General Elliott was really good today. I've also been giving him cough mixture which he's been taking very nicely. Activities
After breakfast we got dressed and set off to the train station to get the train to London for Brick 2014 (or "Lego Festival" as we called it). During the train journey Elliott was really well behaved and did his Maths homework (division) really quickly and got everything right and the recording was very neat and clear. He also read his new Transformers annual on the train and we took it in turns to play games on the iPhone. After we arrived at Waterloo we had to get the tube to Canning Town and then the DLR to Custom House where the Excel centre and "Lego Festival" was. Elliott was really good on the tube and DLR:
When we got to the Excel the queue to get in was huge so we decided to have our packed lunch early while the queue died down. By the time we'd finished lunch we walked straight in to Brick 2014 and Lego heaven. We saw loads of amazing bespoke Lego models including towns, railways, space ships, pirate scenes, battle scenes, huge Star Wars models, a big Titanic, a Space Shuttle, Tower Bridge, the Shard, a McDonalds and loads more and Elliott found them really interesting:
There was also a presentation area and we watched talks and Q and As with one of the chief designers of Lego Star Wars 3 the video game and by 2 actual Lego set designers, both of which Elliott enjoyed. He even asked one of the Lego set designers a question after his talk - "how many different types of Lego mini-figure are there" (although the Lego set designer didn't know). We also saw the man from Officially Amazing awarding a Guiness World Record to the video game designer as Lego Batman 1 is not the most successful video game ever. Later on we bumped into the Officially Amazing man in the venue and he said hello to us which Elliott found pretty exciting. He also enjoyed competing in a dance off in a group of children to the left of the stage with children to the right of the stage (and the "Legettes") and his side won. So he got a reward Lego mini figure:
As well as the presentation area there were lots of interesting stalls selling second hand and specialist Lego and we bought Yoda and Watto Lego Star Wars mini-figure key rings for his school book bag. We also got some freebies including 2 Batman mini-figures and some Lego guns Elliott won by knocking down Lego Star Wars Angry Birds soft toys on a stall:
As well as all this there was also a silent disco which we almost went in but Elliott was a bit shy, some junior go karts we didn't have time for, a "race a Lego man" track we didn't have time for, a huge Toys R Us Lego store we didn't go to, a tasty snack zone we did go to and had free Bear fruit (and picked up 15 Bear fruit cards we haven't got yet), a Playstation Lego video game zone where we picked up some free Lego Batman 3 video game posters and an augmented reality screen that built Lego from flattened boxes on the screen:
There was absolutely loads to do and if we'd gone for another day we probably wouldn't have seen everything. Eventually we left around 4pm and the journey home was quick so we were home in time for a pasta tea, bath time and then bed time without it being too late. We both really enjoyed the "Lego Festival".
General Elliott was pretty good after football. There was a bit of stroppiness during lunch towards the end but we went to a quiet place for a chat and he calmed down quickly and was good again straight afterwards. Activities
After football we went to Reading on the train for lunch with Andrea's family at Las Iguanas. On the train we bumped in to Milly, Elsie, Lucy and Dave Allen and Elliott had a nice chat with Milly as they haven't seen each other for a while. When we got to Reading we went straight to Las Iguanas and there were 17 people in our lunch group which included Andrea's cousins and Uncle and Aunt. Elliott was really well behaved as lunch did take a long time and he played with Harry and Jack lots. He also read a Transformers annual we bought from a second hand shop from 1987 to occupy himself and enjoyed the word search, spot the difference and colouring in on the children's menu. He had 2 mini burgers with chips for lunch and ate very well.
After lunch we got our hair cut and he was good and patient as ever in the barber's chair (and also enjoyed his post hair cut lollipop as ever). Then we met back up with the group for goodbyes and headed home on the train. On the train he read lots of his Star Wars book "Obi Wan Kenobe - Jedi Knight". When we got home it was straight into bath time and toast with honey for tea before watching some iPad and bed time.
General Elliott was good after a school and had a jacket potato with cheese for lunch. Activities
His swimming lesson was good and the normal teacher wasn't there so they had a different teacher. After swimming we picked up a a few items of shopping from Tescos including a card to write to Father Christmas. After we got home he wrote his list to Father Christmas in the card and asked for a Stomp and Chomp Grimlock, a kinder egg toy Megatron and Arcee and a Rubix Snake. After writing his card he played with Transformers and toast with honey for tea before getting changed into his pyjamas and brushing his teeth as he had a shower after swimming so didn't need a bath. Before bed he read Chapter 7 of "Horrid Henry meets the Queen" which was the last chapter in the book.
