Happy Christmas! We had a beaut morning ..... Kaylia really "gets" gifts and presents now and she was very excited. The beach is calm but cold ..... greeting phones calls to France and Brazil have been made ......
The text following is the Christmas letter sent out this year ..... so excuse me if you have already read it!
Kaylia had her last day of
primary school last week! Next month she will turn 12 and she'll be at high school
in 2016. We're confident that this will
go well ... she's had 6 transition sessions in the past month and she loved it. All round, she is just so happy at
present..... I wish all of you that knew her in the early days could see her
now .... it's a wonderful difference.
She still
has occasional 'attacks' .... but
we (she and us) are much better at handling them now and life is much more
pleasant. She is increasingly verbal ...... she can say lots if she has
to! We must remember not to allow her
to use single words ..... she has us
trained well to respond to single word requests .... and to anticipate her
needs ..... this means that she doesn't need to speak .... so she doesn't!!
The year had some down times ..... Naomi's father
died in
in the latter part of the year .
It's something that happens to us all and it's always a hard time.
In 2015 our
aupairs were Hannah & Callum from
the UK and now we have Camilla and
Maicon from France. Hannah & Callum departed last month amid a sad farewell ...
and they are now travelling down the east coast . They will
be in Sydney for Christmas then over to NZ before heading back to UK.
Naomi's
practice continues to grow .....the introduction of the National Disability
Insurance Scheme in Midland has meant
much more demand for services ..... parents can now afford more of the services
that their child needs. The practice now has 26 staff so it's pretty full-on! The practice is almost unique in Perth .....
it only works with children & adolescents .... and it has speech, OT and
psych services in the one facility. Ian
ceased working for external clients in
November and can now concentrate on our
business .... when the projects around the house permit!!. He is finding that age is making professional
life very difficult ...... so "winding back" has greatly reduced the stress levels.
The latest
house projects have been a "grey water system" .... so that we reduce the amount of water
being wasted ...... and a spa that is built into an extension of the balcony
(on the 'bungalow' side of the house)
..... both projects are nearing completion and they have largely been
built using either free and recycled materials - including the spa! The spa is plumbed into the grey water system
so that water from the spa is recycled into the garden. This year a small tractor was bought to
replace the Kanga Loader which was sold a few years ago. It makes large projects possible and feels
like the 'old days' on the farm!
This year we
are again having a break at Yanchep over Christmas .... it's Christmas Eve as I write ..... and this
will be followed by a few days at Cervantes from Boxing Day
to New Year's eve. Today Kaylia has
already been swimming .... and aborted because of the windy conditions. The 'lagoon' at Yanchep has a reef that
protects the
swimming area to the south and west .... the waves come over the reef and then
flow to the north where the water can escape.
This results in a strong current across the swimming area .... I watched
this morning and estimated the current to be flowing at 10-20 kph!
We - Ian,
Naomi, Kaylia and Teddy - wish you a Happy Christmas and we hope your new year
will be a good one!
