#1046 Saturday 6 December

It's just after midnight ..... Kerrie and I have just got home .... Kerrie had gone out for the evening and the car broke down about 1 km from home.  It looks as if the alternator has died.  It did well to get her that far ..... it's a pity the battery couldn't have lasted about 1 minute longer and it would have got her all the way home!  Anyway .... well done Kerrie.   She handled the problem perfectly.   

In the morning I'll take a spare battery down so I can bring the car home.

#1045 Friday 5 December

Kerrie had a close encounter of the furry kind!  She was walking to her room .... the outside lights were off ..... she heard Thump - THump - THUmp - thump.

She thought "It's just the roo going down the side ..... no worries." ... thinking that it had gone ...... then she triggered the sensor light ...... and there  about 3 metres away stood "BIG BOB"!  Now Big Bob is a BIG ROO .... he must be around 2 metres tall .... so to have him suddenly in front of you would be quite a fright!

Evening 

Kaylia is having hose time before tea.  Chinese tonight ..... Yum!

She actually had a real trip to the doctor this afternoon .... we suspect a UTI may be the culprit for the behavior issues we've been having .... the challenge is to get a sample of wee to test!

It's interesting that she hasn't nagged all afternoon.

#1044 Thursday 4 December

Another funny moment ......  for those of you that don't know, after Kaylia was 'weaned' off wearing nappies (before school age ... so a loonng time ago) .... for years she was strongly upset that we wouldn't buy her nappies when we were shopping.  She'd grab them off the shelf and put them in the shopping trolley and put on quite a show.  Even now .... about 6 years later .... she still likes to go to the baby section of the supermarket and she stands and looks at the nappies.

Well ...... she's growing up now ..... and approaching puberty.  So .... she needs to be aware of what happens with menstrual periods.  This morning Naomi began a little lesson and showed her a 'sanitary pad' ...... "What's this Kaylia?" ...... "NAPPY!!!"  ......

She's clearly overjoyed that she's going to get nappies again!

.... speaking of which ...... we're wondering how she will handle the effect of her periods.  She seems to be almost oblivious to many sensory things about her body ..... what impact will her autism have on her experience of her periods?  The hormonal effect will probably make her behaviour issues more pronounced.  Time will tell .... fairly soon!

#1043 Tuesday 2 December

The "Dr Law" nagging is getting to be a real problem ..... Kerrie reports that she starts it as soon as she gets out of school..... I wish she had a screen that gave the error code to tell us just what the problem is.  

The hose time calms her down .... and the car is very reliable.....

#1042 Sunday 30 November

It's been a hard night .... K was very tired last night and she was putting on a performance as a result ..... we took her off to bed early and she settled by about 7:30 ..... but the loo routine was upset and so she wet the bed at 3am.  By 4am she was wide awake and spent some time downstairs. Now it's 6:30 and the day should start according to Kaylia! The timer is running......

Her iPad has a "giant timer" app .... it's very good for times like this and she will watch it count down go the next hour .... while we try to sleep.

It's 2pm .... what a day.  Kaylia's been constantly anxious all day.  The car time is the only respite we've had from the nagging about the doctor or about school.  She can be diverted to telling a story about them but the cycle seems to be endless.

At the moment she's in the outside bath with hose time.   So we have a little break.

4pm .... this has been really hard to take.  Naomi and I are both very tired .... and Kaylia is relentless.... we've resorted to "timing her out" .... it doesn't really correct the problem but it gives us a break for a few minutes.  We were racking our brains for some explanation of what is going on .... and realised that the full moon is coming !!!   .... Next Saturday .... at least we have an idea of what's going on 

Bedtime:  she calmed down eventually... and the evening is finishing on a good note.  I'm glad today is over.