Autistic Children Blog

It’s been a really quiet week this week. I’ve spent most of it in bed of course. The kids have been muddling along. Beth and Bill would be happy to be at home all the time if we let them, wearing their pyjamas and watching telly or playing electronic games. I can’t blame them, I like a good veggie day too. Bridie however needs to be kept busy most of the time so poor old Paul has been in and our with her.

Beth’s been a bit argumentative this week but not in a big way. I think she’s been a bit out of sorts as she’s still not fully over what she had. She’s been eating copious amounts of fruit, probably to make her tummy feel better but in turn this gives her the runs. I know Bec has similar issues with Will, if the fruit is left out he will eat it all until it’s gone. Beth will eat apple after apple, banana after banana. She doesn’t seem to get the concept of saving some til later and if there’s 3 bananas in a bunch and I tell her to help herself she’ll just grab another on the way back from putting her peel in the bin. It’s hard to tell her to not eat it as it is fruit after all. She could be like the others and wanting crap all the time.

Paul took them all for a walk yesterday to Grants Picnic Grounds. Beth didn’t want to go but in the end did. When they all got home and I asked them what they did the only thing they could remember was what flavour ice cream they had at the end! Paul then took Bill and Bridie up to the local pool for a swim. They then took Minka up to the vets to get her nails cut. Rivetting stuff indeed!

Paul has a meeting this afternoon so it’ll be the first time for just the kids and I. It’s not for too long and I’ve told Bridie that we’re not doing anything. I’m still feeling quite weak and dizzy at times though the pain is abating. I find though that if I’m up for too long I start to almost sink and I have to go back to bed. Bev and John have once again been wonderful, having the kids the whole time that Paul has been sailing.

I’ve started a new blog this week. As I’ve mentioned on here I’m sick of being the weight I am and I want to make big changes to my body and attitude before moving into the new house. With that in mind I thought it was time to start a new blog rather than writing about what’s going on about ME in Bethie’s blog. I will of course shamelessly promote it on here as I write it!

Well that’s all the news I’ve got here. Sensational Kids isn’t until the week after next. Hopefully I’ll have some more exciting stuff for you next week. Have a good weekend all xxx

Here I am back on board (sort of). Bridie is off for a play and Paul has taken Beth and Bill to spend their Christmas money so I thought I’d best pop on here while I have the chance. As you can imagine it’s been strange holidays so far with me in hospital and then in bed (I’m going back in a minute). Beth has been a bit out of sorts for the last few days. I’m thinking it’s because I’ve been a bit out of touch and though she doesn’t say so I think it’s shaken her up a bit.

Paul has been in the sailing championships since Christmas and it finished yesterday so he’s been handling things as best as he could with not being here a lot. Bridie and Bill have been camping out on the loungeroom floor and Beth had been sleeping with Paul in my bed while I was in hospital. She slept with me for a couple of nights when I got home and last night camped out with the other kids. She’s not keen on staying in her room for some reason. 2 nights ago, when my pleuratic pain was extreme, I asked Paul why she couldn’t sleep in her bed so we tried her in there again. I ended up with Bridie in the bed with me and then Beth came in at about 3am. I didn’t have the energy to send her back so it ended up being the 3 of us together. She’s not great to sleep with, I end up with her feet on me all the time and if I try to move quickly the pain kicks in and it’s awful. Bill is the same, he always ends up completely the wrong way and with his feet on me. I have a king sized bed too so they have lots of room. Bridie on the other hand stays still and for the most, quiet so I don’t mind her with me at all.

Beth was invited to her friends house for a play today. I’ll call her Jen. Jen has called a couple of times over the holidays to try and have a catch up play with Beth but with me sick and Paul sailing the kids have spent most of the week with Bev and John. Today was the first day that we could. I called to speak to her mum today as I have never met her and I wanted to know what she was in for. I spoke to Jen who then asked if Beth could bring her bathers along. That worried me a bit as Beth has her monthly this week and I didn’t know if others were invited to play too, leaving Beth out of the pool. I had a doctors appointment and while I was gone Jen called to say that her mum was sick after all so it has been put off til next Monday. Beth was in tears but I was secretly relieved, at least she can go in the pool if it’s a nice day. It’s lovely for Beth to get invited to somebodies house. I think a combination of my blog post about friendships, the teacher giving the class a talk about kids being left out and the effect that young Mikaylas death has had on all the kids at school has made people think. Jen in particular has been especially lovely to Beth lately, even giving her Christmas presents.

