Look out Portsea

Bethie’s off to school camp tomorrow, very excited she is too! She’s been talking about it for ages, trying to convince me that it’s happening sooner than it actually is. Sometimes I’m sure that she figures that if she says something enough times it’s really going to happen.

An example of this is when she decided she needed glasses. I picked Beth up from school to take her to her swimming lessons. She got in the car and said What time’s our appointment at the optometrists?” She’s very good with her words, always using them appropriately and often asking what a word means when we’re reading. My response : “Who got new glasses today luvvy?” I can’t remember who it was but I knew that somebody must have got new glasses cos otherwise where would she have got it from.

I replied that no, we had been to the optometrists only a couple of months before and he had informed me that Beth didn’t need glasses. (If we hadn’t I probably would have made an appointment cos I really didn’t have an “out” otherwise!) I said that we were off for her swimming lesson, something she really enjoys. Beth then says that our appointment must be after swimming then. I tell her that no, but I had bought her one of her favourite Total Girl Magazines to read in the car if she did really well at swimming. She says that’s great because she can read it in the waiting room when we get to our appointment.

This goes on and on. We were going down to Rye that weekend so I thought I’d change the subject and talk about that instead. “Is that where our appointment is with the optometrist then?” It didn’t matter what the subject was changed to, it always came back to the fact that Beth wanted her glasses!

The school camp has been the same as the glasses. Two weeks ago we were driving to school and I got told off cos we hadn’t packed up the bag and sleeping bag. “You’re not going to camp for another 2 weeks Bethie”. “Yes I am, it’s today and I don’t have any of my stuff!” All the way to school we had this. The last of it was when I was kissing her goodbye in the classroom after the bell had gone. “See you tonight” I said. Her response : “I will miss you mum, see you on Friday!” She’s like a dog with a bloody bone!

Beth’s aide Shelley went with her last year and said she had behaved really well so I hope she’s as good for Shelley this year. The first sleepover for school was in grade 2, 2 years ago. Beth ended up being sick most of the time. Luckily Laurine (her aide for that camp) was with her all the time anyway so she didn’t have to come home. Last year she was much more prepared and was very excited about going. I think she was probably sick the first year because of the fear of the unknown. Once she had been she realised that it was good fun and she loved it.

We borrowed Lachlan’s sleeping bag from Amanda this year cos the only one we have is a Dora the Explorer one and now that Beth’s in size 14 clothes I don’t think it would fit her. She wanted a character one but they don’t have older character ones and they’re not very warm anyway. Plus I think Bridie would have been most put out by what she now considers to be her sleeping bag going on camp with Beth. Amanda brought it to pilates yesterday so I popped it in Beth’s room in the afternoon. When she got up this morning she was like a snake, wiggling out on the floor in the sleeping bag. She must have slept in it last night.

I’ll miss my Bethie while she’s away. She is a handful but she’s my handful and I do miss her dreadfully when she’s not with me. I know she’ll have a fantastic time though and she is growing up so what can I do. It’s only for 2 nights after all.

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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