#1558 Saturday 20 May

Verbal communication with Kaylia is always a problem  ..... how much of what we say does she understand?  How can we change the way we speak so that she can understand?  .And yet we know ....... from the way she picks up things when she's not in the conversation  .... that she has very good listening skills.

And that's only one side of the equation ...... we also have the problem of us trying to make sense of what she is trying to say to us!  This morning she was trying to tell us what she wanted to do with Ashley and Abbie today ...... and the word was impossible to understand.  She struggles to get her mouth to form the sounds ... and yet in some situations she is much better.  Listening to her speech during therapy sessions is a real 'eye opener'  ..... what a difference!   Why is her articulation so variable?

Today I am struggling to resist a temptation to have a rant about the world situation and Australian politics ...... yet it would be such a waste of breath .... a waste of keystrokes ..... (sigh) .....

I spent an hour this morning working with the firewood blocksplitter .... what an amazing machine!  I have almost finished splitting all the firewood round the place ..... lots!  Most of the blocks are big enough that I can barely lift them onto the splitter ..... I'd guess at around 40 to 60kg ..... about 50-60cm diameter.  I have a work table at the same height so that once it has split the block into two pieces, one piece is put aside for later while one is split further.  Usually each block produces about 10 to 15 bits small enough to go into the fire.

2:30pm  Kaylia and I have been shopping .... all god.She wore headphones while in the shops and it seemed to make the hustle more bearable for her. Now we are home .... and the nagging has started.  I immediately sent her to her room .... and she's not happy!  I think I will threaten her with "No drive with Mummy" if she doesn't control the nagging.

3pm ..... she escalated the situation quite a bit ..... and it occurred to me .... Dehydration headache!!

Sure enough ...... Once I had persuaded her to have a BIG drink of water, within minutes she was back to her normal cheery self.  We often forget the simplest things.

#1557 Friday 19 May

5am .... Kaylia has been up to take herself off to the toilet ..... this is real progress in one way but it still means that I must go down to her room and tuck her in ..... and she is quite noisy!  She moves like a baby elephant .... thump, thump, thump!!  For me the process of going downstairs is always hard and painful till the muscles get used to moving again ..... I might have to sleep downstairs.   Then there is the waiting to see if she is settling back to sleep ... there's nothing worse than being woken again a short time after getting back to sleep.

8pm  It's Friday night ... "Junk food Friday"     Kaylia chose pizza tonight and of course, no-one disagreed.

She has continued her thing of wanting her bedroom door to be left open ... we don't know why .... maybe she feels "included" as we sit outside in the loungeroom.

#1556 Thursday 18 May

I cooked roast beef for tea tonight .... it was delicious and the pan had a layer of "crunchy bits" over the bottom. Many of you will know of my addiction to "crunchy burnt bits" ..... imagine my horror when I found that Ashley had filled the pan with water to soak before washing up!   Disaster! Catastrophe!

Ashley .... you're fired..... or you might be if you didn't make the best Yorkshire puddings in the world.

At the moment Kaylia is trying to get me to do "blue blanket" ...... but then she comes out with "I like school"!!!  I immediately drop the task and leave her to think.  I think bedtime is going to be a long process tonight.

#1555 Wednesday 17 May

It appears that the growing pains may be present again..... this evening she was showing the agitation that we recognise as a sign of pain ..... we prepared the hot packs that she gets relief with .... and instead of placing them on her tummy or her back, she placed them on her knees! Our guess is that this means that she's in pain from another growth spurt. Poor thing.

#1554 Tuesday 16 May

It's apparently the season for IT problems .... after the weekend scares about ransomeware, today we had an issue with some of the office computers.  Although they had a connection to the internet, no website could connect.  It was eventually tracked down to DNS errors and after I changed to a fixed DNS, all was well again.  The way this problem showed itself after the weekend events is a bit of a concern.  This IT work occupied much of my morning.

Kaylia is to have the second of three innoculations this afternoon.  When it was time for the first shot a few weeks ago, I was prepared with tasty rewards ..... but I still had to hold her so that the nurse could "do the deed".  So I'm under no illusions that today will be better!   I have a new plan .....  Can I threaten her with "no school"?  😉

Later:.  It didn't work!  She seemed to understand when I explained what was to happen .... she mimed the needle in her arm ..... but when the crunch came, she wasn't having it! She eventually stayed still long enough for the injection and then she was fine.

Naomi is not well and still working too hard.

For those of you so inclined, Kaylia has her own email address ..... kayliacroftward2004@gmail.com
It would be interesting to see how she reacts to receiving email.

6:30pm.  Interesting..... for the first time she has chosen to have her bedroom door open while she goes to sleep.  In the past she has always wanted the door to be closed.   It has also occurred​ to me that for a long time she had to have one of us with her for her to sleep ..... now she just takes herself off to bed.  She wants "blue blanket" but doesn't need company.  She's growing up!

#1553 Monday 15 May

As I write, Kaylia is sitting at the table in the dining room .... in the middle of a therapy session with Simone.  From the tone of her voice, she is clearly excited and enjoying herself.  She is learning how to respond to people when she is greeted ...... how to speak of "my" vs "your" ....   Although her articulation (when speaking to Simone) is not much better than we are used to, her eagerness to actually speak is much greater.  We shall have to ponder this.

So far we have missed being attacked by "ransomware" on our computers ... touch wood!  We've done all the precautions .... updated OS, backups of data ..... warned all the staff about attachments on emails ..... now we wait with fingers crossed.

The Subaru Forester that I drive has been diagnosed with a terminal illness .... to expensive to fix .... so we have to start thinking about a replacement in the near future.  Fortunately Foresters of this vintage are fairly common so it won't be a problem.

#1552 sunday 14 may

Mother's Day ..... and Naomi has been hit with a recurrence of the dengue fever that she had last year.  Poor thing .... It's not nice.

To give her a chance to sleep this afternoon, I took Kaylia for a long drive .... we ended up out the back of Walyunga National Park .... then through back roads nearly to Toodyay .... then home.  Kaylia loves it ..... and I get to enjoy the beautiful country.