Swindon

General 

Elliott was good today, although he was shy at football and didn't join in, but I'm not sure this is bad behaviour as such.

Activities

In the morning we went to football. Unfortunately I got lost on the way (missed my normal turning and then got confused) so we arrived after the session had started. Because of this Elliott was a bit put off joining in and we spent the first quarter of an hour playing with Adam's Dad, Isla and Freya while Adam's Dad, Charlie's Nanny and I all gave encouraging Elliott to join in a go. This wasn't very successful and I didn't want to push it in case it put him off even more. So I offered the option of going to a pitch next door and just playing football with me and he chose this - so we did lots of kicking and running around anyway. After the session ended we then went back in to the right pitch and he kicked a ball around with Adam for a bit (Charlie left pretty quickly after the session ended). After we got back into the car Elliott explained that after arriving late he felt a bit scared to join in. So I explained gently that it was my fault and I was sorry and that it shouldn't stop him joining in if he wants to, but again I didn't want to push it. I will be making sure I'm there a bit early in future though.

After football we went to Swindon to visit Richard, Kay, Nicholas and Emily Couldidge. This was a really nice afternoon. We had an "indoor picnic" lunch and then there was lots of indoor and outdoor playing, including playing some memory games. He was really good and they all played very nicely together.

To see photos of today visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliottsweekends/.