#943 Saturday 15 June

It was a good day .... Kaylia was with Brynn most of the day and the went the Whiteman Park, the library and the quarry.  Brynn reports that she's quite a budding geologist .... she likes to pull rocks out of the ground and examine them.

While they were away, I began Phase 1 of the plan to get Kaylia into her own room again .... 

First step is to have an extra bed in our room and get her used to sleeping in that instead of being in bed with us.  Once she accepts that .... we will move the bed downstairs.

#942 Thursday 13 June

What's the day like for Kaylia?
She starts the day with a shower .... she loves showers and the feeling of water on her skin.  She isn't bothered by cold water and she'll often have a cold shower.  Then she gets herself dressed and goes downstairs.  Socks and shoes are next ..... then she brushes her hair while I prepare her morning medicines and her breakfast (coffee and toast with nutella).  While she's eating someone will put hair-bands in her hair.  After she has eaten, it's time for reading homework .... and then it's time h6* 5n the car to go to school.
 n the way to school, she loves to have control of the music.  We have an iPod connected to the car stereo .... it has her favorite music .... and she handles it with finesse!  She usually starts with Taylor Swift / Begin Again .... this is played over and over ..... till we say "Different song!" .... then she swaps to Tori Amos / Mr Zebra ..... over and over.

When she doesn't have music control, she will sing along with the music being played .... it's a delight to hear.  My phone currently has a ringtone that's a recording of Kaylia saying her version of several nursery rhymes.

#941 Wednesday 12 June

Another bloggable event!

..... for those of you that don't know, one of Kaylia's strong routines is to go for a drive in the car after tea.  (We usually go and do a bit of shopping.)  During the evening meal, she is always rushing to go in the car .....  we have to insist that she wait till we finish our meal ... and that she finishes her  own meal!   Tonight was no exception.  We were having a beef stew with chick-peas in it.  Kaylia had decided that she didn't like chick-peas .....  Naomi was telling us how she used to handle such situations when she was a child .... 2 or 3 chews then swallow!  Naomi demonstrated the swallow.  Not long after this we noticed that Kaylia had adopted this method for the chick-peas .... complete with the graphic swallowing action. ..... and then she proceeded to eat every last chick-pea so she could have a jelly cup at the IGA.

She's a gem!

#940 Tuesday 11 June

Brynn arrived home safely last night .... Welcome home.  The trip to Sydney went well .... the stories are yet to be told.

Kaylia .... at 6:30am ..... is listening to the "black iPad" with headphones on.  It's been a cold night yet she has been too hot .... kicking all the blankets off!  So each time I was woken up by the frigid air and I had to fight to get some blanket again!  Grrrr!

#939 Monday 10 June

The battle with medication continues ..... one of the side effects of Risperdal is deep sleep.  This is good in some ways but the deep sleep means that we battle with wet bed accidents.  We seem to go for a couple of weeks when we manage to avoid the accident ..... then we have a few nights of disaster.  Two nights in a row now.

Evening

Therapy was excellent again today.  We've reached a very satisfying stage .....  Kaylia enjoys it and we can see real progress.  The progress made since December 11 is just astounding.  Alison commented today that she first saw Kaylia around that time and she wasn't talking at all ..... now we're working on proper sentence structure!

Kaylia still has problems with being able to make many sounds and with many of the blended sounds .... but she is trying hard and it will come right in time.

#938 Sunday 9 June

Aunty Moo was away today but we were still allowed to keep to the routine ...... with a door key!   Once there though, it was clear that for Kaylia things just weren't right without Aunty Moo!   After a fairly short time there, she wanted to go.  It seems as though she's becoming more social.

Back to the Big Office for a while .... then home to the Little Office and shower.