Eggplants and Museum

Thursday afternoon we got our Aussie Farmers Direct delivery. Heidi got VERY attached to the eggplant and decided it was her baby:

From July 2009

From July 2009

I ended up getting out the Barbie Doll box to divert her attention from the eggplant (before she ended up squishing it with love).

From July 2009

From July 2009

That turned out to be an inspired idea as Heidi’s finger friends Alice and Oosie really have a shoe fetish and happily spent the next hour trying on various new shoes.

From July 2009

Friday we went swimming in the morning and back to the museum in the afternoon. I took lots more terribly bad photos of the girls having fun at the museum

After the museum closed the girls and I picked up Ralph from work and we all went out for dinner together at the Golden Terrace Turkish Restaurant.  Wonderful end to a wonderful day

Our Adventure at the Park

We went to the local park on Thursday. The initial plan was to play in the playground and feed the ducks.

We did get a short play on the playground before the girls decided it was time to feed the ducks.

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

As I was admiring a mystery bird when

From Park 2nd July 2009

I heard shouts coming from further up the path.

A grandma out for a walk with her baby granddaughter in a pram, puppy on a lead and 6yo grandson beside her was shouting out. They appeared to be under attack from a young German Shepherd puppy. Much ruckus ensued as I got my girls into the fenced playground and helped rescue the Grandma and her children and dog. We waited for the German Shepherd puppy to disappear or its owner to appear but neither happened.

So I called the local park ranger and reported the dog as stray, sadly it had no tags on its collar so I couldn’t just call the owner. Hopefully it had a microchip at least.

After about half an hour the baby was getting grizzly and really needed to go home. So I agreed to hold the German Shepherd puppy by its collar while the Grandma, children and dog made their escape. The German Shepherd puppy really was very friendly and just wanted someone to play with otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed. The Grandma had gotten to the top of the hill and was crossing the road when German Shepherd puppy started growling at me, I figured they’d gone far enough to be safe and I really didn’t want the dog to bite me so I let go. German Shepherd puppy promptly raced off after the Grandma.

The girls and I played for another 10 minutes and then started to get ready to leave. Just then the German Shepherd puppy reappeared being dragged along by another dog owner who was out walking her dog. She said she’d found the puppy on the road and thought we should lock him in the fenced playground for his own safety. That sounded like a good idea so the girls and i got out and locked the puppy in. The dog owner said she’d go get a leash for the puppy and would be back in 15 minutes.

So we decided to wait for her and keep the puppy company. Annie had the great idea of using one of our empty bread containers to give the puppy some water to drink. He turned it into a great toy.

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

From Park 2nd July 2009

It really was a lovely puppy, I was starting to wish we could take it home. Another lady with two little girls and a baby walked past wanting to get into the playground. I explained what was going on and that we were waiting for either the dog owner with a leash or the park ranger to arrive. She offered to go home and get a leash for us which we gratefully accepted – it was starting to get very cold.

About 15 minutes later the lady with the two little girls and baby came back with a leash and we tied the puppy up to the fence. Puppy wasn’t so happy about that. We said farewell to the lady and her children.

It started to rain so we decided to call the park ranger again who was on his way. So the girls and I said farewell to the puppy and went back home to defrost.

It was a great adventure, we got to meet lots of wonderful people who live in our local area and made friends with a delightful puppy.

So much to say

We’ve been having a fabulous school holidays and I’ve got so much to post, lots of pictures, video – heaps and heaps of stuff to show off – and no time because we are out and about every day. (edit – and having said that my lovely husband has given me time to blog this afternoon )

BUT

I do want to just stop and say one short thing.

The last few weeks I’d started listening to people who were telling me I’m over reacting about Annie’s problems, that she is just like person X or person Y and there is nothing to worry about. I’d started to doubt my mum instinct. Not enough doubt to stop following up but enough doubt to make me wonder if I was doing the right thing.

These holidays have shown me that I am on the right path, beyond a shadow of a doubt I know that there is something going on. It might not be aspergers, it might be something else. I don’t care what the label is so long as I can get my girl the help she needs. Labels are not for locking a child into a box they are for opening doors to help broaden her world and make it a better place.

See I have happy Annie back, she has dropped the mask she wears during term, that ’school girl Annie’ facade has been dismantled and the real Annie is back again.

No more running away when we are out, no more unexpected, unexplained tear storms, no more packing her bags to run away from home, no more violent outbursts, no more cranky.

