Beth was very happy to be going to Sensational Kids this morning. It’s been so hard getting her up for school lately. She’s appeared at my bed with her pillow each night, usually about 10.30 – 11pm. I just let her in, I need the sleep too. She then doesn’t want to get up in the morning. It’s not that she’s necessarily asleep, it’s just that she doesn’t want to go to school. Yesterday she even went back to bed after her breakfast. I’m finding it very hard to deal with as Bridie is being quite difficult in the mornings too. After Beth is dressed and I give her the talk (every bloody day) about not believing her if she’s sick when she pretends to be, she seems to be ok about going. This can take half an hour or more though. With Beth pretending to choke herself and coughing, and Bridie abusing the shit out of me, I’m not enjoying myself too much! Also, my heart rate has been up some more and the more I think about it the more I think it’s stress related. I just don’t have anything much to give at the moment what with getting over the pneumonia and pleuracy. I’m enjoying my days when the kids are at school. I find it hard as we’re building at some stage this year and as the time goes on it’s clear how much we’ve all grown out of this house. It’s driving me mental! Anyway, sorry for the bitch but hey, the blog’s about our life, warts and all.
It was a bit disappointing when we got to Sensational Kids as Rod was away sick. We went for a wander to buy some magazines and coffee (me), pancakes (Beth). Whiskers (not her real name), the Occupational Therapist was still there so in Beth went with her. I didn’t go in for any of the session but Whiskers said that it went well. They worked on Beth’s handwriting this week with Whiskers doing an assessment to see where Beth’s strengths were. She’s so thorough, I’m really pleased with how it’s going. She told me that Beth hasn’t got a strong posture which makes it difficult for her to write properly. This means that she pushes down on the pencil too hard, stopping any fluidity. It’s also the reason why Beth leans on people a lot. She’s going to give me some activities for home and school to help with this.
Next Wednesday we’re off to Monash to help with a study that is being done on the effect of attention and anxiety and how it impacts on school children. As this is one of Beth’s main issues (as is probably the case with most autistic kids) I put our names down. They were pleased with us contacting them as there aren’t as many girls as boys who have autism. I’m looking forward to going as, for helping them, they can do a full academic assessment. This means that I can have something in writing to take with us when we go to High School, on top of any reports and letters I get from our Primary School. I believe you can’t have enough information. If anybody is interested in participating you can contact Tamara May on tamara.may@monash.edu Funnily enough the lady who supervises Tamara is an old childhood friend. Small world!
Our budgie Tweetie Pie died yesterday. (Original name I know.) Bridie noticed as she was playing on the computer. The poor little love was really distressed and decorated a tissue box, filling it with flowers for Tweetie. We got him for Beth’s 5th birthday so nearly 7 years ago. Beth had selective mutism at the time and we told her that Tweetie wouldn’t learn to talk if she didn’t say hello to him. She waved hi instead! Bridie and Bill went with Paul to bury Tweetie Pie last night. Beth called out “I thought he would live forever.” She then said “We’d better go and buy another bird tomorrow then!” Poor Tweetie!
