After the rain

Rain in Southern California is a rare treat. And torrential rain with all its theatrical glory, has me standing at the picture window so I can soak up the rainbow, the ultimate reward. I say that with some trepidation as a Brit since, if we were to live back in the UK again, well, perhaps rain would not be quite such a luxury.

Anyway, back to living in LA, a city that's been reclaimed from the desert. It's Martin Luther King Day, a public holiday so school's out, and the sky has finally finished crying its heart out. I can tell it's been cathartic: the sky is a wondrous blue, the tarmac is glistening and the flowers and luscious leaves are smiling their happy faces at the newly breaking sun. Faces are emerging at windows and the job of clearing up the remains of the day is beginning. To break the cabin fever, I grab the boy's little worn Macs and have them splash in puddles, Callum wearing new boots I bought for the snowy mountains we see from home which will be glorious with all this rain and Reuben wearing my stripy rain boots simply because they're beautifully photogenic. (PS that's why his hand is being held. Not to stop him running away which he's good at I might add, but to balance him in Mama's big boots!). Callum's canary yellow Mac reflects like headlights on the tarmac.

PS Note the red cap that Reuben's wearing. This is part of the decannulation process of removing the trach. With each day, he's been tolerating its wear for longer periods until til when he wore it for all waking hours without complaint. We initially had the same behavioural-led adjustments as we did a year ago with the speech valve yet where this cap differs from the speech valve is that it completely obstructs his trach as an airway with the intention of monitoring how he would adjust to having his trach out. Roll on sleep study. Just don't tell Reuben, OK!