Well the school holidays are nearly over. I feel like I’ve gone stark raving mad! I’ve found these holidays to be particularly stressful. Paul has been home for some of the time and we’ve had things to do so I’m tipping it’s a combination of things. We’ve only got three or four months left in our current house while our new house is being built. I am well and truly over our current house. It’s old and lots of things are wrong with it, it’s filled with boxes and still heaps to do. We keep going around to the new house and seeing it’s progress which is very exciting so I’m sure it’s just me being impatient. It’s taken a long time to happen but I know it wont be much longer now.
I think I’m also impatient to be going back to my psychologist. I’ve filled in forms in regards to my youngest child Bridie about her behaviour and anxieties and Jill is going to let me know next week whether it’s necessary to get referrals for proper assessments or whether she believes it’s behaviour based and we need to have help with controlling it. Either way we’ll have some answers. It’s ridiculous though how we as parents wait for a behaviour to get better or wait until we’re at wits end to ask for help. It could be something fairly easy and now that I’ve decided to take action I’m chomping at the bit to know what sort of action that will be.
We’ve had a few playdates this week. We went to my friend Catriona’s house with Bec and her kids. Cat has a son Jose who has aspergers. My Bill thinks Jose is wonderful, as does Bec’s son Will. We had a lovely afternoon though Beth didn’t cope with the fact that they had no wi-fi for her ipad. She’s like a dog with a bone. We walked in the door and the first thing she asked was did they have wi-fi. When I answered that no, they didn’t have wi-fi she responded with “You mean they might have wi-fi?” “No, they don’t have wi-fi.” “You mean they’re getting wi-fi don’t you?” You get the picture. After an Easter Egg hunt that Jose had organised including hiding one in the dogs water bowl (Minka the Wonderdog found this one before the kids could get out there) Beth came back inside and asked Catriona “Do you have wi-fi now?!” She’s nothing if not persistant.
The following day we went to Bec’s and the internet had dropped out while we were there. Beth was in the front room and must have taken out some cords for the gaming console which Will was cracking it about. Bec was in there and she said that Beth kept calling her wi-fi lady. While Bec was trying to talk Will down (who also has autism) while he was going off Beth just kept saying “Can you fix the wi-fi wi-fi lady” oblivious to the ruckus that she had caused.
Yesterday Rod the speech therapist came over. Beth was happy to see him as we haven’t seen him since late last year when we stopped going to Sensational Kids. Rod now works independantly and came to the house to see Beth. We did a big jigsaw puzzle and Rod had the picture on the box, telling Beth where pieces went. For example he’d say that the apples were on the left hand side of the puzzle, about half way down. Beth then had to do the same and explain to me where a piece went so that I could place it. We agreed that we wanted to get more conversation back and forth and that’s what we would work on. He’s going to come once a month on a Friday. He’s also going to contact Beth’s teacher so that we can all be on the same page.
I took Beth to get her hair cut this morning. We’ve been going to the same hairdresser for years but there was a new lady cutting Beth’s hair this morning. She must have been worded up by the owner because Beth didn’t seem to faze her one bit, even when she took Miss Piggy with her and said that she wanted her hair styled too. I was very impressed, I always like somebody who can adapt so easily to Beth, it shows that they’re not set in their ways about how children ‘should’ be.
School is back on Monday. Beth has already woken this morning doing a little cough so let’s hope she wont be into full blown “I’m sick” mode on Monday. I’m looking forward to some peace and quiet to finish off our sorting for the house. I’m not looking forward to the long days of driving but it goes hand in hand doesn’t it? Hopefully by next holidays we’ll either be in the house or well on our way to being there.
