Today my youngest turns 12.

Today is my youngest girls birthday. Ellie is 12 today and what a year she has had! I say it every year but she seems to have really grown up. This year she has had a lot of changes in her life and I am so proud of how she has dealt with everything!

This time last year Ellie was still being diagnosed for Autism, we were stressing about her starting secondary school about how she would cope and if she'd make new friends.

In true Ellie style she proved us all wrong and settled into secondary school so well. She really took to it like a duck to water. All the worries we had vanished within a couple of weeks. She knuckled down with work and there was no more daydreaming. When she started secondary school she was so behind her peers but at the end of the school year she had caught up and passed some of them in some subjects. Music, French and Art. She was diagnosed with social anxiety but to be honest she has grown in confidence so much over the past year!

We had fantastic support from the SENDco teacher with meetings every half term. She kept us informed and she was our go to person if we did have any problems. She made sure all of the teachers were aware that Ellie is deaf in one ear. I felt like my girl was well looked after at school.

Ellie made a good group of friends and even got herself a boyfriend which was a little older than her but he was a nice lad. She always struggled with making friends in primary school but in secondary school she was included and was even invited to a birthday party which was such a big deal! There was still of course bullying issues. I put it down to pure jealousy! The girls who bullied her in primary school continued in secondary. They would just not let Ellie be, they were not happy that Ellie had moved on and made new friends. It's a shame they couldn't move on and leave her alone. 

When we told Ellie we were moving house she was so excited. She took the move way better than we expected and loves living where we do now. She has had full control in picking the wallpaper and decor for her bedroom. She's now asking for a double bed, she has the room in her bedroom so it's something to think about for next year. The amount of teddies and soft toys she has in her bed, she could do with one. lol Ellie is excited to start her new school in just under a week. She already knows one of the dinner ladies and one of the teaching staff lives on our street. hehehe She is looking forward to making some new friends and doing textiles. She never had that lesson in her old school so it's something new.

Over the past year Ellie has started to play less with kids toys and now goes for older kids toys. She still loves her Barbie like dolls and of course Monkey! At the moment she is really into drawing and painting so I have bought her a ton of art supplies for her birthday.

We don't have any big plans for Ellie's birthday. She's having a special unicorn breakfast. Asda sell Unicorn shaped crumpets and unicorn raspberry spread. We are going to have lunch out while we do some birthday shopping and we have to nip to Becky's college so she can officially enrol, we're then going out for a meal, then home for birthday cake!

I am so proud of Ellie and the young lady she is becoming.