Graduation speeches

We had the grade six graduation speeches at Beth’s primary school on Wednesday night. Beth had decided to do hers on the leadbeater possum. We had practiced this several times and she had done well. Beth is good at speaking to a crowd as usually her voice is loud and clear. She doesn’t say um or ah either, she just reads things through.

On Wednesday night Beth had an issue with going into the multi purpose room where they were doing the speeches. It’s where they have assembly so I’m not sure if she was worried about the noise or if it echos as it is like a large hall. She tried to run out with her fingers in her ears so I talked with her and told her that Paul would take her to Safeway afterwards to buy a magazine if she behaved and did her speech. This helped and in she went with her friends, still with her fingers in.

The lady running the speeches course that the kids had done is nicknamed “The Welsh Dragon” as she’s known to be rather grumpy with them. She seems like a nice lady who is quite proud of her reputation, her heart’s in the right place and she clearly enjoys what she does. She obviously makes allowances for Beth to a certain extent as Beth often wont be in the classroom or acts defensively when made to do something that she doesn’t want to do. To set the scene I’ll describe the seating for you. The grade six teacher was sitting with the Welsh Dragon in the middle of the wall at the back of the room at a table, facing the audience. Seated diagonally from each were the grade six students. They were in two rows on either side and were also facing the audience. When the children did their speeches they stood at a podium which was in between the rows of students and in front of the teacher’s table.

Beth was the first long speech. There were what is called table talk discussions and introductions for probably 20 minutes and then it was Beth’s turn. Well, welcome to the World of Beth! She started off speaking in an accent and continually fluctuated in and out of this accent throughout the whole speech. She decided to put actions in as she spoke, probably to add a bit of drama. For example when she spoke of where the possums sleep she put her hands together and on her shoulder with her head leaning on it, like you do with little kids when you are speaking about sleeping. Or when the sentence was “We have to stop these trees from being logged” she put out her hand flat and yelled ‘STOP’ then mimicked chopping her arm. Once upon a time I would have been mortified but I’ve come to accept her and actually love her theatrics, as I’ve said before, we could all use a little bit of Beth. If it had just been this I would have absolutely loved the performance but unfortunately not long into it Beth must have had an itchy bum. She pulled her pants half way down to scratch and left them there! I was hoping that one of the other kids or the Welsh Dragon herself would say something but they were all too busy avoiding their eyes! And her poor teacher, he didn’t know which way to look. Anyway, she got through the performance and did several bows at the end saying “Thankyou, thankyou” so clearly it didn’t bother her. Bree and our principal told me later that they didn’t see the pants down at all as they were at the back so that was something.

While all the other speeches were happening Beth ate paper, picked her nose and basically looked bored stiff. She also decided to invent a new way of clapping where she clapped really quickly low down, raising her hands up and up (still clapping), then doing one great big clap at the top right in the air. Bree said it looked like she could see the claps and was trying to catch them. Afterwards Bree asked excitedly to Beth what the claps looked like but Beth looked at her like she was from another planet! If she could see them she certainly wasn’t going to share it with anybody else. I don’t think she could have been much more autistic if she tried and she was fabulous. Well, except for the pulling the pants down bit …..

Staying awake

We’ve had a fairly quiet week. I was worried earlier in the week as Sunday night Beth was a nightmare. She has been sleeping in with me as the double bunk we bought for her and our youngest – Bridie – didn’t suit Beth. As she jumps about sometimes she kept banging her head on the top bunk and we don’t have anywhere now to put another bed. On Sunday night Beth didn’t go to sleep until 12.30am!

One of the problems I have with Beth sleeping with me is that I fall asleep before her. Beth has a fascination with me when I’m asleep, I don’t know if it’s because I snore or because I’m still but she keeps doing things like touching my face. I’m not sure if she’s checking to see if I’m still alive or because I snore so loud that she’s trying to wake me up. Either way it’s bloody annoying! On Sunday night I’d had enough. I woke with a start to Beth pinching my lips. I had fallen asleep with the tv on and Beth was still watching something. I grabbed the remote from her hand and switched it off, yelling at her that she shouldn’t be watching it so late anyway and that I was fed up with her touching my face all the time.