I’m not saying she has suddenly turned into a perfectly behaved angel 24/7, there is still sibling rivalry, arguments and tantrums, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Annie has been enjoying being Annie, doing things she is interested in, not having to socialise when she doesn’t want to, free to follow her own path.

We’ve been doing things she loves and things Heidi enjoys also.

I’ve had lots of interesting questions to answer from Annie

‘Why do we need winter’
‘What is DNA’

being a sample of two of them.

When I suggest asking others about her question Annie says no she’d prefer to learn about it herself and wants to ask Mr Google.

Lots more swimming means lots more physical activity and has led to Annie asking if she can swim twice a week because she really enjoys it.

Our picture schedule that I did for each girl with their school holiday activities has been a real hit, Annie each day checks what is planned and seems much calmer after consulting with her schedule.

I’ve noticed her anxiety levels peak over some things – like parking at the museum, Annie reads the car park level and the letters on the posts near where our car is parked and will remind me intermittently during our visits where the car is parked. Yesterday on our second visit to the museum she also reminded me that the car was NOT where we had parked on Wednesday. I’m thinking maybe if I let her note down the parking details in a notebook that might help.

I’m really enjoying having my Annie back. Now I just have to figure out how to help her stick around during term time.

Museum – picture heavy

The girls and I visited one of our favourite places in the would recently, the Melbourne Museum. We were lucky enough to have the company of the lovely Jayne from the blog Our Great Southern Land and her wonderful son Feral Beast.  I think Annie’s school teacher has been bumped from her #1 idol status by Feral Beast and his superior knowledge about all the cool stuff in the museum.

We drove into the city with Ralph so we were there very early, but it did give the girls a chance to see where Daddy is working now

From July 2009

From July 2009

Those girls don’t look so impressed do they

We played hide and seek in the park for a bit.

From July 2009

With two hours to kill before the museum opened we decided to go for a tram ride into Melbourne Central and have some donuts for breakfast before doing a bit of window shopping.

From July 2009

From July 2009

Heidi checking out one of her fav. exhibits at the museum, the ants in the log

From July 2009

The girls love the funky mirrors that made them look funny

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

And I love Annie in her Skid Row ‘Youth Gone Wild’ shirt

We took a break for lunch and the girls ran Feral Beast ragged playing chasey and hide and seek

Heidi hiding:

From July 2009

Annie hiding:

From July 2009

From July 2009

Back home chilling out infront of the TV… no wait, that is the 1970’s living room exhibit at the museum, at least Heidi didn’t put her feet on the seat.

From July 2009

I bribed the girls with presents from the gift shop, meet Heidi’s Lion, he likes to eat Purple Traffic Lights

From July 2009

and Annie’s Dinosaur Rexy, Annie informs me he is a carnivore who likes to eat car seats –

From July 2009

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday – School Holiday Fun

Love this face:

From 30th June 2009

Ice Skating – Annie has been obsessed with ice skating every since she saw the movie ‘Ice Princess’. The shops near us have an Ice Skating school holiday activity. It is not really ice, but big plastic blocks. The girls loved it. Annie in the pink shirt, Heidi in the red long sleeved shirt.

From 30th June 2009

attempting spin

From 30th June 2009

From 30th June 2009

From 30th June 2009

From 30th June 2009

From 30th June 2009

From 30th June 2009

Heidi loved ‘tripping over’ skating

Songs

Annie singing Advance Australia Fair and playing the piano (multitasking )

Heidi has revamped the Pizza Song

Its alright to be a pizza

The importance of a name.

Meet Fred:

From Stuff With Thing

Fred is my beloved laptop/notebook computer and she makes my life so very very much easier.

I chose to name her after Fred from Angel because they are both brunettes and they are both very smart.

Just before Christmas last year we purchased a portable DVD player which has proved to be incredibly useful over the difficult summer holiday period.

Meet ‘Little Fred’ .

And meet (L-R) Daddys Fred, Uncle Ds Fred and Uncle Ps Fred.

(apologies for the bad mobile phone photo)

A typical family gathering with my wonderful* in-laws, but it made me realise the importance of correctly naming an object. A simple nickname that I gave my laptop has morphed into being the name of all similar objects in Heidi’s world. Now that is alright and kind of cute at 4 years old, but what about when she is older, or when she talks to someone who doesn’t know that Fred = Laptop computer and that Little Fred is a portable DVD player?

* yes wonderful. They really are very nice people, I’m lucky in that respect.