Because Beth was so upset I asked Paul to take her out shopping. A dvd always cheers our girl up.

Beth seems pretty happy with her Christmas presents. She absolutely loves the pixarpaedia and reads it all the time. She loves to tell me facts about pixar movies and it has statistics, who plays each character as well as people who voice different characters in each movie. That’s the bit that she loves about it as she researches things like this on the internet all the time. She also seems to love her Zhu Zhu pets, annoying little guinea pigs that scurry around making dreadful noises!

I’ve decided to start another blog this year. I haven’t got it up and running yet but it will be titled Skinny Dreams. I really want to get fit and healthy this year, not only in body but in mind too. I figure if I write it down as a diary then I’m more likely to get somewhere. And once again my ego tells me that people DO give a shit about all that is me! Another once again is that my lovely friend Paul from XNet is setting it up for me. Thanks babe, I really appreciate it. xxx

I’m going back to bed now. I’ll write again soon (if the kids let me on the computer). Only 6 more sleeps til Beth’s playdate – yay!

Just a quickie to apologize for not being on for over a week. I’ve been in hospital with pneumonia and pleuracy (not sure if that’s how it’s spelt but oh well!) Just got home yesterday after going in on Christmas Day of all times. Kids have been excellent thanks to my wonderful family. Might be a couple of days yet til I feel up to putting a proper post on here so just wanted to say I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I hope that 2011 brings you all that you wish. I have big plans for 2011. Have had some fabulous times in 2010 but some pretty crappy times too. Roll on 2011.

PS, Beth absolutely loves her Pixar book, Pixarpaedia I think it’s called. Can’t get her nose out of it. Well done Santa this year! xxx

4 more sleeps to go. Thank goodness I’ve finished my shopping. I went out for lunch with some old friends from school (I can call them old cos they were in the same class as me!) I ended up stopping in at the shops and getting the last minute things that I needed. Paul says he still has a little bit to do and for some crazy reason he wants to take the kids, so he’s got tonight or tomorrow to do it in. Thursday is his birthday and we’re going to Bev and John’s for a dinner that’s turning out to be bigger than Ben Hur. Friday we’re off to Deb and Neil’s for our family Christmas and Saturday is of course Christmas Day.

Beth still isn’t feeling quite right. Her appetite isn’t back yet, always the sign that she’s not too well. Usually she wolfs through her food before I’ve even sat down at the table. Mind you, I do have drinks, sauce, bread and butter and straws to get after I’ve set their food down. Oh and cutlery and whatever else I’ve forgotten. You get the picture. In the mornings Beth has 3 weetbix, often she has 6. Lately she’s been stirring it around, still saying her obligatory “This porridge is too hot, this porridge is too cold, this porridge is just right” before she starts eating it. She has said this ever since I can remember. She doesn’t do it with porridge, just weetbix. Anyway,there’s been more weetbix left in the bowl than in her tummy. She still has a touch of the runs too. I’ve still got this dreadful cough that I can’t shake and Paul is still not the best. Hopefully we’ll get it all out of the way before Christmas I’ve never known a year like it for sicknesses at this time of year. Heaps of kids from school were away sick in the last week. It’s such a shame to miss the last week of school, it just doesn’t seem right.

We had a quiet day yesterday, I had some tidying to do after spending the whole of last week in bed, and the kids watched endless Christmas movies. Bridie and I did some baking, then eating. The weather lately has been appalling, it’s not like summer weather at all. Today we don’t have much on, I’ll drop the kids around to Bev and John’s for a bit as I have an osteo appointment. Uncle Frank is down from Ballarat so the kids will be happy to see him.

I was very excited when I went onto my Google Analytics site this morning. This is the monitor to see how many visitors I have on my blog every day, how many of them are from search engines and how many are direct traffic or referring sites. I’ve now hit the 3000 individuals mark! More than a third of them are from search engines which means that they would be new visitors. This means that I’m creeping up in the search list results. It’s been over a year since I started writing about our journey and I’ve gathered a few loyal readers along the way so thanks so much for reading guys. Hopefully it’s not been too whingey and bitchy for you! I try to put positive things in but sometimes they’re just not there! I hope you’ll stay with me, I promise next year will bring things bigger and better. xxx

Today is the day of Mikayla’s funeral and celebration of her life. We have decided not to attend, the least of which because we’re all still feeling ill. I also don’t know whether I can be strong in the eyes of my children while balling my eyes out over the dreadful passing of a seven year old girl.