Beth has got in to the habit of speaking her thoughts out aloud. She was clearly still wide awake at this stage, it was only 11.30pm after all. Well, she wasn’t happy at all that I had turned the tv off. As I was drifting off to sleep I could hear her saying things like “Good, she’s nearly asleep, I’ll get the remote back and turn the tv back on when she is.” This went on to the point that I gave her three warnings that if she didn’t shut up about the remote, she couldn’t play or watch any electronic things the following night. She just couldn’t help herself though and she ended up being banned. Finally she leapt out of bed and I yelled “What are you doing now?” Her reply was that she was just getting a drink of water, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world at midnight. Of course I was beside myself at that stage and let her have it. Finally she went back to bed. As I realised she was drifting off I heard her say “I wish my Mum wasn’t so bossy.”I said under my breath “I wish Beth wouldn’t be so naughty.”

On Monday morning I told them at school about our bad night, worried that maybe it was the medication. Luckily on Monday night Beth actually went to sleep at about 9.30pm. Before falling asleep Beth said to me “We made a deal didn’t we? I wished for you not to be bossy and you wished for me not to be naughty!” She was so cute!

Another funny little thing we’ve picked up is from the Smurf movie. You know when you see some kids movies and there is adult humour in there? The word Smurf was inserted into lots of the sentences. If they were angry they’d say “Oh for Smurf’s sake!” One of the lines we say to each other as we go to sleep now. Beth will say “I Smurf you Mum”  instead of her usual “I love you Mum.” Then she’ll have a little grin. She drives me crazy but I love her so much.

A fairly good week

We’ve had a fairly normal week, a bit hectic with some great times and some shitty ones thrown in! Last Thursday Beth had come out of school and exclaimed “Mum, you’re alive!” As she was fairly flippant about it I just laughed and said that yes indeed I was. She has said this before earlier in the year and I didn’t think much of it. The next morning though her aide came to talk to me and told me that Beth had in fact had a big meltdown the day before, saying that I had been shot in the guts, that they had to get a box for me and to be careful of my legs. The aide was wondering if perhaps the medication was giving Beth hallucinations. I said that no, I didn’t think so as we had had no incidents during the school holidays at all. I also mentioned that she had originally said this while on her other medication. We both agreed that the main thing is that Beth feels happy, safe and comfortable at school for her final term. The aide talked about having a roster system with all the kids in the class having to play with Beth and to encourage her to join in. Most of the kids in the class have been with her since prep so are good with her anyway and I thought that sounded like an excellent idea. The aide also suggested that I send makings for lunches and Beth could make them herself at school which I can report she has loved.

On Saturday I went to a talk with some of my friends from our support group HAGS (Happy Autism/Aspergers Group Support). It was a talk about adolescence and teenagers with autism and aspergers. Lots of it I had heard before but it was interesting. Once again it showed me the differences between aspergers and autism. It was interesting as it talked about the increase when kids his puberty of depression, anxiety and their own and others mortality. I was so glad that school had already discussed depression with me as if I had seen the talk first I would have been devastated as I would have had the realisation then and there. It was particularly interesting to hear about the mortality issue just after her having a meltdown about me dying. They also spoke about the anxiety causing tourettes – something which Beth seems to have developed a bit of. Luckily this should settle down once the hormones kick in properly.

We had Sensational Kids on Wednesday but Rod wasn’t available to see this week for Speech Therapy so we saw Whiskas (not her real name) – the Occupational Therapist. They had a good session and I spoke with Whiskas at the end about Beth’s worry about me dying. I had spoken with our Principal about the talk on Saturday also and said to both of them that I wondered if the fact that my mum died when I was 13 may have something to do with it. We all agreed that  may be contributing to it and I said that I would have a talk with Beth. On the way home we chatted about my mum with me saying that if she had gotten sick today (she died of cancer), she probably would have lived as medicine is so much more advanced 30 years on. Beth was happy to chat about mum which surprised me and commented that she wished that she had the chance to meet her. It was a nice talk and I reitereated that I was well and that I wasn’t going to leave Beth any time soon.

We stopped in at Knox on the way home. Beth cracks me up! We were in KMart and a song came on from JRock – the performance that Beth was in earlier in the year. She started doing the dances and singing at the top of her voice. It’s nice to see that more and more people seem to be understanding about Beth without me having to explain, there were smiles all around. Of course there were the starers too but as far as I’m concerned they can get stuffed! We can all use a bit of Beth!