I remember when… a rant

I remember when I wanted to watch TV, I could turn the TV on and kick back and relax and watch TV. If I wanted to change channels or increase/decrease the volume I could pick up the remote and press a couple of buttons.

If I wanted to watch a DVD I would put a DVD in the DVD player and press play. I might have to change the TV station or move it to AV1 but it wasn’t overly complicated.

Now if I want to watch a show I have to

Turn the TV on.
Turn the computer on.
Turn the amplifier on.
Find the tv remote, make sure it is on the correct AV channel.
Find the right program on the computer.
Try to navigate said program which uses none of the standard windows interface to find the show I want to watch.
If I want to play a dvd I have to figure out which of the various DVD trays in the computer is working.
Then try to figure out which drive letter is assigned to that tray and make the annoying program play the DVD.
Finally figure out which channel of the amplifier to use to get sound out of the speakers.

Don’t even get me started on trying to work out how to turn it all off again. None of this annoying electricity sucking standby mode thank you very much, I want it shut down and save my $’s.

I want to travel back to the dim distant past of oh…. 2 months ago when I had a simple user friendly system.

Give me a week and I will figure out this new set up of my husbands and then next week he will change it AGAIN, because he can. He will go out to Dick Smiths or whatever mecca of tech goodness he has now found and he will bring home more little bits of things. Then he will change it again. Or he will find new software and change that.

Why yes I am getting a little frustrated at the constant changes.

I don’t particularly enjoy it taking 30 minutes, 3 different remote controls and a whole lot of screaming by small children for me to play a Wiggles DVD.

Seriously, mindless entertainment should not present such a challenge.

It is no wonder that Heidi has taken to climbing to the top of my bedroom bookshelf to get the mini DVD player down so that she can watch a DVD. It really is much easier to scale mountains (and bookshelves) than get our entertainment system to entertain.

I’m starting to think husband needs a shed in which he can set up his own entertainment system and change it each weekend for his own enjoyment and the girls and I can have a system of our own in the living room that does not get tampered with.

Either that or I will give in to my initial impulse to pitch it all out the window.

The Pizza Song

Heidi has been frequently requesting we listen to ‘The Pizza Song’ while in the car.

This is actually a song called “The Bomb” byKenny ‘dope’ Gonzalez, you can listen to the song here and find out a bit of its background.

The original lyrics are:

These sounds fall into my mind
These sounds fall into my mind
These sounds fall into my mind
These sounds fall into my mind

Repeat

Which Heidi has translated as “Pizza in my eye”, you have to imagine the word Pizza is drawn out, sort of Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzza

School Morning Routine – the kinks in the plan

I’ve still got to work out kinks in the system.

Have tried a variety of picture schedules for Heidi when she gets dressed, so far with no success. It seems I still need to be beside her verbally prompting each step and also keeping her focused on the task of getting dressed, not playing with toys. How much of that is typical 4 year old I’m not sure because Annie was dressing herself independently when she was 3yo.

Heidi still struggles with the physical aspects of getting clothes on, the body contortions required and seems to think that reading a book is much more fun than trying to figure out how to get your other leg into the pants or pull your shirt fully over your head etc.

I help her as much as possible – lay the clothes out on the floor in order of putting them on (which means always tidying up the floor first), make sure everything is the right way out (inside out is super confusing). Some mornings Heidi will help in the process, others she just isn’t interested and right now this is not a battle I choose to fight.

The battle I will fight is getting her to put the clothing on herself – pants first, they are the easiest. Point to them, say ‘you need to put pants on now’. Step back and wait for her to get dressed. Sometimes when things are going well Heidi will get an item of clothing on by herself and move to the next in line. But not often, usually it is put on item of clothing and make a dash for her top bunk where her ‘library’ is.

I was thinking I should shower and get dressed before the girls get up but I always get soaked when I help them shower, which is why I switched to showering after in the first place. Would save so much time if I could hop in the shower before hand, pity about the bad shower design at our place. They have to shower in the morning because they are still wetting beds at night, I don’t want them getting teased at school about being stinky.

The girls are less cranky in the mornings when they sleep in till 8am, but I’m thinking I might have to be waking them up at 7am just to keep the smooth flow of the morning routine and minimise yelling and frustration levels.

I hate having to coach my children through every step of their morning routine, it feels so time consuming and my brain is not always functioning enough in the mornings to do it properly. Yet it works so much better if I do the coaching, the 3 steps for Annie, the step by step work with Heidi. Yes it would be nice to say, go get ready for school and have them do it but they are 4yo and 6yo and just not ready for that yet.