Living with Cerebral Palsy 🍋🍋

Sunday 22 June 2014

Tea Time


Elin has had a lovely weekend. The weather has been amazing and though I always worry this will affect her adversely, so far she hasn't been too bad! This weekend was a very special person's birthday- Elin's Nanny! Without my Mum we would find it very hard to run our daily lives.  What with the demands of appointments/general care for Elin, being there for Caitlin after school or whenever she needs us, trying to maintain some sort of social life (albeit a rather skeletal one sometimes!) and both of us working too, it can sometimes be a logistical nightmare not to mention exhausting. Paul works full time and though I'm only part time anyone involved in teaching will tell you there's really no such thing! We have made it work for us, retained a normality after Elin was born that we instinctively knew was so important (and these familiar routines have proved to be our saviour, in emotional terms, on more occasions than I can count) but only because we had the help of my Mum. We are lucky to have a lot of support in friends and family but it's Mum that we couldn't really do without! She is there to meet the school bus if we have meetings etc after work, babysits when we need to go out or go and see one of Caitlin play's or concerts (four coming up in the next two weeks! For one of us to have to miss them would be so upsetting), supports one or the other of us if the other one is away for the weekend and generally just runs around for us. The handful of times we have been away for the night on our own since Elin was born was able to happen because of my Mum. Normal Nanny duties of course extend in our case to not only spoiling Elin rotten and having lots of cuddles and fun but also learning how to manoeuvre Elin's feeding, set up her milk pump, identify a seizure, measure out and administer her 13 daily medications, do some pretty heavy lifting and also give potentially life-saving rescue medication for nasty seizures should the situation arise. Mum does all this without complaint or flapping (WHILST working full time as a Nursery Nurse in the local primary school herself I might add) and basically plans her own calendar around what we need. So on special occasions such as her birthday I know Elin feels desperate to spoil her and show her how much we care :-) This year amongst other things, we took Mum out for tea. Not dinner-type-tea, but literally an old-fashioned pot of tea. There is a wonderful vintage -inspired tea room and gardens situated alongside a local beauty spot next to the Froncysyllte canal, which was just perfect for today. Believe it or not, Elin has already visited this amazing little find, with her equally amazing school on a little visit once, so she already knew her way around :-) Thanks to the special lady who reminded me about it- you know who you are! Anyway it was beautiful, Elin was good as gold and able to sit nicely - before we got there we took her to a park with an 'Able-about' (roundabout with space for her chair) which was so lovely- and my Mum said that Elin being so happy was the best present she could have had (of course!). So happy birthday Mum/Nanny. I see you every time I look at Elin (it's uncanny!) and if I can be half the Mum to her that you have been to me then Elin is one lucky little girl. We love you. Oh and sometimes I'm not very good at saying a proper thank you for all you do. It's not because I don't want to, or because I don't feel grateful. It's because I don't know what to say, unusual for me I know! I can't articulate it- it's too much (so I'm cheating now, with this blog, instead) Words will just never be enough for the life you gave us since the day we were born and in particular the courage, bravery and mettle you have shown, and that I always knew you had, since Elin was born. We simply could not have done it without you. Thank you :-)



 If you are local and this sounds like your 'cup of tea' here is more information about this gorgeous family-run tea room and gardens (which also has a disabled toilet facility, important to some people like us!)......

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g2082843-d4288406-Reviews-Fron_House_Tea_Room_Garden-Froncysyllte_Wrexham_County_North_Wales_Wales.html

xxx
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