seizure(s) could be a one-off or just a one time thing (if the second one did happen). Her life is too precious to put things on hold. However everyone knows that if she says “I feel dizzy” then they need to be right by her side to support her and lead her to safety or get her on the floor.
As I said, I am in two minds whether I should post this or not but I do feel that it is important. I need to also tell myself that if it is epilepsy or is a regular occurrence, I grew out of it. It hopefully isn’t forever!
I know Miss A will take it all in her stride and she knows that me and her Daddy will be with her, supporting her and making sure that she has the best childhood we can give her.
I will update this post once we have the results.
No photo of Miss A in hospital. Just a photo of her feeling proud that she has took part in her 3rd ice skating gala. Whatever this is, this girl is strong and brave.