WOW, what a year 2020 has turned out to be. Those of you that regularly read Tom's blog will know we have been absent for a few months now! Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have had to safely navigate our way through this year. This has meant that for some months it wasn't safe for Tom and I to be together. Thankfully we reunited in September and have been having a lot of fun since. We thought we would do a brief update on how Tom has been getting on and our plans for December 2020.
Tom has been an absolute super star this year. He is shielding due to the complexity of his medical needs. He hasn't complained once and has embraced it all with a smile! We have been focusing a lot on play, baking and learning new tricks on his eye gaze.
Tom is flying with his eye gaze and one benefit of lockdown was that Tom has been doing a lot of 'Facetime' calls. Tom has been using his eye gaze to communicate, he even now is able to choose who he would like to call and can hold a conversation independently. Tom loves to call his 'Nanny Beky' and tell her how hard I am working him!! It is lovely to see him communicate to others who may not otherwise always understand his facial expression or body language. We continue to work with Tom and help him learn new ways of communicating through this assistive technology.
Tom has been doing lots of baking and keeping us all well topped up with sugary goods! We have been again focusing on using Tom's gridpad to allow him to use the kitchen aid and also to read out the recipes. We then use this hands on experience to expand Tom's word bank.
Moving forward to Christmas, this year will be a bit different for us than other years. Usually Tom will go to the local Pantomime every week leading up to Christmas and we would attend lots of Christmas events locally. This year we aren't going to be able to do that due to Covid and so we have thought of other ways to bring the magic of Christmas to Tom.
We have put up a Christmas tree in Tom's bedroom and as the month goes on we will add all of Tom's homemade decorations to make it a super special Christmas tree! We have lots of Christmas crafts planned along with lots of Christmas baking! We are reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas music!
The best thing about December 2020 is that The Royal Theatre Winchester is streaming a few of their Panto themed shows. This means Tom can still have the magic of the Panto but in the safety of his home. This is a great thing they are doing because it gives those that are shielding some of the Christmas joy! I really hope more places will look at doing online events and streaming for those who are unable to attend in person.
If you are interested in streaming the Winchester theatres show click on the link below!
We will keep you updated every week with what we have been getting up to, we are super happy to be back documenting Tom's journey and we hope you'll keep reading!
Merry Christmas Everybody!