Chasing Butterflies Daily

Halloween is fast becoming one of the biggest celebrations of the year worldwide. It's enjoyed by little 'uns as well as older and drunker humans as an excuse for revelries, especially of the night for the latter. For many of the rest of us it's the small bastion we hold on to before all the people who'd have Christmas all year round if they could, force us to live with Christmas through November (sorry if you're one of "those" people - I don't hate Christmas I just believe it belongs in December and any excessive celebration ahead of time just makes me enjoy it less).  As a Swede I didn't really grow up with Halloween being much of a thing. We dress up as witches for Easter but that's for another post and for us the 1st of November is a bigger tradition. It is known as "Allhelgona afton" - All Saint's eve - and is a day for remembering our lost loved ones. Lights are lit everywhere in our deep Nordic autumn darkness, ...

Some Halloween spirit for you while also covering some dwarfism awareness. Husband got the kids some Halloween costumes yesterday - every year we discuss ideas to so as a family and then inevitably we end up buying from the supermarket. One year we'll get round to making some fun themed costumes but not this one! He'd brought back a skeleton baby grow for our son. It's a size 12-18m which is pretty much ideal when it comes to torso length (despite being 2.5 years old his disproportionate form of dwarfism - achondroplasia - means his limbs grow slower than his average height peers which means clothes take extra planning) and it is only a little long in the sleeve. The trousers are a no go though as the bottoms he has that fit are either 6-9 or 9-12 months.  Worth noting that just like average height kids all grow differently so do kids with achondroplasia, their height and limb lengths can vary greatly so what fits Elis just now won't necessarily work for ano...

This is a blog post I've written for the DSAuk newsletter, only thing added here are my photos and the video clip. Head to their website for more information on the charity HERE . This year has of course seen many events and plans changed. I am sure we're all tired of reading stories that start like this and yet by now it's slowly becoming normality to us all. Sadly for DSA members across the four nations it has meant that much needed get togethers haven't happened. In Scotland we rely heavily on the work that Hailey does through the DSA as it is for many the main way we can meet others with dwarfism. It means it's important not just for the physical and mental benefits of allowing everyone a chance to do sports. It is so much more than that as there are many purely social events and a lot of support offered and knowledge shared between members that we simply don't get elsewhere. We are fortunate that this is the case but it's also made all the ca...

Home made play dough is ridiculously easy to make and takes very few ingredients. Generally all things you have in your cupboards normally. Now most of the recipes I can find involve cream of tartar which we never have, BUT we always have lemon juice (I'm obsessed) and that's a perfectly good substitute - as is vinegar but it's obviously got a stronger smell. This recipe is a non cook one that I've played around with to find the perfect texture for us. I've adjusted the measurements to suit metric system as I have never baked in cups/pints etc. Ingredients 300ml flour 150ml salt 2tbs oil (veg./oil/coconut) 2tbs lemon juice 250-300ml boiling water food colouring Method Just bung all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix the boiling water (I'd use the lower amount stated and only add the extra if it's needing more moisture - if it's too wet sprinkle some extra flour) with the wet ingredients and then add to the bowl of fl...

You can pick from lots of different colours when you get your moulds made, there's even clear and sparkly ones. Was great to see the choice available to kids to help them feel it's still something fun. Obviously Elis will get a say when he's older but for now I picked these blue moulds as I love the colour on him and I hoped it would make them fairly easy to find. I thought it was time to give you all an update on Elis' journey with hearing aids. Some of you may recall my post earlier this year about his moderate hearing loss due to glue ear, something children with achondroplasia are quite prone to ( you can find the previous post HERE ). Last time I wrote we'd decided to go down the route of hearing aids before considering grommets as that involves general anesthetic and they unfortunately seem to fall out early often in kids with achon from what I've heard from others. Getting the hearing aids We made the decision to try aids first in early March: just before...