Family Magazine

Highlights of 2011

By Mmostynthomas @MostynThomasJou

Highlights of 2011Last time I reviewed Isobel's year, I found it liberating. After all, nothing places life in perspective quite like a good old-fashioned annual review - certainly, it enabled me to believe in the possibility of a brighter future for Isobel. I don't think I would have dared hope otherwise.
Second time round, though, I found it much more of a challenge. Isobel's development has increasingly veered away from the standard non-disabled infant timeline, so much so that I am finding that the milestones she is more likely to reach are through rehab rather than naturally.
Place these too deeply within the context of key 2011 headlines, and we make a mockery not just of those hard-earned achievements, but also of the tougher times we have had to endure through the year. Forget the phone-hacking scandal, major natural disasters and foreign despot killings - we had events of our own that held far greater personal resonance for us as a family.
One interesting development over the last twelve months is how the government has turned us all into campaigners. Like those who went on strike to protect their pensions, Miles is a public sector worker, and being a deaf and disabled family, we are likely to be affected by disability benefit and service cuts.  So I hope you will appreciate the tendency to focus on those headlines instead.
Without further to-do, below are our highlights of 2011.
Highlights of 2011In January, a collapsed childcare arrangement signifies the battles that lie ahead of negotiating with medical and education professionals - particularly those regarding the buggy and Isobel's SEN statementing process, more details of which are pending.
March sees me directing an intensive weekend shoot for my film-making debut, a 10-minute drama short called CODA. Isobel's statementing process begins with a visit from a clinical psychologist. She also has a MRI scan under general anaesthetic, following two failed attempts in February, one of which is made under sedative.
April becomes one of the defining months of the year, and not just because of the Royal Wedding. In the week that Isobel's PACE sessions are increased to twice a week, her MRI scan results send us reeling with the revelation that her CP is present in all four limbs, not two as previously thought. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. We escape to Bruges for a week. Upon our return, we move house - and I learn I am pregnant. Our fund-raising campaign for PACE begins.
One headline-making event that affects us directly is May's Hardest Hit march attended by thousands of people with disabilities in protest at disability benefit cuts. CODA makes its big screen debut at Wolverhampton's Deaffest. The four-month hiatus imposed on the blog by the house move, the film shoot, and the MRI scan results ends.
Highlights of 2011Isobel celebrates her second birthday on the same day as the British public sector workers' strike against pension cuts in June, and is fitted with an arm splint and trunk support. She begins straightening her legs while standing with support. 
August witnesses four days of rioting, looting and arson across several major cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, at one point forcing David Cameron to return from holiday. It doesn't prevent Isobel from consolidating her communication skills by pointing towards selected objects or people and listening for a description.
In September Isobel finally learns to shift her feet after months of facilitated walking practice. It follows another increase of her sessions to thrice a week, and heralds more goals to come.
October is marked by both the anti-capitalism Occupy protests that spread to cities around the world and the arrival of baby Benedict. The blog earns me two runner-up nominations in the Deaf Parenting UK Awards 2011 - which I am booked to attend, but am prevented from doing so by a pregnancy false alarm.
Public sector workers strike again in November. Isobel achieves her biggest physical goal to date: pulling herself up to standing. Three of the four people in the room with her are thrilled to tears.
Highlights of 2011David Cameron's December veto of an EU treaty is viewed by some as the strongest indication yet of the UK's deficit being used as a smokescreen to protect the Square Mile. I learn of governmental plans to abolish ESA in youth, and start an e-petition to stop Clause 52 in the 2011 Welfare Reform Bill.
2012 may be an Olympic year, with Stoke Mandeville spotlit as the home of the Paralympics. But we clearly have much more work to do. We are still a long way off from our £10,000 fund-raising target, and I am finding us having to campaign more and more for the right to lead fulfilling lives as deaf and disabled people. Surely, this is at odds with the face that the Olympics and Paralympics aim to present to the world?
For the next twelve months, I have just one wish: that we do not let the challenges that lie ahead overshadow the soaring progress our little girl is making right now. 

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