#881 Saturday 6 April

Yesterday we had a review of Kaylia's therapy program. It's frustrating that progress is slow and steady ..... after 6 years of it I feel as if I want it to suddenly produce a brilliant breakthrough and it all to stop .... we wouldn't have to struggle any more.

But it ain't gonna happen .....

Instead we have us all gathered round ... trying to imagine what goes on inside the mind of a child that has no imagination. .... and I know that "no imagination" is a cliche .... I mean it literally.

11am at Whiteman Park. We've just spent an hour in darkness .... she found a room where she goes during school visits where movies are shown. Then it would be noisy .... but today it was dark an quiet. Kaylia loved it and so we just stayed there as long as she wanted ..... a long time!
Now we're at the water play area and she's off in stimmy land. At least when she's lost in stimming, she isn't asking for food.

#880 Friday 5 April

The weight issue clarified .....

We tried taking her off the Risperdal in December/January .....  we noted that appetite went back to the old level and weight went down rapidly ......  but we found that her behaviour without Risperdal was unacceptable.  So we put her back on Risperdal.  Since January the average daily  % rate of weight gain has greatly increased.  This is bad and we have to somehow get it under control.

#879 Thursday 4 April

There were some strange comments about Kaylia today .... criticising her penchant for removing clothes .... it's a bit like criticising the day for being windy! If its windy you deal with it ... no point in complaining about it.

A bigger issue is her weight gain .... it's a growing problem. A revision of the data is needed to see the current status.

Last night we did an after tea drive .... the city lights seen from the Zig-Zag road were impressive (as always).

#878 Tuesday 2 April

Back to school today .... little holiday is over.

It's 6:00am and Kaylia has been awake for an hour. She's downstairs playing with her dingle-dangles. She's really into the chain variety at the moment and these get rather noisy!

3:30pm. It's been a weird day! We went to school .... only to find the school locked up ... no one home! There's been no notice and nothing on the web ... yet I didn't see any sign of life at other schools either. And other people have commented on the same experience.

So instead we hopped on the train and went into Perth ... water fountain time! She loved it.



Now therapy is in session.

#877 Monday 1 April

Happy birthday Mum.

There's a verge rubbish collection next week ..... so this morning I was up at 6am ... maximum energy time .... to cart 'stuff' up to the verge. Since this is a rise of about 12 meters over a distance of 25 meters, it's hard work! I'll do a bit each morning.

Speaking of hard work ..... I feel as though Kaylia is really hard work at present. She seems to be realising that she has "power" .... and she's testing the limits. For her this means nagging .... but she is being more insistent and more resistant to diversion and control. I feel as though she is demanding 100% attention .... even more than she usually does.

She clearly enjoyed her Wave Rock time .... it's joined the list of nagging items.

Now speaking of Wave Rock .... I've found a tank that fits many of the characteristics of the relic .... an M26 Pershing. Unfortunately the Pershing was a heavy tank .... 46 tons .... much bigger than the one I'm researching. The one at Wave Rock is a light tank ... about 10 ton. So I'm now looking for a 'baby Pershing'!





The diagram to the right shows the layout of the mechanical components .... and it closely matches the Wave Rock relic.



9:30 and it's a lovely morning. Kaylia is under the hose.

5pm  We've been down to Rockingham ......  a swim and a kebab!  It was a first for Brynn .... she hadn't experienced a kebab before.

#876 Sunday 31 March

Sunday is when we go to Aunty Moo's and Kaylia takes over the spa bath! At the moment she's been sitting on a huge mound of bubbles .... Naomi slipped when adding the soap!





Needless to say she loves it!




I have mystery on my hands. At the Wave Rock Resort an old WW2 tank (remains of) is a feature. It isn't identified and so I took lots of photos ......   

and I've been searching the net to try to work out what it was. I've ruled out all the common varieties .... now I'm scratching my head!


The photo at the right  is looking at the rear LH corner .... the unusual thing is the drive sprocket being a geared reduction hub at the rear ..... most tanks have the drive sprocket at the front and I haven't found a single photo yet of one with a reduction hub final drive.

Mystery!