The big excitement is that I found the most beautiful graduation dress for Beth. It’s a minty green with pink and blue embroidered flowers. It’s floor length and just stunning. We went into a wedding dress shop and I told the woman that we didn’t want to pay more than $100 but there wasn’t much other than dresses far too old for her. I kept looking at this fairy princess dress but it was $200, reduced from $700. I thought “bugger it, let’s just see if it fits” and we took it in to the changeroom. Well, it was like the glass slipper, it fit perfectly! It looks so beautiful too! I’ve been secretly showing it to all of Beth’s teachers from over the years and all are in agreeance at how lovely it is. I think there’ll be a few tears that night! I’m so excited, I want Beth to be a standout on the night for her beauty and she certainly will be! I wont put up pictures until the night, I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

School’s back

I must apologize for not writing for over a week. The second week of the school holidays made me go a little crazy and I was rather flat and negative and didn’t want to use the blog as a way to vent about how crappy I was feeling. I found the school holidays to be particularly challenging this time around. I’m not sure why, the kids were all pretty good. The block of land that we were buying from Paul’s parents has finally been settled so I can look forward to our new house being built now. I think it has dragged on for so long – 3 – 4 years now – that I was feeling like it was never going to happen. Add that to feeling a bit yucky in myself, being tired and Paul working really long hours at work and I guess it’s no wonder.

Anyway, it’s a new term and I’ve had a  break this week so I’m feeling a bit better in myself. I’ve had a chance to do some decluttering which always makes me feel better mentally too. It’s so hard to keep the house even tidy during school holidays isn’t it? We had a pretty good last week. Monday we went to Catriona and Jose’s house. They’re the friends that we went to Inverloch with a couple of holidays ago. Beth has a bit of a crush on Jose and he’s oblivious to it. As they don’t even go to the same school it’s harmless and we don’t mind if Beth thinks that he’s her boyfriend. She blows kisses to him when we leave and calls him ‘my little buttercup’ when she speaks of him! When we’re there however Jose and Bill go off and play boys games and Beth watches dvds. Bec came along with her kids as well as another friend who has a son with aspergers. Considering that there were four kids there on the spectrum (including Jose) it was an excellent day.

We took Beth’s friend Jessica to see the Smurfs at the movies. Paul had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off so he came along with us. The girls had a lovely time, Beth doesn’t have many playdates but when she does she really enjoys them.

Wednesday we had Sensational Kids and I took Bill and Bridie with me this time. I’m not sure if Beth enjoyed it or not, she seemed a bit put out, maybe at the idea of sharing Rod the Speech Therapist? We did play acting again with Bridie going from being the selective mute that she often chooses to almost flirting with Rod and not shutting up. I can’t figure that kid out! Beth had her session with Whiskas (not her real name) – the Occupational Therapist – to herself but got distressed when I took the other kids to McDonalds, I think she thought she’s miss out but we drove through when we left Sensational Kids so she didn’t.

Thursday I had made appointments at the optometrists for Beth and Bill. Beth went fine, in fact her concentration seemed better than the last test two years ago. She tried to tell the optometrist a joke but as an aspie himself (in several people’s opinions) he kept mucking it up. I had told him that it was a joke made up of four questions. When Beth asked him her questions though he kept not answering properly. For example when asked what his favourite colour was he said he didn’t have one but ‘as an answer seems to be required for the sake of the joke I’ll say green.’ This was the case with most of the questions. I think it pissed me off more than Beth though, she still did what she does as if he had answered normally. I can’t see the harm in playing along with things but clearly not everybody likes to do this.

Friday we went to Bec’s house for the day. I always have an Aah moment when I get to her house. The kids go off and do their own things and I get to relax with one of my best buds and just chill out. It was just what I needed. I had burst into tears on the phone to Bec the day before, just feeling overwhelmed with life. Just sitting chatting made me feel so much better.

We had a quietish weekend, Paul went sailing on Saturday and we had lunch at Grandma and Grandpas on Sunday.

I’ll go now and try to sort a bit more of my house out. Have a good week everybody xxx

Half way through

It’s the middle Sunday of the school holidays. Daylight savings starts today and I’m still up at the new time of 8am – been up for an hour too! I wish I could sleep in but it’s just not in me.

