guppy_sandhu | Guppy's 30th Birthday Party

Guppy's 30th Birthday Party

Having collected everyone from the bar, Guppy leads them back through to the house, where they enter through the kitchen.

The living room furniture has been mostly moved out of the way, and that's where the most of the party has been set up. The sofa and some chairs are around the edge of the room, and there's music playing. The kitchen is a bit small so the food is being taken through into the dining room. Also a little on the small side, but enough for purpose. All of the baby gates are open on the ground floor, but not on the stairs.

Upstairs, the spare bedroom has been set aside for any little people at the party. It's a bit quieter, with baby-sized food, some toys, and a DVD of Pingu playing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Guppy pours her drink.

"I saw him earlier, I didn't realise I'd missed his birthday."

"I think timing-wise it's just been rough with Doc gone." She had been thinking of doing a combo birthday around the time of hers. "But at least with the wake coming up, maybe have something after it."

Well, there goes the happy face. It's been hard all evening with the reminders that Doc should be here.

"Do we have a date for that yet? If there's going to be a ceremony or service, I'd like to bring Alex. But I'll take him home before the alcohol."

"I'll ask Will. He hasn't decided yet."

Guppy nods.

"We've put him upstairs tonight, he's not good with noisy parties. But he knew Doc."

"Put who?" Kate was missing some context.

"Alex." The context was there in the tag before. Small smile. "Who else would I have put upstairs? I think Will would have overpowered me."

"Oh right. And yeah he would have." She kind of considered it her job to look after Will when she could anyway.

"How's he been? Probably getting so big since I last saw him."

"He's been well, but challenging." Guppy says, with a small smile.

"He doesn't like to be touched, so he gets in a lot of fights at nursery. But he's bright and ahead in a lot of things."

"He shy?"

"Not as such." Guppy says.

"We think he's on the autistic spectrum. We've been getting support from a child psychologist but he's too young to get a definitive diagnosis. The lashing out when he's touched was what got us concerned to start with, but when we looked into it there were a lot of subtler signs that he has too."

Kate frowned at that, "When would they be sure if he is? He should be ok, I know there's a lot more out there to help kids like that."

"Max reckons we should try assessing him again in six months, but that it might be years before we can get a certain diagnosis. They've narrowed it down to either High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome, most likely, because he's intellectually advanced. If he was autistic he'd have speech delay."

"I'm sure he'll be ok. He seems like a good kid."

"Thanks, I think we'll sort him out whatever happens. We just need to keep him from getting expelled from nursery."

Little smile. "He just had his first birthday, he's come a long way since he came out a year ago the size of a banana."

"Aww, wow, been a year already?"

"Yeah, it's hard to believe. He's caught up in most respects, though it's difficult to tell at times. Would you like to come up and see him?"

"Of course, I'd love to," She beamed at the idea.

"Come on, I think Frogspawn is owed a break anyway."

Guppy climbs over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, and leads the way.

"He doesn't like it if we move the furniture, so we're keeping him from going downstairs."

He opens the door into the back room, and peeps in. Alex is absorbed in an episode of Pingu on the television.

"Alex, Kate's come to see you."

The episode finishes, and the toddler looks around.

"Kate." he says.

Kate nodded, and carefully maneuvered her way around. She grinned, and crouched down near the toddler.

"Hi Alex, wow, you're such a big boy now."

"Bibboy." Alex babbles back, handing her the new fluffy penguin toy he got from Enzo to show her.

"Pegwin."

"Your penguin? Got a name yet?" She carefully accepted the toy for a moment to look at it before handing it back to Alex.

"Nay et." Alex says, accepting it back. He sucks the penguin's nose.

"Hm, he must have got that one today, that's not Pingu." Guppy says.

"Pingu!" Alex says, pointing at another penguin toy on the other side.

"Oh he's got a brother then? That's cute."

"Alex has a bit of a penguin obcession." Guppy says, grinning.

"Teeper car sore ants." Alex babbles, leaning over to poke Kate's feet.

Guppy's 30th Birthday Party

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!

Re: Food!