#1354 Monday 26 September

We all went on the train to the Royal Show today.  Kaylia was excellent!  Even when we found out that she wasn't allowed in the big bubbles.  It was all she wanted .... The ride has the child getting inside a large inflated ball .... and the rolling round a large pool .... but she's now too big.  Very sad.

It was a good time.

It was strange on way home .... most of the way, we were to only people on the train!

Now we're home again ....   Kaylia has a new hilarious behaviour.  Often she does something that makes us laugh ..... and when we laugh, she laughs too .... I wish we could catch it on video.

#1353 Sunday 25 September

She had a "hyper attack" last night .... she giggled and wiggled and giggled and wiggled from about 5 pm till 9pm when she finally went to sleep!    It was possibly from not eating enough during the day. We tried to bribe her to eat some tea .... but the lure of a trip to the icecream shop wasn't enough to get her to eat. She is still very overweight so we're not too worried yet ..... but we'll need to plan some strategy for a possible future where she needs to eat!

Today we will go and visit Maxine ..... maybe try out her new chair lift!  Maxine has had one installed to allow her to access to bottom part of her house.

Ouch!! She's just kneed me in the cheekbone ....  
Sleep in this morning is a very active affair!   We tried to persuade her to go downstairs and play .... No joy.  This got me pondering the nature of "play" .... its the old problem of imagination.  Her lack of imagination means that she has no way of playing.  When I remember my childhood play, it was largely an imaginary world.

Its hard to imagine a world without imagination .... where "what you see is what you get" ..... nothing else.

Evening
The day ended up going on a chocolate factory and winery crawl.... of course it HAD to be done to show Joe and Ellie!  During this trip I had a bad leg pain attack ... and after taking a dose of strong painkillers, I dozed the rest of the day .... with Kaylia pestering for tickles a lot of the time.

#1352 Saturday 24 September

It's 9am .... she's in her bed with iPhone .... droning away.  She is clearly very happy ... she has a big smile as she drones.  She constantly wriggles her feet against my legs looking for the warmest spot. 

It's the first day of the school holidays.  What to do?  How can we fill the time?  How can I get all the other tasks done? 

As you can see, I'm feeling down about it all. Yesterday's News contained an article about a school over east which thinks the solution to management of a child with autism is to physically tie the child to a chair for the day!  I'm appalled that this can happen in current times.... and the thought of someone doing this to Kaylia is a nightmare.

#1351 Friday 23 September

We had a power failure last night .... First time in ages.  I was cooking tuna pasta for tea and the power went off just as the pasta was cooked and ready to go into the oven.  So we lit the BBQ and used it as an oven instead .... it worked a treat. As long as the dish is raised off the hotplate, it doesn't burn.

This morning as Kaylia was heading off to school I commented to Naomi that she is just soooo happy at present. I feel as though we are definitely doing things right!

#1350 Wednesday 21 September

Its been a good day .... Kaylia is happy .... I've been building .... and I've actually been out in the shed.

Its now 8pm .... Kaylia is almost asleep.  She was funny tonight ..... The "tradition" of watching ABC4kids after tea has been replaced some time ago by having time on her bed before settling to sleep.  But tonight she wanted the old way ..... so we had popcorn and watched TV ..... and then she just took herself off to bed!

She's a funny thing.

Naomi is struggling with the after effects of dengue fever ..... splitting headaches that don't respond to painkillers.

#1349 Tuesday 20 September

Its good to have a "tickle team" again..... Joe is very good at it and Kaylia really has a good time.

Kaylia once again has eaten a tiny portion for tea.  Its going to be very interesting to see her next weight reading. If her eating habits stay like this, she is bound to recover from the obesity that Risperdal caused.

#1348 Sunday 18 September

Poor thing..... she just couldn't settle to sleep last night ..... she was behaving perfectly .....  but it was about 3:30am before she actually went to sleep.  It's fortunate that she can sleep in this morning.   

Many times during the night she wanted to talk about having pancakes for breakfast! Given her current appetite, it will be interesting to see how many she eats!

  ..... She ate 2 pancakes.  

It's a huge change from the old days when she would wolf them down

Later .... it's toenail painting time!