We’ve had a quiet school holidays. We visited one of my HAGS (Happy Autism Group Support) mums Trudy and her little girl Hayley on Wednesday to check out their trampoline. Beth is the size of a full grown adult now and the trampoline that she used to bounce on is way too small for her. As she likes to fling herself on to her back she’s hit her head a couple of times and now wont go on it hardly at all. We’ve still got one on the old fashioned rectangle trampolines so I wanted to check out the big round ones. Trudy told me that had a 14 foot one so we went around there to give Beth a bounce. It was huge! We’ll have to measure up the back yard at the block where we’re building as we’re getting a pool too and we have to allow for the width of the pool and the obligatory pool fence. Still, as it’s the only exercise Beth tends to do I’d love to get her one. Also, I know she wont grow out of it, she’ll use it well in to her adulthood. We may just have to come down a size. Trudy was pleased with Hayley as she’s not used to kids playing with her toys, she coped really well. It’s lovely when there’s improvements that you don’t realise, it shows how the hard work and perseverance of the parents does pay off in the end.

Beth’s been a bit of a bugger now that she’s loving Sesame Street again. On Wednesday the whole show was about Oscar and a made up disease called Mineitis. Everybody on Sesame Street had Mineitis and the only way to get rid of it was to get Oscar to share with them all. That meant that Beth kept taking things like my jewellery box and telling me that she had Mineitis. I found myself having to threaten to ban her from morning television the next day to stop her from doing it. Luckily she did stop herself. I’ve been watching Sesame Street with Beth as she’s still got her fingers in her ears when Oscar comes on but his elephant hasn’t been on this week. I keep reassuring her that she’s not scared of elephants anymore but want to see how she’ll react if it’s on. It’s so nice to see her get over something that’s been a fear for so long.

We went to Bec’s house on Friday, a friend who had kids the same age as my younger two. Beth loves going there and makes herself at home, watching dvds and videos for the most part. It’s lovely to go to a house where they ‘get’ Beth, Bec’s middle son Will has autism too and is Bill’s friend. Beth showed her sweet side with Bec’s youngest Angus who’s just turned one. She read to him and kept patting him on the head, it was very cute!

I’ll leave you with a Beth funny. I was watching one of the Narnia movies in my bed with Bill and Bridie. I could hear Beth in the loungeroom asking a question when there was nobody in there. When nobody answered her she said “I’ll take that as a yes then!” Clearly she gets her sarcasm from me!

Lion King

We’ve been to see the Lion King in 3D today. I have never seen it before. As my regular readers would know Beth loves Disney movies. They’re her passion. We have all the movies that we have seen together at the cinemas, now she’s amassing the earlier collections such as the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. I loved it though I think I was the only person crying. I even checked on my Bill as he’s pretty sensitive but no, it was just me. I was the only one in the whole cinema loudly blowing my nose!

We went with a friend from school Laurine. She’s been Beth’s aide in the past and we usually try to have a catch up over the school holidays at some point. A while back it was a trip to the zoo and we’ve been to the movies together quite a bit. It’s great to go out with a friend who gets your kids and she genuinely seems to enjoy their company too. The kids feel awfully special as they are allowed to call her by her first name when we see her outside of school!

We went for icecream and coffees afterwards. Beth never fails to amaze me. She chatted away about the movie and who starred in it to Laurine and I, asking about favourite parts and characters. On the way home she elaborated on her knowledge of Disney movies. There were quite a few characters in the Lion King voiced by people from Toy Story and other Disney or Pixar movies. When Beth gets going she speaks so well and really knows what she’s talking about. When asking the dates of the movies I don’t even second guess her anymore. Bill, Bridie and I had a lovely conversation with Beth, asking her lots of questions such as which came first, Toy Story or Lion King. She told us with great confidence that Lion King was out in 1994 and Toy Story in 1995. I had no idea that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were in Lion King, they only played small parts but Beth has clearly studied all the information about the movie, she knew all the character names and all the people who played them. She’s so ace!

School holidays

It’s the first Monday of the September school holidays. I’m still awake at a ridiculous hour, 6am I woke up, it’s now 7.13am. Both the girls are awake and have been for a while. I’m hoping to get away with not doing much today, Beth and Bill would stay home doing not much all holidays if given half a chance but Bridie is a different kettle of fish, she needs to be kept busy all the time. I’ve promised her we’ll sort out her bedroom today so there goes my relaxing day!