General Elliott had another good day at school although he said he'd had to work hard. He had fish and chips for lunch. He was good after school although he did get briefly frustrated while trying to work out how his new Bumblebee Construct-Bot Transformer worked. Activities
When I picked Elliott up from school he came out with his Pudsey biscuit which looked great and he ate in the car:
Then we went to Tescos on the way home for some food shopping and Elliott bought a Bumblebee Construct-Bot Transformer with his saved pocket money. After we got home Elliott played with his new Bumblebee Construct-Bot and got a little frustrated at first as it was stiff and hard to put together. However he soon got the hang of it and then we had hot dogs for tea. Then he played a bit more with Transformers before bath time and reading one of his new purple school book "What is a Wookie" and some iPad toy review watching as it's a weekend night.
General Elliott said he'd had a good day at school and he had a gold smiley sticker on his jumper for writing well. He had jacket potato with beans and cheese for lunch. He also is now reading purple books. He was really good after school. Activities
We went straight to swimming lessons which went well. They spent a lot of the session practicing pushing off from the side of the pool on their front and then they did some back stroke swimming and his back stroke was really good. After swimming he had a kinder egg treat (though we couldn't find a Transformers variety anymore). When we got home he read one of his school books, "Tiger x 4", all the way through and then half of his other school book "The Sands of Akwa" (which follows on from "Tiger x 4"). Then he had wraps with butter and cheese for tea again before we watched the first semi-final of Junior Masterchef. Then he got changed into his pyjamas and brushed his teeth as he had a shower after swimming so didn't need a bath and read the rest of "The Sands of Akwa" before bed time.
General Elliott was good after school today. He said he'd had some problems with the games they were playing again today so we talked about playing games with different and new friends. He didn't seem too upset though. Activities
After school we had wraps with butter and cheese before football training. Training was good and they practiced dribbling and passing which seemed like a good idea after Saturday. Elliott did well overall and there is lots of improvement in his ball trapping, passing (with both feet) and dribbling. After we got home he had a quick bath and then read his school book "The Sands of Akwa" before bed time.
General Elliott was mainly good today. We did have an incident after lunch when he was doing his homework and after he'd done most of it he begun losing interest. This would have been fine, but he started being unresponsive rather than saying nicely "I'd like to finish the work later" and then started being silly and sulky. He ended up going to his room until he was ready to finish his work off. But after a brief period in his room and a little upset he came back out and finished his homework and we talked about how to communicate more constructively. Activities
In the morning he relaxed watching Dragons before football. He really seemed to have enjoyed football and said he liked playing on the left wing as well as at the back. It was good to see him getting a good amount of time on the pitch and I thought he played well. In fact I think they all played well today but came up against a team with 2 or 3 very good players. After football we went home and he finished making me a very nice red. green and yellow loom band while watching another episode of Junior Masterchef before we had spaghetti for lunch with a bacon past sauce which he ate really well.
After lunch he did his maths homework which was varying where numbers were in sums to show intergers. He'd said himself in the morning that this was when he was going to do his homework. He started this very well, although his number writing was a bit big and some of the numbers were sometimes the wrong way round. Then he suddenly lost interest and after that he became sulky and generally unresponsive even though we talked about how to say he wanted a break nicely and then he had to go to his room to calm down. After he'd come back, apologised and finished his homework we visited Andrea's parents house where Graham, Babs, Harry and Jack were also visiting and a lot of fun was had by all. After that we went home for toast and honey for tea followed by a quick bath, reading Chapter 6 of "Horrid Henry meets the Queen", some Strictly Come Dancing and bed time.
General Elliott was good after school today and had a good day at school. He had fish and chips for lunch. Activities
After school we went home and watched Junior Masterchef on CBBC and some of Children In Need after they'd made a big Pudsey at school. He also read his school book "Pirate Party".
General Elliott was good after school today and good for Andrea as I had to go out at 7pm so she put him to bed. He had pizza for lunch and said he hadn't been upset at school. He seemed to have really enjoyed his day as it had been the Great Fire of London workshop and they'd had a silence at 11am for remembrance day. Activities
They practiced front crawl at swimming today and at the end Elliott was swimming front crawl without any floats. After swimming we got a Transformer kinder egg but it was Starscream (again). After we got home we logged in to Education City and played a couple of the maths games on it before honey and toast for tea and a bath as he didn't have a shower after swimming. Before I left he read Chapter 5 of "Horrid Henry meets the Queen" and his school book "Welcome to the Circus".
