Good stuff

1. Duncan's drawings and books.
2. Squishy little boy cuddles in bed each morning.
3. Lady growing up, taking more of an interest in the world, in music, in wanting to learn and develop and having fun with her mates.
4. Thomas changing so much over the summer, leaving more of his early childhood interests behind and spending more time than ever with other little boys.
5. Thomas and Duncan playing silly, fun games together in the mornings or just before bed, games like "ghost" and "smelly feet" that involve lots of laughing and tickling and chasing.
6. Duncan playing outside while an adult hovers by the front gate to check on him now and then, knowing that his siblings are also keeping an eye on him.
7. The neighbourhood children all getting to know and accept Duncan as he is, and answering their reasonable questions about why he does certain things or can't do other things. Seeing them greet him and sometimes play with him, though he usually prefers to just play his own game somewhere near them.
8. Pippi, our cute pup, who is starting to be much more responsive to our commands and who seems to have a special bond with the person who was least keen to get a dog in the first place.
9. Duncan's skill with his new PC game, Railway Simulator. We've figured out how to upload Thomas trains to the programme and he's having the best time recreating the stories in detail.
10. Breakfast in bed every other morning.
11. The Olympics, more fun than I'd expected. I loved the diving and the canoeing, and obviously, the athletics. The Jamaican men and women were astonishing, especially this guy. We all celebrated and cheered-on their successful races.
12. Getting our back garden sorted. The gardener who oversaw the building of new walls and mended fences came by for his cheque yesterday and we chatted about family and living here and he mentioned that his youngest child was recently diagnosed as autistic. He spoke lovingly about her chattiness and extraordinary memory and I told him about Duncan. It was nice.

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