We’ve had a good weekend. Beth has been excellent the last two days. Saturday morning I took her to get a blood test for gluten intolerance and to test her hormone levels to see if they have anything to do with her depression. She hasn’t had a blood test for years and last time Paul had to hold her down while they took the blood, even though they used a numbing cream. Our doctors are great and know Beth so had no problems letting me have some of that cream this time too. They put it in a little tub with some of those plastic stickers you put over the top on the arm to keep all the cream in. I put these on Beth an hour before going and she came along just fine. When we got in to the nurse Beth was sweating and shaking, she was so scared. The nurse asked if Beth would keep her arm still and I told her that I couldn’t promise anything but we’d try. Well, even though Beth cried out a little she kept her arm still and watched as they took three vials of blood. I was so proud of her. I told her so and she said to me that she was very nervous and scared but she had been very brave. She said as we were leaving “I didn’t die!” Poor love, I’m sure she knows in her heart that she wouldn’t because she hadn’t before but who knows what goes through her head. She was such a good girl. We went and bought a Disney magazine and a beanie kid much to Bridie’s annoyance. She soon shut up when I told her that she could go and get a needle too then and get a beanie kid!

We had my inlaws 60th Wedding Anniversary party yesterday. Paul’s brother Tony and his family came down from Canberra, our niece came back from Malaysia with her new baby Alice, we have another new grand nephew Oliver, news of another baby to be born in the new year and lots of catching up to do. We went armed with Beth’s DSi, not a terribly social tool but one that helps everybody else have a nice time relaxing and enjoying chatting without constantly worrying what Beth’s getting in to. It did run out of charge during the afternoon and Beth surprised us all by going around with my mother in law Bev meeting old friends and being quite charming. When I would go to check on them Beth would introduce me to the people she had just met. She loved the fact that there were name places on the tables so she could check the names if she had forgotten them. We had the photo done of all the grandchildren, 10 in all plus two great grandchildren. My wonderful friend Amanda came along and did lots and lots of photos for us and she assembled the kids in the foyer for the photos. Beth then delighted us by sitting on the floor with the two babies, holding their hands and talking to them as if they were talking back. She even sang them songs. Our nephew David commented on how much better Beth seemed, she was being really gentle and staying put, just being a really good girl. Everyone was chuffed at our news in regards to getting in to Emerson. It was a great weekend all round really.

Sensational Kids

Our family went to a grade 5 and 6 production last night at the school which was short plays on Australian History. It was really interesting to watch and I even learnt a few things! Beth played the part of Betty Cuthbert, she ran a race and won, receiving her flowers and medal at the end. She’s such a ham, she loves to entertain. She was very sweet when she came out, she spotted me in the audience and gave me a big smile and a wave. I know it’s not what she’s meant to do but I couldn’t resist waving back, she’s so bloody cute when she does that she makes my heart melt.

Beth and I just got back from another great session at Sensational Kids. She’s been in a terrific mood lately and they noticed how much better regulated she was and how much more relaxed. It seems like it’s all coming together for us. As usual our first session was with Rod the Speech Therapist. We once again did role play with Beth writing and directing a small script based on her experience at Emerson with the boy she calls Bob who she said bullied her the first week. Rod played Bob, I played Beth and Beth played a girl called Nicky who was one of her buddies for the day. Rod asked her to elaborate on what Bob had said after Beth said that he had said to her “Hello, what’s your name?” Beth eventually told us that he had said it several times which clearly annoyed her. Bob had then laughed at her and told her to do her dance (I assume this was because she jumps around) which she then had done for him. She said that he had laughed at her again. We role played this a few times then changed it around a bit. Rod did the bullying still (he played this so well!) and when being mean to me I just said that I had told him my name so I wasn’t going to say it again. When he asked me to dance I said no. This was to show Beth that we don’t have to do everything that everybody tells us. She also said that he had pushed her so I think I’ll get the book that we got when we went to Emerson with the photos of all the kids. That way she can pick him out for me and I can let them know. It’s a hard one though, was he just being annoying to her instead of teasing or did it really go too far? We want to teach her that bullying isn’t ok but we don’t want her to label somebody a bully if they are just being annoying. Beth was very receptive during the session with Rod and alert for the majority of time. Our next session is in the school holidays and I discussed with Rod taking Bill and Bridie with me and having them take part. Bridie wants to go along and I think Bill would enjoy it too, especially if we’re doing role playing again.

We then went in to the big gym and Whiskas (not her real name), the Occupational Therapist met us in there. I chatted with her about Emerson then left them to it. Whiskas reported that they had had a good session and that Beth was happy and relaxed.

I had a nice encounter as we were leaving. A lovely lady stopped me and asked if it was me who wrote this blog. She told me that it was nice to feel that she wasn’t alone and that she enjoyed reading it. Well if you’re reading now, thank you so much, you made my day! It’s lovely to get feedback from people that I don’t know, especially positive feedback!

