#1918 Saturday 17 November

Teddy the escape artist!

I've been gradually making changes between the main house and the "Bungalow" ..... and as I change things, Teddy 'dogs' my steps and looks to see if there is any way that he can escape.  He has escaped again this morning ..... only to be returned by Jason!  Fortunately our neighbours quite enjoy Teddy so they always have him for a while before bringing him back.
Teddy is booked in for his summer haircut on Monday.

The changes I'm working on will eventually join the bungalow and the main house under one roof.  It's a big project and as usual I'm trying to find free or recycled materials for the work.

 

This is a self initiated drawing by Kaylia ..... done this morning.  When asked "Who is it?" she responded "Mummy."    

#1917 Friday 16 November

This afternoon we took Kaylia to see the spinal specialist at RPH.....  the x-ray shows that she has finished growing.  The kyphosis (curvature of the upper spine) is still quite pronounced but the doctor says that it is much better than it would have been without the brace. 

The photo at the right is a bit indistinct ... but you can see the curvature of her spine.

The doctor says that the statistics say that a person with this amount of kyphosis usually doesn't have any more back pain than a person with a normal spine.  That's good news!  The doctor said that we could choose whether or not to continue with the brace ..... so we asked Kaylia and her answer was an emphatic NO.  So that phase of her life is over.

The next step will be physiotherapy.... probably Pilates exercises to improve her core muscle strength.

#1916 Thursday 15 November

Yaaaayyyy!!!   After 9 years of slog and hard yakka, Naomi finally has her registration as a Clinical Psychologist.  It has been a long battle and she deserves a big congratulation.

#1915 Wednesday 14 November

Last night was a SAGA!  Big time!  It went down like this........

Some of you will know of Kaylia's bedtime routine where  I pretend to be the dentist ..... (she luuurves her dentist!) .... I sit on a chair next to the bed and she lies on the bed with her head on my lap .... and I am Doctor Daddy!  She gets a very thorough tooth cleaning every night.  Well .... last night as we were finishing the routine, Kaylia and the bed just quietly sagged onto the floor!  Boom.  All the fixings that held the wooden bed frame together had come to pieces.  For years Kaylia has been running into the room and diving onto the bed ..... and all the screws finally gave up and the frame collapsed!

Since the mattresses are very thick memory foam, they are very heavy .... and so the task of disassembling the bed, stripping the broken components, then reassembling with new parts ...... was a massive task!  I was slaving at it from 7pm to 9pm.  At one point we brought Kaylia up to look at the bed in pieces and we quietly told her ... "This is what happens when you jump onto the bed." She was clearly chastened ... and I heard a little voice "Sorry Daddy."


Yesterday and today, Kaylia has come home from school with sun burnt arms and face .... summer is here again.


Many of you will know of our penchant for geckos .... we get very big geckos in the house in Bali and we like them ..... but here the geckos like to get inside the outdoor units of the air conditioners!  And then ZAP!  .... no more gecko and dead air conditioner.  Today that was the diagnosis  for another of the air conditioners.  It makes life a bit expensive.


This is very funny - despite being very serious!

Who needs a federal ICAC???

#1914 Monday 12 November

(Non-Kaylia)   Two news items of note today.... firstly an article about Harrison Fischer who was diagnosed with ASD 20 years ago at age 5.  His diagnosis at the time sounded very similar to Kaylia's.  He now has grown into a man with employment, he is able to be mostly independent ... and he has some remarkable skills.   The next 10 years for Kaylia will be watched very closely!

Secondly .....

Today's news presents comments about religious extremism from both the major party leaders .... that's a good thing ... but wait! ..... Australia has religious extremism embedded into our federal and state laws ! Surely we must also tackle that extremism? I speak of all the ways in which our freedoms ..... (end of life choice .... abortion .... etc) ..... are being restricted in order to fit a particular religious ideology.
It seems apparent that "extremism is bad" .... just as long as it is not the extremism of the people making the laws!


Refer Blog # 1831 Monday 25th June 2018  in which I talked about a c1950 Allis Chalmers tractor that I had owned  between 1985 and 1996 .... and restored.  I have found a photo of this tractor before restoration .....

That's Donna driving  with David and I