On Sunday I was on the phone to my mother: "I'm not coping with him. He's just so difficult sometimes. It seems like you can't relax and be 'off autism' for a minute because he just falls back into back habits. Sniff, sniff, boo hoo hoo."

It wasn't a very good day.

The aftermath and emotional impact of having a new baby in the house, coupled with a variety of diet issues seems to have caught up with Bright Eyes, who has been fairly explosive, loud, demanding and difficult in the last week.

I sat outside the other day listening to him yell, "Mum mum mum mum mum mum mum mum, I need heeeelp, I neeed heeeeeeeeelp" for something that he definitely didn't need help for, and thought, "hmm, I could possibly do violence if I go back in there right now," so I shut the door more firmly, sat and let the violent feelings subside a little bit before working out what to do.

Sometimes it is just all hard and overwhelming, especially when the rest of life is demanding too.

My mother asked me what she could do to help, and I asked her to pray for me to have the strength to get on. The next day, I felt more able to break down the problems and start looking for solutions again. Thank God.

As an added encouragement, we had friends pop by on the weekend. They last called in about nine months ago. Sophie was kind enough to write this email to me after they went home.

"...After we left, I thought I would just let you know specifically the differences I saw in Campbell in comparison to the other times we've seen you...

He's a LOT more social and interactive with people. The first time we met you, he spent all his time on the computer and didn't play with the girls at all. Even the last time we were in KV, he didn't spend much time with them but went off and played on his own but this time he spent all his time with them.

He was giving relevant information to the conversation and responding to questions, relating to Amelie because he knew they were almost the same age now that he has turned 7.

He was really caring and hospitable, it seemed like under his search for dress up coats was really the fact that he thought they were cold and wanted to make sure they were ok.

I didn't know whether he'd be ok with us just 'popping in' but thought he was really welcoming

He launched into playing straight away, there wasn't any delay at all while he warmed up.

I hope this is encouraging to you a little bit. I think its wonderful how he's progressing. I have other friends with children on the autistic spectrum and whereas with them you can tell straight away that they're not relating normally, with Campbell, if I didn't know, I wouldn't spot it straight away..."

Thanks Sophie, and thanks God.