#1431 Saturday 17 December

Kaylia has certainly improved her habits for bedtime.  In the past it was hard to get her to calm down ready for sleep ..... so we adopted a pattern of one of us staying with her till she slept ..... about 6 months ago we changed that and she is now able to settle herself without having someone with her.  It's good.

3pm  We've just arrived home after meeting friends at Dome in Midland.  Dennis and Stana have been close friends for 20 years now .... we don't see much of each other since they moved to Busselton so it was good to catch up.

Kaylia is very excited about going to Bali ..... she is practising her Bahasa.  She learnt Indonesian in primary school .... so tying that into the time we spend in Bali, she is quite happy to speak Indonesian.  Since her verbal ability in English is not great, she can probably speak Indonesian almost as well!!

5pm ... it's been a torrid half hour or so .... she seems to be suffering ... the obvious explaination is that her period is starting with tummy pains .... but she can't tell us .. and it looks like a really tough time for her.  All we can do is "cover  the bases" with painkillers and help her through it.  Mummy is magic in these times ... she really has the touch.

On a more pleasant note ..... it has recently been the anniversary for Naomi and I ..... 20 years!  The custom is a special piece of jewellery .... but Naomi's passion is the "Syren" collection of crockery ..... his is her collection.



So for the anniversary, a more valued gift was an addition to her collection.

#1430 Friday 16 December

Remember me writing about the Child Dental Benefits Scheme for children with disabilities? ..... and how the rules meant that children with a disability were excluded by the effect of their disability?  Well.... apparently there haven't been many claims .... (now I wonder why) ... so they are reducing the benefits because no one is claiming!

Kaylia went to the beach today ... she's worn out tonight.  But she can still talk about Bali!!!

#1429 Thursday 15 December

It's the last day of school for this year.  Kaylia is just as excited as always.  Looking back over the past few years it has been a joy to see the way she has changed ....

Then = anxiety was such a burden for her  ....combined with the sensation overload ... plus the routine compulsions .... wow - what a triple whammy!
Now = anxiety? is mostly not a problem ... sensation overload? much better .... she can control this herself mostly ....... and routine ... naah - that's still a large part of her .... but she can accept changes to routine much better than before.

The biggie has been the anxiety.  Helping her through that has been very interesting .... she started on the medicine .... AM and PM .... and we played with the dosage .... finding out what was too much .... then when we had the dose right, we hit on the idea of giving her small 'top up' doses when anxiety signs showed during the day ....... this worked really well and after about 12 months we changed it to a pain killer rather than the anxiety med.  After another 12 months she no longer needed the pain med!  Now she is often able to control the anxiety with breathing and distraction.  My theory is that the method of medicine use has allowed her body to change the way it reacts ..... in effect, she has learned that she can manage the anxiety herself. 

And so we now have a very happy Kaylia!

#1428 Wednesday 14 December

Kaylia has had a good day at school..... they had a day at a waterpark ...... so it's no wonder that she had a good day.

I've just been down to the shops to get some rice .... and on the way back, Kaylia suddenly says "Up the hill!"  When she says it so clearly I can hardly refuse!  This is at the top of our street .... and it's VERY steep!  So we had fun crawling up the hill in first gear.  ..... and then we had fun going down!

Speaking of gears .... all the cars have been giving trouble lately .... a burst water hose on the blue car .... and both Subarus have needed a new a/c belt.  So they've kept me busy.

With Joe and Ellie we share cooking duties at night .... and this was tea tonight! It was superb!

#1427 Tuesday 13 December

We took Kaylia to the hospital this morning for a check of her brace .....

..... and this how we fill in the time while waiting for the brace changes to be made!  

#1426 Monday 12 December

Naomi and I are so fortunate .... read this

What life is like ..... when your children never grow up 

No matter how bad things get there is always someone who is worse off.

Today??? We have been clearing out one of the properties we have been using for the business .... in preparation for closing the lease.   ...

....... and at home I am repairing cars .... one car has a burst water pipe .... another has a broken airconditioner belt and it's also overheating.  We take reliable cars for granted so much ....  and when the cars give trouble, it feels like a disaster.

#1425 Sunday 11 December

It's been a weekend of car trouble .... one with a split water hose..... the other with undefined overheating.  With the coming week of high activity, it's the last thing we need.

Of course such events don't touch Kaylia's world ..... she spent hours with me this afternoon ...  watching video on the computer .... mainly Wiggles episodes that she hasn't seen for a while.  She was very excited about it.

Tonight Naomi and I were debating which of us would do the "wee run" ..... the discussion swapping back and forth .... and we both noticed Teddy.  He was standing between us watching who was speaking ....  head swiveling back an forth in time with our speech!  So we played a trick on him and extended the talk .... he didn't like it at all!  Poor thing.