Stuff With Thing

I’m going on holidays soon. Annie and I are winging our way north for 3 days and 2 nights visiting my parents in Queensland.

Am really looking forward to hugging my Mum whom I’ve not seen since September last year and spending some quality one on one time with Annie.

The plane tickets I booked are for carry on baggage only, we saved $200 on the airfares that way, this meant I could book more expensive accommodation right next to where Mum and Dad live.

I’m relaxing in a lovely hot shower this morning, going over my mental list of what we will be taking as space is very limited.

3 changes of clothing each

1 pair of pjs each

Toiletries, no can’t take liquids in carry on baggage, will borrow something from Mum and Dad.

Snacks for the plane trip and a bottle of water each.

Annie’s bed toys and fav. story books.

My stitching for the anticipated quiet moments…. oh darn it! Airport security, no needle or scissors.

Hubby used to work at weapons scanning at airport security and he doesn’t think my clover cutter will get through. Besides do I want to risk it being confiscated?

Will have to see what Mum has that I can borrow. If worse comes to worse I can pick up a cheap pair of scissors and needle from grocery store. They wont be perfect but I’m so looking forward to the opportunity to do some stitching that I don’t care.

Did I mention how much I’m looking forward to a wee little break.

Amazing mini-musical from Joss Whedon the fabulous creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly.

Go Check it Out - http://www.drhorrible.com/index.html

It has been most forcibly thrust upon me this week that of all the things I do as a parent, the hardest is to not do anything, to step back and let the children ‘do it mineself’.

We’ve been trying for a month now to get a stool sample from Annie to test for a stomach ulcer. I’ve tried bribes, talks, social story, everything I could think of. Then I just stopped trying and ta-da poop on a plate. All I had to do was stop trying to do it for her, stop micromanaging ever step, let my little girl be a big girl.

It breaks my heart to my girls pouring their own cups of milk, making a sandwich by themselves and starting to gain independence.

Another part of me is irritated by the mess and time it takes to ‘do it mineself’, I want to sweep in and get the job done, forgetting that the most important part of the journey is not the destination but the journey itself. I wont be here forever to do it for them, they needs to learn to ‘do it mineself’ so that one day they can leave home, be an adult and live their own life, without me.

Each day I push my girls a little further away, let them gain one more step on the road to independence. All I can hope is that as I teach them to walk away from me, I’m also imparting the lesson on how to come back again.

To be a mother is to know that your heart will forever walk outside your body.

moar funny pictures

Although he is not really a kitten now.

My girls are practically the same size and wear most of their clothing interchangeably. The only noticeable difference is that Annie is a little longer than Heidi so long sleeves that reach Annie’s wrist cover Heidi’s hand to her fingers.

I’ve been struggling with the issue of underwear. They’ve both just been sharing underwear and it grosses me out. The underwear gets washed and is always clean but still it grossed me out. I’d try marking their names on the tags but Heidi couldn’t tell the difference.

So I threw all their underwear out and purchased 12 new sets each. I tried to find a simple single colour theme for each girl (pink for Annie, purple for Heidi). But it was impossible, single colours are not sold together, you can only get multipacks with a variety of colours.

I started looking at the branded underwear, my oh my it is expensive, and some of the brands wont last past this season (King Fu Panda anyone). I want brands I can continue to purchase for the next few years. This left me with Hi5, My Little Pony, Wiggles, Thomas the Tank Engine and Bratz.

After we narrowed the brands down it was time to try and find a brand that had 12 sets in the same size. That was difficult and I ended up asking for a staff member to check their stock out back for me. Eventually we got one brand for each girl and with 12 sets each.

Why the magical 12 sets? Because I figured it was enough to cover a week with accident and spares in their Pre-School and swimming bags. Plus if I got behind on the washing one week I didn’t have to rush.

Both girls straight away claimed ownership of their underwear and we’ve had far less issues with getting that layer of clothing on in the morning. Plus I’m no longer grossed out which is the most important part of todays Beautiful Story of Hope.

I’ve been a little absent of late. You might have noticed in my lack of commenting, random non-specific posts etc.

Whats been happening in my world.

Well there was a brief run in with some people who think that children on the Autism Spectrum are damaged. I had a bit of a dummy spit about that one (see couple of posts down).

My father-in-law is in hospital and has been since midway through last week.

Annie has something happening with her hips, clicking, some possible dislocation or not growing properly or something. We’ve pulled her out of calisthenics until we find out what is going on and stuff. She got x-rays done last week. Waiting to see what they show. Maybe be nothing, may be something.

Hubby hurt his back moving the couch with the milk spilt in it out to the garage.

My Nephew N turned 3, he is both evil and adorable, just the way a 3 year old should be.

My health continues to batter me around.

We’ve barely been home and when we are here there seem to be visitors over.

