CBT tomorrow

Well tomorrow afternoon I have my first session of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy.  I have NO idea what to think about it.  Sometimes I feel like a fraud, like I'll be wasting their time.  Sometimes I think it'll help.  I have no idea what to expect, and I'm quite nervous about it.  I'll update about it tomorrow or Friday.

My two boys, despite me, seem to be getting on really well.  Robert will love going to nursery when it comes round to September.  He enjoys playing here but I think he will get on well with nursery, and enjoy making new friends.  He is always so outgoing.  He loves making new friends where ever we go.  At parks, soft play and so on, he often very quickly befriends other children.  He LOVES older children, and the older children seem to love him too.  At least at first!  I think he gets on better with the older girls - as they seem to be more tolerant of having a three year old trail them for the rest of the time they're there!! Of his same age, he tends to befriend more boys than girls, as the girls he meets of his own age tend to be shyer and don't like his boistrousness!

I'm so pleased the weather is cheering up a bit, I can open the French doors and let the boys go in and out as they please.  Robert is learning how to swing himself on the swing, and still enjoys the sandpit as much as ever.  Christopher now LOVES the big slide (I am thinking of getting rid of our small Little Tykes slide altogether) and climbs up it really well in addition to sitting down properly and going down by himself.  Yesterday he seemed to want to go on the swing.  We have a garden swing which now Robert is older and can get on and off himself is getting much more use.  I sat Christopher on it, told him to hold on to the strings tightly, and then gave him the gentlest push while hovering right infront ready to catch!  At first he would move his bottom and legs around a bit which would tilt the swing, but he's realised now that he'll fall so he sits quite still!  Awwww my little boy is growing up!

Every so often, in the attempt to give my boys something more stimulating to do than playing aimlessly with toys or watching TV for hours on end (which happens - most days! :(  ) I make something sensory for them to play with, or get out the paints, or the playdough.  I make my own playdough.  I find it much cheaper, much better quality (doesn't dry out as quick), and you know EXACTLY what went in - and that it's 100% non toxic as it's made from 100% food items!  The last time I made playdough, I made this recipe and it is great!  It stays soft for ages, and it has hardly any smell to it (which the other stuff I've made stinks - not all that bad, but it means that you can't add smells to it as it's natural smell just overrides it!).  Just be sure to add the food colouring to the water as it takes ages to mix in otherwise! Some people have also recommended adding the salt to the water so it dissolves too, and means you won't get a grainy playdough (which sometimes happens after a week or so in the airtight pot I put it in).

Anyway, a month or so ago I got the paints out, with some cardboard tubes for them to print with.  Christopher absolutely adores these activities when I do them with him. He seems to love painting, so I will have to make more of an effort to do some when the weather is nice and we can go outside, and reduce the risk of painty sofas and carpet!!













They stayed surprisingly long at the activity - something I usually dislike about doing things like this is that you spend 10 minutes setting it up, for them to enjoy it for a whole 2 minutes, before they get bored and start running around with painty hands.

Playdough on the otherhand is SO stress free it is unreal.  Robert will EASILY spend half an hour playing with playdough, and yeah bits get on the floor, but a good scrape and they usually come up.  Anything for half an hour of quiet!!!

This is a batch of playdough I made sometime in March, and the photo was taken late April I think, so it lasts well.  He made a hedgehog :)



He was so proud of it!



Anyway I'll leave this here for now.  It's been ages since I did a post like this.  I just lack motivation lately, but I really need to try and make these sorts of posts so I have some memories to hold onto before I forget them all!