I’ve had a lovely day today. After dropping the kids off I popped into Dr Robin for an osteo appointment then picked up my niece Ali and took her to Knox to shop as it’s her 18th Birthday today.
We shopped around and bought her a lovely ring that she picked out. I wanted her to pick something herself as jewellery is always a dodgy thing to choose for other people. We then went to Hogs Breath for lunch. (Shhh don’t tell my kids, it’s their favourite place!) Ali’s such a gorgeous girl and really has her head screwed on the right way, I really enjoy her company.Â
One of the things we chatted about over lunch is the problem that I have with Beth about her getting her period. I bought her a little locket to put photos of her as a little girl and her now in to show her how she’s growing up. When on the hags weekend we were discussing this and one of the other mums came up with a great idea. As Beth’s stock standard answer is that she wants to be a Powerpuff girl I am going to write a social story that includes them in it. It can be about how one of them gets her period and how the other girls are really jealous because it’s such an exciting time for her. I could even include the locket in the story, saying that only girls with their periods get these lockets. Hopefully that will work in a positive way, instead of making Beth not want to watch the Powerpuff girls anymore.
Ali offered to help too which would be a great benefit. She said she would talk to Beth about when she started her period and how excited she was. Beth loves her big cousin and would love the chance to sit and have a chat with her. Ali said she could suggest they go shopping for a purse to put her pads in and tell her that once Beth gets her period then it means that they can do something special together like go and watch a movie.
It’s such a hard thing because the honest truth is that it is a horrible thing to have to go through and at times it does hurt but unfortunately it’s something that is unavoidable. I want to make it as positive an experience as I can. Hopefully all of this will help.
We’ve had a fairly good week this week. Tuesday night Beth was up late again though. It was after 11 when she went to sleep. She’s been having a few really early wake ups again too. I guess the body gets used to the melatonin. I’m loathe to take her off it though as it might mean even later nights. I’m not sure what time it was last night but it’s my turn again tonight so I’ll see how she goes tonight.
I’ve got an appointment at Wantirna Heights Primary School on Monday. It’s a school just for autistic kids and it’s the one that will be relocating and extending into a high school. It’s a curriculum day at our school so I’m taking Bethie with me. I figure if I get my head in the school at least they’ll know who I am when I hound them to take Beth! They don’t have waiting lists yet for the high school but hopefully if I keep in contact we’ll be on one when they get it. I asked if they would be willing to integrate Beth during her grade 6 year so that by high school she would know the kids and they said yes. They said that that’s what they do with the kids coming into prep so more than likely they would do the same with high school. The kids in Beth’s year level will be there too so I can get a feel for how she feels about it. I’ll let you know how we go.