Beth has surprised me when dealing with Mikaya’s death. It has been said that children with autism don’t have feelings or that they don’t feel the same things as other ‘normal’ people. Beth was the first of my children to tell me of Mikayla’s passing when she came out of school on Monday. They were told at 11am that morning and she kept it with her until 3.30 that afternoon. Yesterday when driving she pointed up to the sky and stated that Mikayla was up there. She the asked why she had died. Just because emotions aren’t always on the surface does not mean that they are not there.

Mikayla has shown our little community and in some cases the nation what is important in life. She has inspired parents to show their love where there were walls before, she has inspired people to say I love you before it’s too late. I have no doubt that she has also inspired more than one child at her school to go on and become a doctor, to stop this tragedy happening to other families. It’s hard to see the sense in a death of a child so young, but it’s easy to see why she was brought here in the first place. I hope that today brings the family peace and happy memories.

What a crappy old week we’ve had. The fun started on Tuesday. Bree and I had gone to Knox to use some Gold Class movie tickets that have to be used by the end of December. As we were walking in my phone rang. I looked at Bree and said that I’ll bet it’s school calling to say someone’s sick. Of course I was right! I ran around as I had to go to Medicare and a couple of other places that I could only do at the big centres, something I didn’t want to do again before Christmas. I felt like crap too but as usual I was trying to fit lots of me time into the last week of school before insanity strikes and it’s me and the kids for weeks on end.

Poor old Bethie was lying in the sick bay with the covers up. She does do sickness well, she would have been a smelling salts girl if she’d been born a couple of hundred years earlier. She had the cough and was hot and quite listless. I took her to see Dr Mark who said there wasn’t really much I could do, it wasn’t affecting her asthma at all and as she’s on medication it’s hard to give her certain things. Basically we’d have to ride it out. Don’t you hate it that whenever you’re sick you can’t even enjoy it because somebody else is sick too. I had Beth in with me for the night, then Bridie had a nightmare and crawled in too. Paul had somehow managed to go to the pub for the evening (waiting til the kids were in bed mind you) so she had no choice but me. Great.

By the time Wednesday came (the day I’d planned lunch out with other prep mums) Beth had the runs too.  Oh and as a little bonus, she got a blood nose first up. Of course this had to happen just after I’d changed all the sheets and doona covers on my bed. First bloodstains on my relatively new mattress too. Bugger. I’m sure this had nothing to do with her feeling ill, it was just a added extra thrown in.

Thursday (osteo appt and coffee) still much the same. This time it was me who had to go to the doctors but I got the same answer. I want it to be like the old movies when they tell you that you need to recuperate in a sunny climate for 3 or 4 months, chuck a nanny and housekeeper into the mix and make it a place right near the sea. No mention of money of course. I don’t even care if it’s in black and white or if there are ghosts involved! But no, rest (yeah sure, with a sickie home with me) and Merry Christmas. We even had to miss the Christmas Carols at school cos I couldn’t wake Beth up by that time (this is a bonus).

Today is the last day of term. It’s meant to be art class followed by a leisurely lunch before assembly and pickup at 1.30. Instead it’s me trying to watch Paul’s crappy filming of the carols and Beth watching Monsters Inc in between frequent toilet trips. Never mind. 2011 is going to be a fabulous year for me and that’s that!

Today marked the awful passing of little Mikayla Francis. People who read my blog on a regular basis would know that she’s a little girl at my kids school. Even if you don’t read regularly you know doubt know of the journey of the Francis family. She was only 7 years old and she died of an aggressive cancer in her lungs and liver. She had poise and dignity that people of a much older generation often fail to possess. She looked forward to going to heaven with a belief so strong in God it was amazing. She believed that Heaven would be awesome and that God would be waiting with open arms to welcome her.

Despite the difficulties that we as parents face every day I wouldn’t give any of it up. I’d rather have an autistic child than to lose a child to cancer, any day. My life has been so enriched by Beth (and my other children of course). Beth has given me a sense of purpose, I believe she is the reason I am here. It’s our job as parents of these special kids to show the world that different is ok, in fact it’s quite refreshing. Our kids are our future, lets cherish them through good and bad. Rest in peace Mikayla.

Sorry it’s been a whole week since my last post. You know what it’s like coming up to Christmas, it’s been flat out. We’ve got things on all the time, it’s so hectic.

