Life with an autistic child inevitably results in lots of compromises. What most families may take for granted as normal is often unachievable for those with special needs children. That's not to say life is worse but there is a definite need for some creative thinking and flexibilty and it definitely helps to let go of any ideals you held for how family life should be.

One of our household compromises has been to become quite nomadic, especially when it comes to sleeping and eating. Most mornings either H or I wake up in a different bed to the one we went to sleep in (largely thanks to Toby's nocturnal shenanigans). We're usually awake for a few hours each night as Toby doesn't often sleep through and is quite active when he wakes. When it comes to meals we take a similar flexible approach. Toby grazes most of the day and is an extremely faddy eater so we only tend to eat our Sunday dinner altogether at the dining table, the rest of the time it's picnics, knee balancing and plate juggling. It's all to do with coping – I think if you strive for perfection when it's not an achievable attainment then you're less likely to cope (that's my excuse anyway!)

Toby is of course the most adventurous nomad of us all, usually choosing to eat at altitude – he often heads off to the top of the climbing frame or his platform bed with his assortment of bowls but his current favourite place is half way up the stairs!

It makes for a bit of an assault course if you ever need to dash to the loo in our house!

I wanted to write about a very special auction that is taking place at the moment on Mia's blog. Mia makes the most gorgeous little bears which come with lots of beautiful extras like additional outfits, snacks and their own little toys.

She's just finished this very special little bear called Mai and she's auctioning her off to raise funds for a very special centre in Vilnius, Lithuania. If you pop over you can read all about the aims of the centre and their work with autistic children. There are very limited facilities and support available to autistic children and their families in this area and so every little bit helps. Please pop by Mia's blog and read her post, her auction finishes on November 25th.

I'd like to do a little bit to help too and so my little contribution will be Perlina.

She'll be for sale via my Etsy shop in a day or two and all of the money from her sale will be donated to buy materials for the centre. Update: I'll pop her into my Etsy shop early next week along with a few others that I'm just finishing off.