The play area

"Play area" Reuben signs and speaks the words simultaneously as we descend the incline from Westchester to Playa Vista, flanked by marshland and the Ocean beyond, and playing fields alongside the new city. Without the trach, his voice is so much stronger and clearer.

"Bye bye Signing Time" he follows. Ordinarily turning off Signing Time in the car is one of the only tantrum inducing changes for Reuben, but not today. Home this morning from two more days in intensive care, he's ready to play! We love this bucket swing, universally designed, along with so many of the other structures here, for the disabled and being a beautiful place to swing with both the boys til we all want to fall asleep.

Boys bathed and smelling sweetly of Burt's Bees. Mama's out to meet fellow special needs mum Mary for some Letters to Juliet romcom. Friday Reuben, after all, graduate from UCLA school and if anyone's around to help with photos... And perhaps I'll dream tonight of a reinstated trip back home to the UK with the boys in the summer to coincide with the World Cup so I can watch football and tennis with mum and dad til my heart's content, listen to FiveLive cricket, just for Agnew's voices to soothe me into the sounds of summer, whilst the boys run rampant after bumble bees buzzing through lavender in their back garden, or walk through fields from my sister Geraldine's home deep in the Essex countryside, listening to cockerels at dawn, to bask the sunshine or feel the blast of rain along cliff tops on the south coast in Dorset with siblings Joe and Anne-Marie, or have the boys see grass not corn fed cows and that natural cycle of food-fertilise-food, to see the sights of London, my favourite city, afresh! anew! And how did this all look last summer: Well much like this! Thoughts of London and photos remind me: in days gone by, about 40 years, a photo was taken of my elder brothers standing outside the door of No 10 flanked by a policeman. How times have changed.

To England where my heart, if not favoured body temperature lies. Stay healthy Reuben, please God, and our dreams can become a reality...