#499 Saturday 28 January

The onion breath is not quite as bad as garlic ..... but ....oooooh!


It ended up being 'one of those nights' .... I couldn't sleep after the midnight run so after laying there thinking of what I had planned for Saturday morning, I ended up going down to the office and assembling furniture from 2am to 4am!  Even after that I only got about a half hour snooze before wake up time.

Today she surprised us .... she must have heard me mention Maxine at some point ... this evening she just came out with "I want Aunty Maxine"  ... about an hour before Maxine arrived to say Happy Birthday to her!

Tomorrow is her birthday trip to the lake.

#498 Friday 27 January

Last night Kaylia really 'hit the wall' .... she'd had a big day at the 'yake' and she spent the afternoon rotating between shower and bath!  She's learned to turn on the shower taps by herself and I'm encouraging her to experiment as it's the only way she will learn to safely handle the hot water tap.  Yesterday she got me angry though.  She has a fascination with the blue coloured shampoo I use ... she sometimes just pours it out on the floor.  She did this yesterday.  Hopefully her current understanding of "naughty actions" will mean that she soon gets over this!



Any way .... at bedtime she was bouncing around  ... and then she crashed and was asleep!



This morning I've created a PDF Blogbook of the time in Bali.  The process reverses the date order so it's much easier to read.   Since it's a PDF, I can't attach it ... so if you'd like a copy you need to let me know so I can send it to you.

8pm. Bedtime and Kaylia has given me "blog fodder" once again! She's just come upstairs reeking of onion .... Naomi investigated and found that Kaylia had been teaching herself to peel onions .... After 6 attempts she succeeded .... and ate the result! I certainly hope this new food interest doesn't continue.

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#497 Thursday 26 January

Australia Day

To me this poem (below) has always captured the meaning of 'our land'. ..... since we have several new Australians in our circle of Team members I thought I'd include it.


My Country. D McKellar

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.


I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.


That's Oz for me.

Nights under the limitless stars.
Days searching the horizon -
no other humans as far as eye can see


Today we swim at the lake .... Then BBQ

Mid afternoon:
The lake was a big success ... we'd packed for a mini BBQ at the lake and this was well received by Kaylia ... sausages, chips and drink.





Now we're home  ... using our holiday for a bit of house tidying.

.... and a 'goose story' ..... the airconditioner in the dining room hasn't been working for about a year and we've been meaning to get it repaired.  I thought I'd read the manual.  It said "....put new batteries in the remote, set the time on the remote ..."  I did this and .... lo and behold ... it works!  What a goose am I!  A year of procrastinating .... and all it took to fix it was 2 batteries.

#496 Wednesday 25 January

After her sugar overdose last night, she bounced around on the ceiling for a while .... then when we wouldn't  let her go downstairs (for another raid on the freezer no doubt) ..... she finally calmed down and slept.  This morning she was her usual delightful self.



I was talking with Kat over breakfast and remembering the 'bad ol days'   .... Kaylia is so relaxed now that it's hard to remember all the melt-downs and the bouts of screaming in the middle of the night.  We really have things easy at present.  I hope this is a new step in her upward progress .... that things don't go backward again.

.... a funny thing.... for weeks there has been a jar on the reception desk at the office .... with a butterfly inside. I've looked at it many times wondering why it is there and why we're being so cruel to the butterfly. Then today I find out that it's actually a tiny electronic toy!

 

#495 Tuesday 24 January

Therapy again today. The little blighter has demonstrated the effectiveness of a Smartie as a motivator .... an exercise that is hard work suddenly becomes really easy when a Smartie is placed on the table!

Naomi and Kat have begun early morning swims ... clearly enjoyable!

Today was quite warm ... 38.... Kat is melting! She's not used to our summer weather yet.

Later:
She's drunk on sugar! While our attention wavered, she raided the freezer and helped herself to FIVE Calypos (frozen cordial) ..... she's now hyper and can't stop wriggling. No more buying Calypos by the box!

#494 Monday 23 January

I recorded Kaylia's weight again yesterday .... I've been tracking her average daily % gain for nearly 2 years now and the rate of increase is slowing.  The effect of the Risperdal (weight gain) seems to have been reduced by giving her the Risperdal in the evening before bed ... the idea is that she then gets the hungries while she's asleep instead if it hitting her in the middle of the day.



She is still too heavy for her age but we've tried taking her off the Risperdal .... it didn't work.  One day she won't need it but till then, we just have to manage.



At the moment she's in the middle of a therapy session ..... lots of squeals and happy noises.  She love her routine.



Her 8th birthday will be next Monday ..... we plan to go to Lake Leschanaultia in the morning on Sunday (the day before) for a swim and a barbie. Then in the afternoon we'll go to Dean's place in Floreat for a family gathering.

#493 Sunday 22 January

Sunday morning at the "YAKE"!  (Lake Leschanaultia)

As usual, it is amazing to watch Kaylia in the water.  She really seems to prefer being underwater and only comes up to take a very quick breath ..... then down again.  She is learning to do all sorts of underwater acrobatics.



This is playing Kaylia eating a 'ki-yipo' while sitting with mummy on a log .... taken with a fisheye lens on the iPhone




Second shot to the right .....




The two above combined .....




 ..... and a 'stereographic'  .....