#1122 Saturday 28 March

Yesterday was a school outing at Whiteman Park ..... the hot dog day where the parents can join in.  We .... Hannah, Callum and I ..... went along.   Of course Kaylia saw water and nothing else mattered .... but then we found that the teacher had changed the routine and water would be after food!  Yikes!   ..... and the food wasn't ready ..... bigger yikes!

We 3 kept the lid on Kaylia .... and after 45 minutes waiting for the food ... !!!! .... it was finally ready.   Then we had to endure a further long wait while 15 precisely assembled hot dogs were crafted one at a time by one single person!!!! In my head I'm screaming "just get the kids fed! They don't have to be perfect ".  I watched the other kids quietly waiting and realised once again just how different Kaylia is. Afterward I  thought about the day and .....

None of the other children were upset by not being able to swim.

I felt guilty that I left H+C to take Kaylia for a walk to calm her .... then reminded myself of the sprint vs marathon analogy .... Naomi and I have been looking after Kaylia for 11 years now and we have years more ahead .... we must take advantage of our helpers so as to conserve our energy for the future.

..... and lastly it occurred to me that the school staff seemed very happy to leave Kaylia to us .... no one tried to show us how they could manage Kaylia in that state ..... Perhaps I'm unfair ..... but I wonder what the school does at other times when they change routine.

Life doesn't make allowance for children like Kaylia .... 

#1121 Thursday 26 March

Happy birthday to Aunty Maxine!!

Kaylia has settled well tonight .... she likes having her daddy to cuddle at bedtime.... he makes an awesomely comfortable backrest.   ..... and tonight I appreciated being able to be a backrest .... I'm zonked from a second day of collecting furniture for the new office.  The furniture was on a first floor .... some very heavy..... and all having to be carried down the stairs.  Fortunately I had Callum to help ..... we're both zonked!

#1120 Tuesday 24 March

It must be something we ate!   Half the adults had nightmares last night and Kaylia woke at 2am and stayed awake till 4am.   The night was like a bad dream itself.

She still managed to have a long happy time at Bilgoman pool after school.

#1119 Sunday 22 March

One of the problems of autism can be that the person interprets words or phrases literally ..... not understanding the implied meaning created by context they can be very confused.   We're seeing the early signs of this with Kaylia but it has some delightful results.   When shopping yesterday she was told that a well behaved Kaylia who helped push the trolley would get a "can-we" ...... and she  was a very well behaved girl!

BTW .... a "can-we" is something where you say "Can we buy this?"

2pm. After the morning's activities we stopped at a garage sale near home .... it had lots of toys .... which are needed to equip the new business office that opens after Easter.   Kaylia chose her purchases.... and when we got home she took them straight to the outside bath.   This shows that she was planning where she would use them ..... this needs imagination!   Yay!  It's all happening.



Evening
We have a Sunday night activity ..... home made pizzas! We use unprocessed ingredients and gluten free flour .... the results are great .... complete with cheesy crust.

The unprocessed food diet is having good results for us all.  We can see positive effects in Kaylia's behaviour and alertness ..... and I've noticed that the arthritis ..... which has really bothered me in recent years ..... has gone!