#1614 Saturday 5 August

Today has been the first time in a while when I've had the caring task all day.... usually the aupairs handle the morning and I do the afternoon.... but without our extra hands, I have the task to myself.  This is not to say that it is terribly onerous... Kaylia can be quite good company if you never need a reply to your questions.  Her conversation is simple.... "I like school" 

Speaking of school..... yesterday I had a talk with one of the teachers..... Kaylia has been "sprung"..... sometimes doing excellent work and excellent speech..... very abnormal.  It makes me wonder whether we have a girl who is actually highly skilled and intelligent.... but she is so bound up by her stimming that it is hidden.   Or maybe she is approaching a point in her development where the Kaylia that is hidden by the stimming is revealed. 

We spent the morning at Aunty Maxine's place .... cutting wood with the chainsaws.

#1613 Friday 4 August

Phew!  Sorry that the blog has been unattended for a few days.... What with training a new accountant at work, no aupairs, looking after Kaylia..... the days are full on and stressful.  There's no likelyhood of improvement in the short term....

Kaylia doesn't mind of course.... it all means that she has more time with daddy.... and daddy collapses with exhaustion.... so she can cuddle lots! .....  and with no energy or inclination to cook, we are having a special time of eating out at night.  She doesn't complain!  Poor Naomi cops even more of an impact as the office cleaning is normally done by the aupairs.... so in the interim she is doing the office cleaning (for two offices) after work.  It makes a long day.

#1612 Tuesday 1 August

It's the second day without aupair support.  The house is very quiet.  I did the morning school run yesterday... and both runs today.  The home run along Marshall Road was mind blowing this afternoon..... the paddock beside the road had kangaroos as far as I could see.... hundreds of them..... all happily munching on the green grass.

Tonight Naomi will be working late so Kaylia and I will be going down to Midland to have tea with her.

The process of finding new aupairs has stalled this time..... we had some that sounded good but they just haven't returned our calls.  So we keep trying until a suitable match comes along.  Part of the problem may be that caring for a teenager is not as attractive as caring for a child.  Of course people can't know how gorgeous our girl is! 

 Since there's only the three of us, we treated Kaylia to "tea at Nandos" .... a special!  You can see how happy she is.

#1611 Sunday 30 July

Good morning everyone.....  it's normal routine this morning.... it's 7am and I'm downstairs snuggling with Kaylia to keep her asleep as long as possible.... so that Naomi can get a good sleep in.

Because we used "co-sleeping" when Kaylia was a baby, she is 'hard-wired' to sleep well when she has a warm body to wrap around.... and she has become a 'sleep anaconda'!.....

7:30pm  Our morning was taken up with pancakes.... followed by a visit to Aunty Maxine.... with the obligatory bath!  Then Naomi and Kaylia went off for a "girls afternoon" while I went with Maxine and Colin for a belated birthday lunch for Colin.

This evening has been a farewell dinner (Little Caesar pizza) for Ashley and Abbie.... who head off on their trek tomorrow morning.