Wow what a busy few days we’ve had. Today is the first day that we’ve been able to just veg out since last Wednesday, and today’s Tuesday! Last time we spoke it was Christmas Eve. Beth’s behaviour has certainly improved since then! (thank goodness)
Christmas morning was lovely, santa got exactly what the kids wanted so Bill got to play his Playstation 2, Beth listened to music on her new dvd player and Bridie zoomed around the house on her Dora rollerblades. The bins had conveniently been emptied the day before so I brought them inside to chuck out all the paper and other packaging that make all the presents look much bigger than they actually are. All the wire ties were put straight in the bin, they are the most frustratingly stupid things aren’t they? They do hold the toys in well but there are so many of them!
One of the things Beth loved was an aqua doodle. She’s always liked the magna doodles and has been asking for an aqua one for ages but I think they normally have the water in the mat and I was worried that it would spring a leak and that’d be the end of it. This one has a pen that you fill up with water so there’s no mess and Beth loves it. I try to buy her age appropriate things and some of these she loves but sometimes she just wants a good old toy and even if they’re designed for 4 or 5 year olds in mind who cares if she wants to play with it. We’ve had a lot of use out of this one already. She got her Mr Men Annual which we read this morning. (Always hard to find the time for things like that when there are 2 other kids in the house.) Santa gave all the kids Mr Men undies and jocks, he tried to find some for mum and dad but they didn’t have any apparently!
We spent the afternoon at Paul’s nephews house in East Burwood. David and Margaret offered to have it this year which was lovely. Quite a crowd as Margaret’s family were all there too but that’s what Christmas is all about isn’t it, huge crowds, massive meals and exhaustion after it all! Beth behaved well, we watched the repeat of the carols from the night before and she played with her aqua doodle. I took the kids DSi’s too but we didn’t get them out in the end.
Boxing Day was spent at old family friends as it is every year. Pat and David have been around as long as I can remember. Pat and my mum worked together and were best friends and my Dad and David have been best friends ever since. Mum died when I was 13 and since then we’ve spent every Christmas with Pat and David. They’re as close as you can get to an Aunt and Uncle without actually being related and their daughters Jacqui and Louise are like cousins. In fact Louise was a bridesmaid at our wedding and both Jacqui and Louise are godparents to Bill and Bridie. We used to go there on Christmas night but since having Beth it got too hard staying over so we’ve made it Boxing Day. David cooks up a huge brunch with bacon, eggs, sausages, beans and mushrooms. As they’re Scottish he also cooks up a traditional scottish sausage as well as some potato scones, or ‘tottie scones’ as they’re known. It was so nice this year as the weather was beautiful and the kids just ran around playing outside or watching dvds inside. As they get older it gets much easier. Beth either spent her time on the big swing chair on the deck reading magazines or in front of the telly. We probably let her watch too many dvds in these circumstances but it was such a nice relaxing afternoon that it did help with my sanity. Anything that can do that I welcome with open arms!
Sunday was spent at Bev and John’s. Paul’s brother Tony and his partner Robyn came down from Canberra with their kids Siobhan and John. My kids love to see their big cousins and we ended up going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks – the Squeakwell. Beth was really chatty with the kids which was so nice to see. She’s really trying to have conversations and not jump from one subject to the other. She was asking Siobhan what her favourite movies were, then her favourite characters from these movies. Problem was, she knows so many movies that she just kept firing names at Siobhan! Siobhan took it with good humour. Bridie was most taken with Siobhan also, and happily went away with her to be taught dance steps (for their eyes only of course).
Yesterday we went down to Jacqui and Richard’s house. They have a boy Michael a little bit younger than Bill and a daughter Lauren who is 13 that Bridie is quite taken with. They’re living in a house on the beach while their house gets renovated so it was lovely, we wandered down to the beach after lunch. Louise came too with her daughter Audrey. All the kids played so nicely together. Beth does her own thing but that’s cool. I’ve heard some pretty sad stories about people losing their friends after getting their childs diagnosis so we’ve been very lucky in that sense. We’ve got a good group of friends who have been nothing but supportive. I guess there are some people that we don’t see anymore but I figure that something like autism sorts the good friends from the bad. If they can’t be supportive or understanding of your situation then good riddance, they can’t have been very good friends to begin with. And I’ve made some fabulous friends because of Beth being autistic so it all sorts itself out in the end.