Last Wednesday we had Sensational Kids. Bethie was a bit all over the place with Rod, not really wanting to cooperate much. They did the going to the movies scenario again but she wasn’t as in to it as she was the first time. She still played along but her heart wasn’t really in it and she fluffed around a lot. Rod’s thinking that next time they play it Beth can be another character such as the movie ticket seller so that she can put herself in their position.

This time we decided that the movie would be Megamind. Rod always puts the hurdles up for Beth and this time she had no idea how to get around them. He was deliberately vague as the ticket seller. Beth went up and asked for 5 tickets to the movies. Rod answered “here’s 5 tickets to Schwartzeneger.” Beth said nothing and came back to me. I pretended to look at the tickets and exclaim that no, I wanted to see Megamind, not Schwartzeneger. Beth then went back and asked for 5 tickets to Megamind. Rod then asked for the money again, so she asked me for more money. I of course said that no, I didn’t want 2 sets of tickets. She didn’t get that she could swap the tickets. Beth also has no concept of money so didn’t get that you couldn’t just get more money to pay. We worked our way through it but she found it very difficult and kept saying that she wanted to go to the toilet, Beth’s way of getting out of something that’s too complicated for her.

Alternatively in Beth’s Occupational Therapy session Whiskers (not her real name!) said that she was really pleased with how Beth cooperated. They did lots of lovely messy play which Beth loves. She seemed to stay on task throughout the whole session. Maybe she needed to do something that didn’t require too much mind work, I guess we can all be a bit like that at times when it’s just too hard.

On the way home I decided that we’d stop in at the shops and Beth could pick some shorts out for herself. I’ve always picked her clothes out but I thought it might be nice for Beth to choose. I love how she looks in gypsy / hippy / boho style clothes but that’s my personal taste. Often if I do take her shopping she picks the total opposite to what I like. I ended up getting lost when I thought I was taking a shortcut. Beth was funny as she said to me “Mum, you need to use the GPS!” She’s so aware and sometimes comes up with real corkers when you think she’s not even paying attention.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. The weekend was busy. Saturday wasn’t too bad, Bridie had swimming lessons. Paul wasn’t well and didn’t go swimming and he and Bill went off to the doctors as Bill still isn’t too well either. In the afternoon Bridie and I made a gingerbread house. Well it’s sort of a gingerbread shanty actually as the roof is on a bit of an angle! I used heaps and heaps of icing to make it stay so it looks like it’s got heaps of snow on it.

Yesterday (Sunday) we had the hags Christmas do, this year at Trees Adventure Park in Belgrave. Just a few families went but it was great fun. I copped out this time as Beth refuses to do it, we stayed on the ground and filmed the others. I can’t really not go as I am the head hag! We then went out for lunch for Amanda and family. Bill was supposed to go to a party in the afternoon but still wasn’t able to eat much so decided not to go. I took Bridie to a party at the local pool, then we went around to my sisters house for dinner as my dad and his wife are going to be away over Christmas. That was lovely, my 2 nieces painted Bridie’s nails which she loved, Beth watched Foxtel which she loved and Bill played electric guitar with my nephew which he loved. We got home at about 8.30, tired but happy.

Only this week to go til the school holidays. Beth tried to pull a sickie on me again this morning but I refused to give in. 1 more week of sanity before they’re all home with me for 6 weeks. I’m going to the movies tomorrow with Bree followed by the last of my Christmas shopping. Wednesday we’ve got a prep mums lunch, Friday I’ve got art class. I’ve got to make the most of it while I can!

Just a little postscript of todays post. Beth giggle for the day. While playing hide and seek with Tash and Bridie I look up to see Beth trying to climb into the fridge. I guess it’s as good a hiding place as any! And, as she had been playing dress ups too, she had on a fairy dress to boot. She cracks me up!

Just a quickie.  Beth has her friend Tash (not her real name) over for a play today. She’s such a gorgeous girl and is doing whatever Beth wants. On the way home in the car they were singing songs from the radio together. Tash asked what Beth’s favourite tv shows were and Beth’s answers were real little kids shows like Mr Men and the Tweenies. Tash responded with Elmo which I thought was really cute! They chatted about their favourite movies and movie stars and singers, a real conversation, it was so nice to hear.

When they got home they went into Beth’s room to play some music and then decided to play hide and seek. Beth came and sat on the couch with her top over her face saying that there was no way that Tash could find her! They’ve been upstairs and downstairs with Tash being such a good sport. She just came out to ask if she could play on the laptop (not bad to wait for one hour) and I suggested they go and listen to some more music which they’re doing now. We haven’t had friends over for Beth in such a long time, it’s so nice to see.