#2072 Saturday 30th January 2021

It's a good birthday..... it began with presents..... she's really obsessed with presents.  Some of her gifts were bath bombs and bath powders....  so of course the bath was next! ..... and because it was her gifts, she was not rationed..... so she was in the bath for a looonnnggg time with lots of smellies.

In the evening we met with Colin and Maxine at Hogs Breath......  Kaylia's present fixation was very strong.  It brought home to us that Kaylia is very unusual despite seeming normal most of the time. 

#2071 Friday 29th January 2021

 The clock is ticking ..... it's her birthday tomorrow and she knows it!  

Today she had the last session of "Friendship Club" in Fremantle and now she's in bed listening to music.  (Her taste these days is usually for very modern songs ... but every now and then some Sesame Street music creeps in.)

My "reward" for all the waiting and so on for Kaylia over the past few weeks is this folding workbench.  It collapses into a flat package that easily fits in the back of the car .... yet will support nearly half a tonne of weight when in use!

#2070 Wednesday 27th January

Kaylia had "Friendship Club" today in fremantle. She's had this 2 days a week for January. She spends the day with her peers doing fun activities.....  and I drop her off in the morning and then wait around till pickup time. 

#2069 Saturday 23rd January 2021

It's 11.30am...... Kaylia is still asleep!  She must be having a growth spurt or something.  I'm not complaining about it..... it means that I don't have to be taking her for a drive "round the block"!  For her, this means that I drive as long as I can stand it!  Usually I just go exploring back roads and tracks....  I find some interesting places in the wanderings.

The person that we employ as a carer to help out with Kaylia seems to have given up..... she hasn't turned up for the whole week.  I guess we will have to find a new carer. 

One week to go till school starts again.... Yay! 

Kaylia has her 17th birthday on the 30th.

#2068 Monday 18th January 2021

 14 days till school starts again.  I really miss having time to get properly stuck into projects.

It's 9pm and Kaylia is in the last stage of the nightly routine.  It starts with a call ...."Blanket please!" ..... so Naomi and I toss for who has to get up from the comfy lounge chair and go into the bedroom to restore order to the chaos that Kaylia always manages to change her bed into.

Then by about 7:30pm it's time for the evening medicine ..... and another session of bed blanket battles...

Then we wait for the next call ..... all the while listening to her music - which is always a couple of bars of something repeated over and over.

Now I'm waiting for the final call when she has decided that it's time to give me her "ipad" (Samsung tablet) and go to sleep.

Tomorrow it will all begin again.

#2067 Sunday 17th January 2021

Two weeks till school starts again.  Kaylia can't wait.... and neither can I!   During the holidays my time is mostly taken up with drives and there's little time for projects. 

Today will be a trip to Fremantle to the E-shed..... and then to the Balcatta op-shops. 

8.30.   There's a fire about 15km to the east of us.  With the strong easterly winds today, I can only hope that they get the fire under control quickly. 

#2066 Saturday 9th January 2021

Wow ... it's good to be a long way from Washington DC! The news of the riots and violence is very disturbing. 

Kaylia is oblivious of course.... she's focused on getting 10 DVDs this afternoon! This is still a powerful motivating force in modifying her behavior. This afternoon we head down to the Midland op shops and she can find some more DVDs to add to her collection. 

All those stacks are two deep! 

Projects? 

Nothing in the granny flat this week. I scored 4 eight meter lengths of very heavy steel this week (free!) and the week has been consumed with getting them home, getting them down to the back shed and then stacking them for future use. The Kanga loader is magical for this. I plan to build a grader attachment for the Kanga in the future and this steel is just what is needed.

A simplified version of this ......

You might remember that about 6 weeks ago we had the ceiling in the main living area reclined and more insulation put in......  it was a really good idea and makes the house much more pleasant. Today is very hot outside and inside the house is cool without the main area air-conditioning being used.