#1073 Saturday 10 January

I'm in the office today ..... the usual staff are off sick .... so I'm it.  Kaylia has speech therapy this morning ..... she'll enjoy that.

Yesterday she had an extra person ..... Shannon went with them to "learn the ropes" .... which is a very apt saying given Kerrie's rock climbing interest.  Even though the saying is originally a sea faring one it slips straight into climbing. 

While they were away I began work on a little project .... turning a scrappy old door into a "Dutch door" for the bungalow.

This sort of thing. I'll include a photo when it's finished.  The task involves adding some width, splitting the door and inserting a window into the top section.

 

Later: we had a bit of drama before we left for work .... during the night a tree had fallen across the driveway .... so I had to get the chainsaw out to clear the way first!

#1071 Thursday 8 January

It's good to have Kaylia's happy feet back!   I hope I'm not speaking too soon....

One of the nice things about "holiday time" is being able to sleep in.  It seems that if Kaylia can stay in bed till after 9am, she's then much calmer through the day.

Evening
Today we went for a long drive ...... out along the York road ..... south on the West Talbot road to Beverley .... where she spotted this playground  ...... then north to York ..... then along the Spencers Brook road to Northam ..... then to Toodyay ..... and then back home. 

Kerrie hadn't seen most of the country ..... and in Northam we found that a water fountain has been added to the park that Kaylia remembered.  Kaylia was ecstatic!  She would chase the jet of water .... which would subside as soon as she got to it .... then she would chase the next jet.






When we arrived home we found that Shannon .... a prospective replacement for Kerrie .... was already here.  Shannon seems to be a "good fit" for us and she will will join us when we return from Bali .  There's only a week till we go to Bali ..... and after a week in Bali, Kerrie will leave us and go on to Thailand.  We'll be very sad to see Kerrie go.

#1070 Wednesday 7 January

..... and we didn't factor in that we've had two weeks off the glutamate diet!  Just as we had seen a reduction in these behaviours when we began the diet, so we've seen the behavior return when the diet stopped.  Today we have seen Kaylia with her happy feet on. Phew!  

..... so we'll sit back and take stock of what we have learned.

#1069 Tuesday 6 January

The Risperdal reduction trial has failed ..... we will put her back on the full dose.  Today has been an unpleasant  roller coaster ride .... from highs of happiness to lows of anxiety and agitation.  Poor thing .... I wish we could make it better for her.

#1068 Monday 5 January

At 9am she's still asleep ..... she went straight to sleep at 6:30pm last night so it looks as though yesterday's behaviour may have been due to tiredness.   

Today is going to be a very hot day .... it might be a good day for swimming at the lake.

3pm. It has been very hot.... 42.3deg!  So hot that the possum living in the bungalow ceiling bailed out!

#1067 Sunday 4 January

Woohoo.... what a day!  The full moon is a few days away and last night Kaylia was very unsettled ..... she was up at 5 am and played for 2 hours .... then she slept till 9:30.  Consequently the day began out of kilter.... and it continued in the same way.  It was hard explaining to family that ".... No - we have to go NOW!"  It's a pity the her attacks don't show as bright blue spots .... it's hard for an outsider to actually see what's going on.

By 3pm she was in a bad way .... and so were we!  At 6pm I asked if she was tired and wanting to go to bed ..... she was off like a shot and she's now cuddled up beside me.  She'll be asleep soon.

All this may be related to the Risperdal reduction .... so we'll go back a step.