#690 Saturday 24 August

Kaylia had a good night and so did we!

Now she's at Whiteman Park with Jo .... Naomi is at work .... and I've done the washing, sawn the firewood .... now I'm sitting on the balcony with a coffee .... and the last of Brynn's Tim Tams!

  I will never again be able to walk past Tim Tams in the shop without remembering Brynn and how she loves them.

Later

Spring has sprung!  Kaylia is under the hose again for the first time since last summer.   I warned her that it would be cold .... but no .... Hose!

Today I've been giving Teddy a haircut.  Jo has professional experience at this and has been showing me how it should be done.

#689 Friday 23 August

Another "wet one" (sigh).   

While on the topic of water ...... the water bill arrived yesterday .... our water use has been much higher than normal.  This has me puzzled because previous bills haven't shown any effect of Kaylia's shower habits .... and if anything, since then we have reduced the shower times.   The only thing left is the washing machine .... the amount of bedding being washed!   ...... and the extra people in the house recently.

#688 Thursday 22 August

Kaylia has had a good day at school .... it looks as though the cold episode is over.   Naomi is still in the wars though ..... and she battles on.

#687 Wednesday 21 August

It's 6am .... the rubbish truck has just come down the street.  I'd forgotten to put out the bin so it was a mad scramble to get up ... put clothes on and race outside to drag the bin up the steep slope to the road verge.  Sometimes I hate Wednesdays!

Kaylia has been the proverbial log .... no breathing noise and she's slept in the same position all night without stirring.  I used to do that! I remember those days! (sigh!). It means that she's getting over her cold.

We're debating whether she should go to school today or whether we should keep her home again .... She expressed her own opinion at bedtime last night  .... by preparing "home clothes" instead of school clothes!

Evening

It's been a good day.  Kaylia is feeling well despite still having a runny doase.  Jo has done an excellent job of keeping her happy.  I've been able to get the office work done before taking over in the afternoon.

Anni and I had a good catchup call on Skype this afternoon.  Having aupairs in our home to care for Kaylia has been such a good thing .... the opportunity to make good friends is priceless.

#686 Tuesday 20 August

She's staying home from school today.  

Yesterday she was sent home as "too sick" ..... she's at the point where she's well enough to want to be at school .... not sick enough to really stay in bed.  So it's going for a drive .... going for a walk.   Tire her out so she then wants to sleep.

Unfortunately this is all an upset to her routine .... and the anxiety goes up.

Afternoon
I worked most of the day to calm my anxiety ..... then came home to give Jo a break.  Kaylia is happy ..... snotty but not suffering.  Therapy is "in session" and she is loving it as usual.  She gets s-o-o-o excited!

#685 Monday 19 August

Another bloggable moment!  As you know, Kaylia loves dingle-dangles .... many of these are 1 metre lengths of light chain.   This morning Naomi and I were on the balcony and heard a tickling noise .... I looked down and saw a magpie toying with one of her chains.   Then it picked up one end of the chain and flew on to the railing ..... then it really flew off .... with the chain a-dingling and a-dangling!  Kaylia is not alone in her fascination!

11am. Kaylia is home .... sick.   Her snotty nose is not acceptable - with good reason!   Last night she perfected the art of blowing "nose bubbles" ..... she thought it was hilarious.

7pm

I wonder whether I make our situation seem too "rosey"?  Generally things are fairly cruisey but every now and then it still gets bad.  I've just spent about 20 minutes "bringing her down". .... calming her after she has worked herself into a state.  She responds well to quiet words and hugs and rubs .... but it's hard work and it's wearing.

Life is generally much, much better than it was a couple of years ago .... but it's still hard in comparison with a "normal" family situation.

#684 Sunday 18 August

5am

It's been a good night .... dry with crucially timed wee-breaks.  Kaylia has a cold .... coughing with a stuffed head and a  "ruddy doase".

She is watching Baby Einstein on YouTube .... at least she has slept till now .... I'm not complaining!  Headphones are a great invention.

7:50am ..... and we can't even sleep in because the electricity people have come to check the switchboard ... and Teddy is MIGHTLTILY offended!

10:40

RED LETTER DAY!!

In 1978 while teaching at a remote spot in the Kimberleys .... the school received Sesame Street videos .... and one of the sessions was about "Morty Moot Mope". Very Funny.   Ever since I have searched for a copy of that video .... to no avail.  It seems to have been lost..... 

.. http://youtu.be/_ehFz4OPn0Q

... and this morning I found a link to the video and the words!  Here are the words. ....

Once in a kingdom of Boppity Bope, 

there lived an old king named Morty Moot Mope.

Morty Moot Mope was the old king's name, 

and he loved to hear words that sounded  same.

But, the saddest thing about his rhyming game, 

was that he couldn't find a word that would rhyme with his name.

He searched through the country and he searched through the town, 

until he finally found Same Sound Brown

"Oh boy, oh joy! I'll bet my crown, 

that fellow there is Same Sound Brown.

Now Same Sound Brown was a rhyming man...

"I can rhyme words faster than I bet you can."

You see if you said moose...

"I would say goose."

If you said moose juice...

"I would say loose goose."

If you said loosey juice moose...

"I would say loosey goose loose."

Now Morty Moot Moot Mope began to feel pretty good, 

and he sent for Brown  just as quick as he could.

And before the king could turn around, 

there in the court was Same Sound Brown.

He bent one knee and bowed to the king,

and said, "Morty Moot Mope, I can rhyme anything. 

"Well," said the king, "I'm glad you came, 

now make me a rhyme to rhyme with my name."

"I'm sorry king, but there's very little hope, 

I've rhymed some hard ones in my time, but Morty Moot Mope...is...hard to rhyme..."

"Well, if you can't find a rhyme, here's what I'll do,

I'll put you in a cage in the royal zoo!"

"You'll have to catch me first," said Same Sound Brown, 

and before you're off your throne, I'll be half way out of town.

"And I'll tell you something else, Morty Moot Mope, 

you couldn't catch me with a 40 foot rope."

"Forty foot rope?" cried Morty Moot Mope, 

"Forty foot rope rhymes with Morty Moot Mope!"

"Of course it does, I knew it all the time; 

there are very few words that I cannot rhyme."

"See here, young man, I'll make you a knight!" 

"Oh no thank you, sire, that's allright."

"Since you were going to cage me when you thought I couldn't rhyme; 

I'm going back and do my rhyming in my own good time." 

The moral of this story is: Never threaten to put someone in the royal zoo,

because the person who winds up in the cage just might be you.