An exciting new development

This wont be exciting to most but it’s huge to me. Those who read my blog often will know that I’ve spoken about Beth’s anxieties snowballing. If something small happens somewhere Beth will start off avoiding that time of day in case it happens again, then the preceding hour or so, eventually avoiding the place alltogether. If  we don’t know what the issue was to start with it’s almost impossible to fix the problem as often Beth has forgotten what it is that started her off.

The biggest and longest issue Beth has had is with Oscar the Grouch. Beth used to have an issue with the sounds that elephants make. Oscar the Grouch has an elephant. When Beth was two or three she enjoyed watching Sesame Street as do most kids. Oscar’s elephant was on it and made it’s noise, startling Beth and causing her to stick her fingers in her ears each time she saw Oscar in case his elephant was on. (The fingers in the ears is to this day Beth’s coping mechanism.) When realising how many elephants were on Sesame Street Beth eventually couldn’t watch the whole show, even though they didn’t often make the noise that had freaked her out. It became so bad that at the end of each show (and some are only 5 minutes) Beth would have to leave the room in case there was an ad for Sesame Street and in case that ad had Oscar the Grouch and if it did it might have his elephant. You get the picture. For a while there we weren’t able to watch ABC Kids at all. Once the other kids came along (and before digital TV with lots of other kids channels) I decided that we’d have to push for Beth to be ok watching ABC and she has for the most part been ok. Out of all the kids she’s now the one who still enjoys watching Playschool amongst all the other preschool shows. I sometimes catch Bill out who looks guiltily at enjoying a ‘little kids’ show at 9!

In the mornings we watch tely as the kids get ready and they watch ABC Kids until 8.30am which incidentally is when Sesame Street comes on. If it happens to be on in the bedroom and in the lounge Beth freaks if somebody doesn’t turn it off on the tely she isn’t watching. Well…… yesterday I walked in on her at my inlaws house and she was sitting there watching Sesame Street! We normally turn the TV off during lunchtime but I asked if just this once we didn’t, I was so excited that Beth was watching it! Oscar didn’t play a part in yesterday’s episode so I couldn’t see a true reaction but Beth was watching the rest very happy. This morning she was in bed with me and watched it again. I stayed with her so as to calm her for if and when Oscar came on but he didn’t. Beth did go to stick the fingers in her ears just in case and I said to her that she’d be ok, she’s not scared of Oscar anymore. She told me that Oscar’s elephant had died anyway! I’m doubting that information, it is a kids show after all! Funnily enough Beth isn’t scared of elephants anymore, she got over that fear at about six. I’m so hoping that Oscar will be shown again soon so that I can see if the fear really is gone. I know it’s a little thing but in the world of Beth it’s huge, one of the biggest. To me it signifies that the new medication is working, that her anxieties are lessening again. It’s school holidays soon, let’s see how Beth goes when she can watch Sesame Street every day.

A happy girl

Beth’s been in a good mood lately. Our principal has mentioned how Beth has been talking nicely and not snapping and I’ve been noticing it a bit at home too. She’s been quite chatty. We had our son Bill’s First Communion on Sunday and Beth was excellent in the church even though it went for over an hour. We went out for lunch afterwards and she sat at the childrens table eating and drawing on the paper table cloths. She was good as gold, no yelling, no spilling anything. Usually I have to whip out the trusty DSi but we didn’t need it on Sunday. I don’t know if it’s the relief of enjoying her new to be school or if it’s the medication starting to work. I’m thinking the medication as I wouldn’t imagine one day a week would effect the whole week as far as school moods are concerned. Hopefully the anxieties are going to lessen at primary school soon so that she can enjoy the rest of her last school year there. School holidays are at the end of next week so we can have a nice break and hopefully be ready for term four.

Beth’s been a funny bugger lately. She’s taken to sleeping in with me as the bunk bed that we bought for her and Bridie ended up not suiting her. She kept hitting her head and now wont sleep in there. We have no room for other beds so she’s sharing the big bed at the moment. They’ll all have their own rooms at the new house and things can hopefully go back to normal. Anyway, Beth’s been studying me and doing commentaries. I keep falling asleep watching the tely and as I snore, she keeps making loud noises to wake me up. It’s horrible as I keep thinking something has happened! She’s also talking about me. For example I will wake up to her prodding me and saying things like “she’s breathing again, she’s not dead!” Good to hear! Glad to see I amuse my child.