“Sometimes, when we are asked "How was your day?" or "How are you?", we want to cast aside the "fine" that is bubbling on our lips and actually tell you.”
“When we met with Spike's paediatrician for the first time, the words poured out of us like milk. We were grateful for a chance at certainty after months of carrying around this leaden question. "Is he autistic?".”
“I took 10 minutes out of my day to watch the first episode of "Pablo" on CBeebies. It's a ten minute show, mixing live action and animation to tell the story of 5 year old Pablo, who is autistic.”
“The boys' relationship has never been characterised by conflict, they accommodate and give way to each other like they do for no one else. Very gradually, companionship sprouted like a persistent plant on bare earth.”
“When you know a place well, you can stand at the centre of it and your mind can travel ahead, reaching out through hedges, over walls to the boundaries of your personal experience.”
“Spike lay sleepy amongst the rumpled sheets of our bed. He squinted, raised his hand next to head and opened and closed his pudgy starfish fist. He had made the Makaton sign for "light".”
“At Center Parcs, Spike summed up his essential dismay at being literally and figuratively outside of his comfort zone with exclamations of "I'm in the "Special Fares Apply" zone!". A long way from what felt like home.”
“There then follows a period of psychological over-adjustment, where Spike copes with the not-being-at-homeness of holidays by designating our accommodation "home". He mentally moves house.”
