My apologies for not writing sooner this week. With Beth at camp there wasn’t much happening and since she’s been home I’ve just been flat out.
Beth came home from camp on Friday, tired but very happy. By all accounts she had a wonderful time. One of our male aides went out of his way to tell me that he got to know Beth a little better as they walked back together from an activity. He told me what a lovely nature she has which was so nice to hear. People are often quick to tell you about things that your kids (or yourself) do wrong and not comment on the good things. It’s a lovely thing to have a compliment. Another aide made me laugh. She told me how Beth had decided to accompany the other children on a bike ride. When she looked down at the wheels she asked “Where are the stabilizers?” That’s what they call training wheels in Charlie and Lola. She decided not to join the other kids after all when informed that bikes that size generally don’t have the extra support. It was strange not having Beth around for 2 days. We took the other kids out for indian and had a lovely meal. It’s so much easier with just 2. I don’t even think it has anything to do with Beth’s autism, it’s just easier when there’s one less child.
We have bacon and eggs every Sunday morning but Beth always still has her 3 (sometimes 6) weetbix instead. Yesterday however she decided (after her weetbix) that she’d like to have bacon and eggs too as she’d had that one morning at camp. I don’t know where it all goes, she’s skinny as a rake. There’s not much else that we got out of her re the camp. She’s closed up a bit with information, it’s like she doesn’t want to share her worlds at the moment and doesn’t like to talk about things she does without us. I think she’s becoming more aware of us when we talk about her and she’s there. I get this, it’s a good thing to have a bit of privacy about things, especially if I’m telling professionals personal things about her. We need to respect this and hopefully there’ll be a middle ground.
We had a fairly uneventful weekend. Bridie and Bill had swimming lessons on Saturday and we spent the afternoon at home. Sunday we went to Bev and John’s house for lunch. This time I told Beth there was to be no pulling plants out and no smothering herself in mud! She did the right thing this week.
Beth was a bit out of sorts this morning at school and wanted to come home with me when she saw me chatting outside the prep room. She came out with a quaver in her voice telling me that she had a sore throat. When I commented that it had been fine 10 minutes before she gave a little cough. I called out “goodbye!” much to her annoyance and left!
I had a hags meeting this morning. It was lovely to catch up with the girls. Cat brought her son’s ipad to show us, it’s amazing to see what organisational things there are for any kids, let alone autistic ones. I’m going to see if somebody from Apple can come out to a meeting and explain all the things you can do with it as it would be fantastic for high school. You can even put photos on their schedules such as classrooms and other areas that they have to be at. Cat’s son is going to high school next year and she seems to be having the same problem as me, he doesn’t want to leave primary school. Beth clams up every time I talk about high school, I think it’s the fear of the unknown. And also that fear that it means that she’ll be a grown up. I’ve asked the teacher to broach the subject at school a bit to get all the kids talking more about it.
We’ve got a psg tomorrow so that should be interesting as Beth’s behaviour has been somewhat challenging lately. Adolescence has hit big time and it’s not been pretty! Will let you know how we go.