#683 Saturday 17 August

It's 3am .... I give up!   She is not allowed to drink ever again! We need two corks .... one for each end .... nothing in and nothing out!

Despite several trips to the loo ( where she produced prodigious volumes of wee) she has managed to flood first my bed at 10pm and then her own bed at 2am.  There's a mountain of sodden bedding waiting to be washed in the morning .... and the layers of plastic sheeting still didn't stop the flooding getting through to the "last resort layer" below!  Henceforth she will not drink and she will not sleep! Maybe then the bed will stay dry.

11am
I've just had a "survey" phone call ... and I've found an effective, polite way to deal with it .... when asked "Can you help us with our survey" I responded "Yes ... our company specialises in surveys and we only charge $150 per survey. If you give me your credit card details, I'll process the payment and then we can proceed."   ....... and the response?   "..... er no thanks. Bye"

Of course if they called my bluff, we have the EFTPOS terminal waiting and I'd be happy to do a survey for them!

While doing the mountain of washing from last night, I've been playing with my birthday present .... a twin-blade cutter!  I've been lusting after one of these for ages and they finally got down to a price that I could "live with" .... so I used my birthday vouchers to visit my favourite shop.  I grabbed one and went to the checkout .... and found that the checkout price was 25% less than the marked price!  Bargain!  .... I didn't question it ... just paid and ran!

#682 Friday 16 August

The full moon is coming in a few days .... and she's not sleeping well tonight. It's 3:40am and she has been watching the iPad for a fair bit of the time since midnight.  She watches for a while .... then puts it away and dozes .... then gets it out again.   It disturbs me much more than if she just stayed awake.

Later
She finally slept at about 5am ..... the funny thing about "bad nights" is that she usually has a good day afterward!

7pm. True to form she had a good day .... but it was a sports day and so she has "hit the wall" already .... she's settling to sleep.  She was so tired she couldn't lift her food to her mouth during tea!

#681 Thursday 15 August

Wow .... what a good night!  Best sleep I've had in a long time.  .... and before sleeping I finished the book.

Fortunately there's a sequel in the pipeline ... #4

(I think I'm firmly in the "Heather Dickson Fan Club").

http://www.hleightondickson.com/

Evening

It's a wild and wet night .... it's not even 5pm but it's dark and cold already.  Naomi is asleep in bed .... she's still sick .... it's not good.

Kaylia and Jo are not home yet.  They're probably at the library or the shops .... good places to be!

7pm ..... they were swimming!  It seems ludicrous given the weather but an indoor heated pool makes a big difference.  Now we're winding down to the bedtime routine .... she's tried to get a car ride down to the big office ... no way ho-say!

#680 Wednesday 14 August

Opening "Google Search" today brings this up!  It may be corny but I like it!







Kaylia had a good night .... she's such a "cuddle-pot"!  She just likes to be touching us.  It occurred to me that all the bad times that we had years ago .... when she would scream for hours in the night and we had some really bad times .... may have been due to anxiety.  We know so much more now about how she ticks .....  if we could have that time over again, I think we could do a much better job.  We still have the task (in future) of  re-training her into a more normal sleeping arrangement but I think the key to this will be to wait till she is able to manage her anxiety herself.  Once she can do that, we can make many changes.  ..... a change of house would help too!  Our current house has her bedroom downstairs and our bedroom upstairs .... re-training will be much easier if the bedrooms are on the same level.

Evening

The birthday cake!

#679 Tuesday 13 August

5am ....  Cramp again .... so while I'm in the "concentrate on relaxing" phase, I can blog.  Cramps are a "bugga" part of life .... my research shows that they are common .... and apart from drinking more water and taking magnesium supplements, there's not a lot that can be done. There's lots of "quackery" but not much in the way of real solutions.

Kaylia is at a delightful stage of development.  The autism and anxiety still require a lot of work and extra / different handling .... but we seem to have worked out a "satisfactory method" that produces an acceptable quality of life.   ..... and Kaylia herself has become a delightful person.   

I wonder .... if Kaylia had been "neuro-typical", would we appreciate her the way we do?  .... or would we be blasé about our child?

Everyday there are little "wow moments" where she does something that makes me just sit and marvel at how far she has progressed.  Sure she still has a long way to go .... but the child is brilliant!

5pm .... nearly finished therapy.  As usual she is really "into it" ..... what a far cry from a few years ago when the therapist would have to struggle to keep her attention from one moment to the next.

Aliso was just doing an exercise for recognising emotions and facial expressions .... and Kaylia says (in context) ".... I'M EXCITED!"   The capitals are for her big voice! She was very excited!

7pm  STOP PRESS!  I've just had an email from Anni!  .... and she is aiming to do her PhD in accounting then move to Australia ..... so in a few years time we might be able to see her more regularly!

Anni was with us in 2007 when Kaylia was 3 going on 4  ...... Anni had the horrible task of sharing Kaylia's toilet training with us!  (We will always be in debt to you for that huge thing alone, Anni!)  Anni also helped us select the fur-ball Teddy .....    (grr grr)

#678 Monday 12 August

  At last!  The next book is available .... this is available on Amazon 

Evening ..... Wooo oooo .... the book's good!

Kaylia has had a good day. .... no transition blues so far.  This may be due to the fact that she has had 3 weeks to get used to Jo.

#677 Sunday 11 August

Another wet bed last night but she slept well otherwise.  Today we'll go to Aunty Moo's again .... it'll be a double dose but I guess Kaylia won't object!

Midday

We visited Phil today ....  and Kaylia was very enthusiastic about Phil's 'bus'.... a mobile home that Phil has converted.  She knows "buses" from her school trips and she was keen to see what Phil's bus was like.  Inside it's equipped with bed, kitchen, table and seats ..... very different from the bus she knows ............ but ...........

.....Kaylia made sure that we were all sitting where she wanted us .... then she hopped in the driver's seat!   There'll be no stopping her when she's old enough to drive!

4:00pm ... at the "big office"

She's having a very relaxed time playing with all the toys ... she has to be well behaved with the office toys and put the toys away after use ... she's very good about it.  She sings away as she plays .... it's good for us to see her being happy and relaxed.