Butlins..was fantastic.

Butlins was fabulous fun and J had a great time trying out the various activities on offer.

Despite his little quirks which were very apparent at times especially in the presence of noises and sounds he found unbearable we had great fun.

J hears a sound he doesn't like and shows his usual reaction (hands over ears) which is apparently typical of children with sensory processing problems. J has been showing this reaction to certain noises since age 2 years.

Heights are NO problem for J as seen from this photo......

...and even worse this photo of the ride he loved most and on which I was compelled to accompany him due to his age and height.

The best and most favourite activity though was without doubt Splash Waterworld pictured below (courtesy of Butlin's website - better say I nicked it from there in case I am infringing any copyright)! Believe me it was nowhere near this empty during our stay Check out the boat going down the chute.

J and I went to Waterworld every day and queued for 40 mins+ each time just to get in the door. The pool was obviously, a heaving mass of humanity but had to be endured as J enjoyed it so much.

Splash Waterworld has a feature called The Master-blaster which is a chute with various twists; turns and what seem like vertical slopes. You ride through the chute on an inflatable boat and have to be 8 to qualify for it. Of course if you are under 8 and want to ride it (like J) then you have to take a suitable adult (that means Mug Mum) with you. After a 30+ minute wait you finally reach the front of the queue and climb in the boat with Mum sitting in the back.

“Don’t worry” said the Lifeguard with a reassuring smile the first time we climbed aboard, “if the boat stops en route just stay put and we’ll come and rescue you”! With this our boat was hauled to the edge of what seemed to me like a steep (vertical) drop and off we went.

J absolutely LOVED it and we did The Master-blaster again and again (complete with long queue). Our best time was 37.58 seconds and our worst 50.39 seconds. Competitive - moi?

Much of the time though was spent in the pool which was full of children with their parents who were mainly BBs and BBs (that’s Big Birds and Big Blokes). So J’s Daddy (who uses his weight as an excuse to NOT go into the swimming pool) will be made to attend next time so that he too can experience the heaving masses. Maybe he’ll enjoy The Master-blaster too – or how about the massive slide which J comes down in all manner of positions and with seemingly no sense of danger?

I have to confess to rather enjoying the slide myself – not as much as the Jacuzzi though – even J enjoyed that. I have to thank J here for finding 5 minutes of fascination with the Jacuzzi which allowed me to sit in blissful relaxation for that time before being hauled off to join the queue for The Master-blaster once more.

So we are home...and Lara’s report is here of which I will report more once I’ve had time to read and digest it. In the meantime here are a few more pictures of Butlins.

J enjoys the bike track - but at £1 a go he didn't spend too much time here much to his disgust,

The Merry Go Round was FREE though.

Thursday was a beautiful day and J spent time playing in the wooden play area pictured to the back of this photo. Meanwhile Mummy.....

...drank some Vodka but at £3.25 a bottle couldn't afford to get drunk!

Butlins and some anxieties...

Tomorrow J and I are off to Butlins at Bognor Regis on the West Sussex coast. This is hardly the Seychelles but for J it will be heaven. J and I are going alone as his Dad has to work during next week so cannot join us. This means that I will have to develop the proverbial "eyes in the back of my head" with J whose senses will be overwhelmed by all the new sights, sounds and sensations.

My main anxiety is other children. J loves being with other children and enjoys actively trying to make friends. However, because J is fairly sensitive to touch it means that he can sometimes be "over the top" during play. On occasions this has meant that other children have found him rough - even though he has not meant to be. J struggles with waiting his turn although he is starting to develop more awareness of this. However, it still remains a problem at times - when Lara (our OT) observed him in school she noticed an occasion in the school playground where J pushed his way past another child to get onto the climbing frame first. Not surprisingly that child retaliated by pushing J off the climbing frame - cue tears and a need for reassurance. What Lara felt though was that J had been completely unaware of what he had done and was therefore unable to comprehend the actions of the other child.

Likewise today I took J to an indoor soft play warehouse. With his need for movement and some obvious pent up energy I thought a blast around the play equipment would be helpful. Off we went and at 9.30am were the first customers of the day. Some minutes later a family arrived with two children - one of whom was having a birthday party at the venue. Over the next 30 minutes many more children arrived and J was in heaven with lots of prospective playmates.

Several times I heard the birthday girl begin crying having been pushed past, knocked over etc etc. Although I did not see J actually do any of these things due to the difficulty of seeing through the gaps in various equipment I am quite aware that at times he simply does not realise that he's pushing past, pushing, being rough etc, so I began to keep an observant eye on proceedings - as did the birthday girl's Mum. A few moments later J came down the big slide and was approached by the birthday girl's Mum. Now birthday girl's Mum was perfectly nice to J and just said "I hope you're not making my little girl cry because it's her birthday today and we have to be nice to people on their birthday". J denied that he had made her cry and then ran off to another bit of equipment. I felt uneasy and started watching even more closely but J stayed away from the birthday girl after this. However, some 20 minutes later I heard birthday girl dissolve into tears again - now J was nowhere near her at this point and she pointed out another little boy as having upset her. Nevertheless within moments J was by my side and saying "I'm scared and I want to go home". I asked J why he was scared but he couldn't say - later when we were in the car he said that he was "frightened because the little girl was crying" and "I thought I had hurt her".
Such is the effect his SPD has on him that he evidently feels that even if he's not aware of it - sometimes he upsets people. I feel sad about this as he is such a friendly little boy who loves other children - I worry that this open friendly approach to other children will be lost along with self esteem.

So - understandably I am nervous about the holiday but excited too. J will have such fun - and some one to one time with his Mum who loves him the most in the world. I plan on taking him swimming every day as he loves being in the water and also to the fitness sessions - there is even football coaching if he wants to do this.

More than anything else though I am looking forward to just cuddling up with him at night. We took a late booking and the room we have only has a double bed - just big enough for J and me, some popcorn and the portable DVD player.

When we return there will be Lara's report and then probably some private individual OT sessions along with some techniques we can put into practice at home. All these things will - I hope - help J as he goes into the next school year.