Happy 14th birthday

At the suggestion that he might like to come to the evening service last night, he made a couple of abortive attempts at standing up and I though it was 'curtains'. But he got dressed and decended the stairs. I popped back upstairs and when I returned he'd fallen soundly asleep on the couch underneath two dogs.
Thankfully he came out and enjoyed the service, curtailed to allow for the Carol Service starting at 8pm. But he was never likely to stay for that and tuned in via the live feed from home instead. He really warmed to the carols and the excellent comments upon them by Alun and the sermon by Pastor Dewi, Alun's brother, so he was there in his favourite place, with walls newly adorned with Glantaff's best wishes. Then it occurred to him to give Facebook another try on the i-Pad. It seems his class have their own page. He made it in to post a 'thanks' for all the cards. I know it'll mean a lot to his peers if he shows up there. As Malcolm said the other day, we have no idea how widely Pads has touched people, without in anyway seeking the limelight.
Today I went in at about 8:30am as his feeding pump was alarming to say it'd finished. He patiently raised himself up to take his morning meds, I put his duvet straight, said my 'happy birthday' and shut the door not expecting to see him again until noon, at least. Working from home is tricky. There's something big going off in work and a student was crying for help so I thought I'd get away with going in. Half an hour after arriving at my desk 'His nibbs' is up opening cards and pressies! :-))
So, as a way of getting my own back, here's the pic his mum sent me of him in action (note the can of plain pringles which we'd giftwrapped for him):

I just hope he can sustain it for his trip to 10-pin bowling and Pizza Hut later...
UPDATE on goodgifts. I pointed out to them by email that their website is not very clear about the process of telling the person you buy for what you've done. They responded as follows:

Thank you for your email. For each purchase, you will receive a card which includes a brief description and a picture of what it is that has been bought ‘in your name.’ These can be personalised if so desired. The card can either be sent to the person who has bought it, or the intended recipient.

Parcel from Glantaf

Pads spent the whole of yesterday in bed - not wanting to attend the clinic. It didnt matter. If the doctor wants to check him out they can pop in on their walk into work. Anyway, sans Pads allowed mum to go alone and discuss Pads' case more frankly. It has been a bit of a theme this week that people assume or project onto us that we're angry with what's happening. We've had a think about that but we really dont think we are... Even Pads himself has only very rarely, and only under the hight of duress, been known to exclaim, 'I hate this'. Fair enough. Except 'fair' is not a word people can easilly reconcile with what he's/we're going through. As it's late, can I 'refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave earlier'?

This morning a nice-looking parcel arrived from Glantaf, Pads' most recent school. Recent, but he's not been there for many months. Each of the children in his form had created a Christmas/Birthday card for him. Many of the designs were simply stunning and the level of effort involved to produce them was considerable. By Year 9, the creative talents are clearly coming to fruition!
Even though the last couple of days have been very quiet, he did not make it to either the Thursday night Welsh carol service or the Friday Night Youth Rally. He did muster the energy to visit Mr Higham who came out of hospital last Monday.. Mr Higham was delighted to see him and chatted away... including an anecdote about an unexploded bomb that showed up in his garden back in World War II.
I should have mentioned that the 'Good Gifts' site has gifts for as little as £5 if you still want to 'give' anything to Pads for his birthday... the items I mentioned the other day were each over £15.