#1398 Saturday 12 November

I've been very busy with house work while Kaylia is out for a drive.  I've moved my "office" from the loungeroom back down to the basement. Now Kaylia is home again and we're downstairs watching some videos she hasn't seen for ages ..... Playschool.

While watching, she sometimes became very excited and she would flap at a huge rate.  I noted that it was always when the characters on screen were doing body movements  resembling her "flapping" .....

Earlier I had a surprise visit from Colin .... He has a new car .... A Camry hybrid.  Its the first time I've been close to one .... It was very impressive to drive. 

Kaylia was able to wear the brace for an hour and a half this morning.  She's getting used to it. When we were about to go over to Maxine's, I asked her if she wanted to wear the brace ..... she did!  That's good progress.

The full moon is in two nights time .... tonight, she's not sleeping again.  Again, she is well behaved and happy .... just not going to sleep!

Later: it was midnight before she slept!

#1397 Friday 11 November

The process of getting her used to the brace continues ..... yesterday she had it on for an hour after school. It will take a while to get her ready to wear it at school.

10:30pm. She's having a hard time getting to sleep tonight..... perfectly behaved but just not going to sleep. She lies there talking to herself .... and every now and then she sings a song.  When I went in to encourage her to sleep, she wanted "daddy stay?". Its so tempting to do as she asks but she won't learn if I do.

Now 10 minutes later she is quiet.... maybe?

#1396 Thursday 10 November

In the midst of turmoil, Kaylia is a centre of oblivious calm ..... she drones away ..... and is happy just to be hugging her mummy.  She's a lesson to us .... life goes on .... focus on the important things.

She has community excursion today where the kids are taken to shops or the city to experience the every day things that hopefully will be part of their life in the near future.

10am. I'm definitely 'codgerish'!  I had a doctor's appointment at 10:15 ..... I rolled up for it ..... and found that I'd come an hour early!

Later:  Don't trust the internet!  I've been trying to locate a doctor who I saw 16 years ago .... every phone number and every applicable bit of information about specialist practices is wrong!! Complete dead end street.



Magpies at the fast food outlet! The zapper gives them cooked food for a song.  One of these two is the "talker"  .... he has been trained by someone in the past and he says "Hello Boy" ..... he has been around for 14 years that we know of  ..... so he must be older than that.  He was talking to us in 2002.


After that spot, they move to the clothesline ..... and sit there while they search under the roof  for spiders.

#1395 Wednesday 9 November

Gaaarrhh ..... Full moon is coming! Next Monday!  So all the usual behavioral quirks will happen over the next few days.   ..... and we have the election tension as well!!

General comment: Kaylia is now much more aware of her surroundings ..... this morning she went out the front door and the door didn't close properly.  She noticed this and turned around and closed it.  This is excellent ..... It means that her brain is now better at filtering the inputs so that she can be aware of things that matter and ignore inputs that don't matter. This then results in much greater learning.

4pm Gaaarrhh.....  Gaaarrhh..... HE'S WON!  Disaster.  We have to build our bomb shelter ASAP.  

#1394 Tuesday 8 November

We're at the hospital ... The back brace is being fitted.  Kaylia is very excited about it all.After the final adjustments are done, the brace will be finished and we will start the adventure of seeing if she will accept it.

3pm. The brace is completed .... she's not wearing it to school yet ..... that will wait till we are sure that she is accepting it.  We don't want it to cause any problems at school.

9pm. She must have been worn out by the day ... she went straight off to sleep at 7pm without any iPhone time.

#1393 Monday 7 November

Wow!!  The ABC news reports that a group in South Australia has developed an approved method of using SCUBA equipment to provide "immersion therapy"  The group is receiving a National Disability Award today.

"Scuba gear is used, but immersion therapy is about more than just diving in a pool.
It is accessed through medical referrals and has been used to improve the lives of those who live with paralysis, cerebral palsy, and autism.
"Things like pain reduction, general wellbeing, mental health, and across the board everything's just getting outstanding results," Mr Wilson said.
The Adelaide-based facility is helping people with a disability go underwater to discover a freedom of movement that would otherwise be impossible.
For that reason it is one of 23 finalists nominated in eight categories for the 10th anniversary of the National Disability awards, which will be presented at ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra tonight.
There is only one criteria: finalists must do something to improve the lives of Australians with a disability, their families and carers."

Click on this link below to go to their website.

 Determined2

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 So .... I made contact with the group straight away ..... and it will be great to see where it goes.
I'm told that the therapy has been developed with complete medical approval and  it can be funded by NDIS.   It all sounds very impressive. ..... and it sounds like something that Kaylia would be 'over the moon' with!

The group is hoping to get the therapy available in WA next year ...... but it sounds as if there may be funding to make it possible for Kaylia to go to Adelaide to experience it sooner than that.

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On the home front, Kaylia was being her most adorable self this morning ...... this is what happens when we do up her shoe laces!













I had to put on my plumbers hat today .... we had a pipe leaking inside the wall in the kitchen ..... so I had to demolish a part of the wall to replace the leaking pipe.  ..... but I saved a lot of money!

Some of you will recognize the place in the photo ... taken from the laundry doorway,  you are looking at the wall which is part of the linen cupboard at the rear of the kitchen sink .... I had to remove quite a bit to gain access to the pipes.

#1392 Sunday 6 November

In the midst of a lovely sleep in, we get a demand .... "PANCAKES". Ah well.

Today it will be the usual routine .... drive to Maxine's .... then to the op shop ....  then home.

Meanwhile .... in the real world, the tension is mounting .... Tuesday we will find out whether worldwide madness will reign for the next four years. Its scary.

..... and in Oz, we learn that our "wonderful" government has reverted to its delightful practice of arresting people at 2am to deport them. 

7pm .... she's had a long bath and now she's crashed in bed. I think she will sleep well tonight.