General Elliott was very good after school today. He had a plaster and a cut on his knee from break time when he said he ran into a step playing a chasing game. He said he'd been upset at school twice, both at break time, once because of the cut and once because Fedia stole the ball when they were playing football. Also I keep meaning to say I've been giving him cough mixture twice a day and his cough does sound like it's getting a little better. Activities
After school we went to swimming where they did a lot of back stroke practice again. After swimming Elliott had a shower and we got a Transformers Kinder Surprise Egg which had Starscream (again). Then he did another excellent toy review for his Flip N Change Transformers which we both enjoyed making:
He had sandwiches for tea and then read another chapter of "Horrid Henry meets the Queen" before bed time. We also practiced spellings and his 10 times table.
General Elliott had a few moments today. The first was while we were looking at Toys R Us and Hobbycraft for model kit after the Dentist visit and he got upset that he couldn't have a Transformer, even though he agreed to no Transformer before we went in. The second came after lunch when he got upset that we weren't going to do a second toy review. And finally he got upset after he was kicked during football training. He did recover quite quickly from all 3 incidents and we talked each time about how being as upset as he got wasn't really necessary (apart from after the kick as that was different). Activities
First thing in the morning we went to see the Dentist. This went very well apart from Elliott saying he was a bit scared when we got to the Dentist, but he seemed to move on very quickly and he was completely at ease when he got in to the chair. The Dentist said his teeth were very good and his brushing must be good. He also said he had some back teeth coming through and that it was time for grown up toothpaste. Elliott seems a bit apprehensive about grown up toothpaste but having tasted his current mint toothpaste I actually think grown up toothpaste is milder. After the Dentist we went to Toys R Us and Hobbycraft to get a simple model kit to make together and, after a little bit of upset, he ended up choosing an Airfix Quick Build Jet Euro Fighter kit (from Toys R Us). After we got home we made the kit together as it snapped together, and he did almost all of it himself. Then we had breaded fish and chips for lunch.
After lunch we watched some "Ninja Turtles - The Next Mutation" and then Elliott wanted to make a toy review of his new Jet model so we spent some time doing this, and he used his imagination to pretend it was a Transformer and even did a comparison with another Transformer (which was actually some Lego):
After this he got a bit upset because he wanted to make another toy review video but there wasn't time. After he'd calmed down we had honey sandwiches for tea and set off for football training. At football training the Panthers practiced corners for almost the whole session and Elliott mainly played in defence doing some really good marking and tackling. He did find it hard to concentrate at times, but all the boys were messing around at different times and it was quite cold for them all. He also got upset when he got a kick (accidental) and has a nasty looking bruise. After we got home he had a quick bath and then he read Chapter 3 of "Horrid Henry meets the Queen" before bed time.
General Elliott was good today. He did get upset briefly after swimming because he wanted a Kinder Egg, but after we talked about him being a bit like Veruca Salt he moved on. Activities
In the morning we went swimming at Coral Reef where it was really busy. Elliott had a lot of fun and did some really good swimming, as well as lots of jumping in and out. After swimming we came home and had cheese on toast for lunch.
After lunch we had a lazy afternoon watching some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and playing with Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We had Roast Chicken for tea and Elliott ate this really well including two pieces of brocolli (which did take a little persuading). Then he got ready for bed without a bath as he showered after swimming and he read some more "Horrid Henry meets the Queen" which included some quite hard words again. Finally there was time for a 10 minutes of iPad before bed time.
In the morning the cup game against Reeves Rangers was really good. I thought Jackdip and Sally did an excellent job coaching the boys and helping Elliott learn where to go when playing on the right. It was also good to see him playing for longer than normal (about 30 minutes) and also playing at the back as well as on the right so he's learning about different positions. He scored his first goal which was a hard shot from outside the area which was brilliant and he also set up a goal for James with a good clearance. There was also good tackling, passing and some good foot on the ball skills. Overall I thought the whole set up was much better this week and it was good to see all the boys getting lots of time on the pitch and playing as a team. It was also good to see them battling back from being quite far behind to only lose by 2 goals in the end. After football we went to the Peel Centre in Bracknell where we did some shopping for school uniform, looked at toys and had ham and cheese toasties for lunch in Costa Coffee.
After lunch we went home and Elliott watched the iPad for a bit before we played with Transformers. We also went outside and did some cycling practice around the flat's car park and the garden which went well and he enjoyed. He had burgers, chips and beans for tea and then it was bath time. After his bath he started reading the Horrid Henry book that Mrs Parfitt gave him at the end of last year which was quite advanced but he read well. Finally we watched Strictly Come Dancing together until Steve Bakshall had done his dance and then it was bed time.
