#408 Saturday 22 October

These are very stimmy times!






.... and in the morning she wakes early and the stimmy-ness makes her noisy .... then she gets annoyed at being sent downstairs.... it's a vicious circle.

And Naomi's tiredness and pain make it hard for her to cope with an A-monster!
Life ain't fun.

Later: Tonight we had a belated birthday for Naomi ... our favorite "Little Ceasars" pizza .... Yummy!

Bedtime: It's constipation again! Fortunately there's a "squirt up the botty" medicine that produces almost instant results! Within minutes she's on the loo and she soon feels much better. (Can you remember the ghastly Agarol used in the 50's?)

#407 Friday 21 October

A milestone today .... each morning when we drop Kaylia off at school, the staff try to get her to look at me and say "Bye" ... it always takes a lot of prompting.  This morning she was in high spirits ... and she just turned around and said it ..... without prompting and completely appropriately!  Wow!
Yesterday while she was in the office I was doing the usual thing of trying to break into her world and gain her attention ... and we all heard her say  "What?"  .... it was as though she was saying "What do you want? Don't bother me." 

These are very interesting developments.

#406 Thursday 20 October

She has school swimming lessons again today. She loves swimming!
Tonight Kat and I will be attending an introductory session for participation in a trial of software for the iPad. The software is aimed at parents of children with autism ... a tool to help with therapy ... to help with planning activities. We will try it over the next weeks.

Stop Press: the villa is on the web!

http://www.bbevillas.com/villa/villa-frangipani

Bedtime: the iPad app is amazing ... it will be a magnificent resource for parents of the A-kids.

#405 Wednesday 19 October

Kaylia slept well but woke early ... She's been up since 5am .... playing. Naomi's shoulder is a little better but still bad.

Bedtime: Kaylia is becoming a real negotiator! Her 'nagging' has moderated and changed into a persistent form of requesting where she tries to change the outcome .... Strangely she often loses track of the result. She may gain a concession but she actually does something else.

#404 Tuesday 18 October

Naomi is not well .... She's in a lot of pain from her neck/shoulder ... she was not able to sleep well last night.

Kaylia is happy .... she has no awareness of other people's pain .. she is not upset that Naomi is in pain .... she was not affected by my distress from the wrist operation. This can be quite an advantage for us at her current stage but it will be a problem as she gets older.
Last night I gave her Melatonin again at her normal bedtime .... to get her back into a normal routine ... it worked well! It loses effect if used regularly but if used occasionally, it's good!

#403 Monday 17 October

The melatonin ( which acts to align the sleep rhythms so you can go to sleep) worked well for the flight ... but so well that she then wasn't going to sleep at night! It was around midnight before she finally settled. We've learnt in the past that we can only use melatonin once ... if used again, it has no effect.

Kaylia has today at home and then school tomorrow.

.... and after Kaylia slept most of the flight on Naomi's shoulder, Naomi now has a really bad neck and shoulder pain .... the physio told her to rest ...

#402 Sunday 16 October

Pagi .... today we go .... sad.

2pm ... at the airport .... counting down till boarding .... low anxiety so far ... fingers crossed.





Sate! No more for a few weeks.

8pm ... Back in Perth. It was a perfect trip for Kaylia ... an hour before the flight we gave her melatonin and a top-up of the Lovan .... she slept for most of the flight and was mellow and calm when she woke. Customs was good despite the longest queue! 3 planes landing at once!

She's happy to be home with all her familiar stims and routines.