A performance for Julia.

It's home visit week again and Julia, our Earlybird trainer came with her video camera. We don't have an assignment this week and we can choose to do anything we like with Alex.

I am all bunked up (yes .... I am afraid so ...) my voice's barely there, I have dehydrated skin and I know I'll look awful on camera, well .... it's about time Jeremy appear on tele.

He sat on the floor with Alex and played with his bus and taxi (Julia had her camera on them), taking turns pushing back and forth .... yes, I am afraid it's not very interesting but it shows that Alex is capable of concentrating and able to take turns. As soon as Julia put the video camera away, Alex started to sing his little songs. It's such a funny sight to see Julia quickly aiming her camera at Alex again (it's true what they say, never work with a child or animal) trying to catch his act. I must admit, Alex is rather cute when he sings.

After the videoing, we sat down to talk about Alex's progress and what we learnt from Earlybird and if we benefited from the course.

One of the things we learned from Earlybirds is The 5 Ps (Planning and Perseverance will Produce Progress and preventing Problems) and Alex's visit to the dentist on Tuesday proved that the method worked for us.

Our last visit to the dentist was in January and the dentist could not do anything with Alex because he refused to sit on the chair and open his mouth. Alex has been grinding his teeth and we were afraid that it would eventually wear out his teeth. The dentist Dr. Kouskoura decided that we should make another appointment to put a layer of fluoride paste on his teeth. When Alex grinds his teeth, he will wear out the fluoride layer instead of his teeth. That sounded good but will Alex co-operate?

I used the 5 Ps method and prepared Alex for the appointment the night before. I told him what to expect (the bright lights, there maybe another person in the room etc), what to do when he sees the doctor (open his mouth and say ahhh) and that he must sit on the chair to have his teeth checked.

When it was our turn to see the dentist, Alex walked in with confidence and when the doctor asked him to sit on the chair, he sat on the chair. I then asked him if he remembered what I said and he said yes. In less than 15 minutes, he had his teeth checked, the fluoride paste in placed and no problem and no tantrum. All went well and I was so proud of him.

I told Julia of our experience and she was so happy for us. We have been very lucky so far ... to have met the nicest people and they obviously cared very much for us.

Julia left an hour later not before she tasted my Raspberry and blueberry lime drizzle cake ... straight out from the oven.