Heidi’s PreSchool teacher has resigned, I’m trying to do a social story for that and really struggling.

We got rid of Heidi’s bouncing mattress in the lounge room because the springs were poking through. Heidi’s stims spiraled out of control with no mattress to bounce on, no chair to hang upside down off and so much happening. So we purchased a mini trampoline, some gym matts and no longer have a lounge room - we have a mini home gym instead.

Annie got a WWE foam fold out couch to make up for Heidi getting so much special stuff, now both the girls fight over that constantly.

The washing machine outlet got clogged and waste water from the machine overflowed and flooded our laundry, the water was about 1 inch high when I discovered it.

Hubby accepted work on his days off - nightshift again. :(. That makes me sad because the only time I get time off is when he gets time off. So once again neither of us have had a break and both of us continue to be stressed and cranky.

I’ve done no stitching and am resigning myself to that being the case for the foreseeable future.

So absent. That is me. I apologise for not being able to comment more on your blogs, I miss seeing my friends both online and face to face.

Amazing photos of Bees Vs Humans.

I didn’t read past the opening post so not sure what else is said further down the page.  But the pictures in that first post were just amazing.

Hubby has been working nightshift the last week which is always problematic. How to keep the girls quiet while he is sleeping during the day. Compounded on this run of nightshifts because it is school holidays. Made doubly worse by my back injury because I can’t really control them.

The other tricky thing while hubby is on nightshift is cleaning - specifically vacuuming floors and doing the laundry. He is waking up as the girls go to bed and gets home around breakfast time. So I’ve got a 2 hour window first thing in the morning to vacuum floors and get a load of washing done. I’m not real great first thing in the morning and the thought of rushing around vacuuming floors makes me feel slightly nauseous and my back ache.

Friday we went to swimming again. I squatted against the wall poolside and whilst my thighs burnt I think it really helped my back. Both girls did great again as did my nephews who also swim at that time - a real water baby family. After swimming my SIL and I took the children to FILs house for lunch and did an impromptu clean up of his kitchen. The children enjoyed playing together and getting to see their granddad. But it was a lot of standing up and by the time we got home I was good for nothing other than lying flat on the floor.

Saturday the girls were getting restless. I needed to pick up a few things from the shops so I figured we’d walk over for an hour and give hubby some peace and quiet to get deeply asleep before we returned. 4 HOURS LATER we got home. Heidi was waaaaaaaaaaaaay overstimulated, my back was killing me and all three of us were regretting entering on the shops on
A) Saturday
B) The first Saturday of mid year / end of financial year sales
C) School holidays

It was a crazy place over at the shops and even the most basic purchase took forever. Hubby got woken up early by the screaming kids and he got Heidi sort of calmed down - enough that she went to sleep at least. I was once again flat on my back on the floor.

Sunday I jump out of bed like a spritely young thing fall out of bed, realise my back is still painful. Make my way to the lounge room and prepare to collapse on the floor, only to be knocked over by the stench in the lounge room.

“That wasn’t there last night” thinks I.

A little detective work tracks the stench (milk) down to our couch - it would appear that at some stage a cup of milk has been spilt down the inside of the couch and soaked through to the carpet beneath.

Hubby gets home from work and finally moves out the old mattress in the lounge room the girls have been jumping on. It has officially died - the springs are poking through. In doing so we discover some wet patches underneath. gah!

I rang my SIL to ask if I could hire her 17yo son for a few hours and pay him to clean the house as the smell was just killing me. He was unavailable but my wonderful SIL came over and cleaned for me - she even brought chocolate!

So now we have much more space in our lounge room without the couch and mattress:

And we have a fabulous new decoration on our front steps:

The carpet still smells and hubby has promised to bring home the steam cleaner from work to get the carpets fresh again.

I’m hating being incapacitated with my back. Sunday I had to take the girls to the park because Heidi was still overstimulated from the shops on Saturday, but I couldn’t play any of the games with them or push the swings. Not to mention my Crohns flared up in the middle of our visit and I had to rush to the toilets dragging two reluctant children with me.

Heidi is still stimming this morning and she really needs some intensive sensory work but I just don’t have the ability to help her right now. Crossing fingers hubby will have enough energy to give her some compressions and stuff when he gets home.

Both my hubby and SIL deserve to get medals for being so wonderful and supportive.

Some of you may remember as far back as July last year when I wrote the Anatomy of Toy Sale, thus revealing in its full glory my OCD planning streak.

The K-Mart toy sale is once again almost upon us.  Starts on 3rd July, catalogue available online from 27th June.  And I’m not one little bit planning to go and buy anything!  Astounding myself and many of my friends and family.

Okay to be honest, I’d love to go and get lots of cool toys but there is no way I can physically do it this year and so I’m saving up my pennies for the ultra cool wooden toys at our local Steiner toy shop.  I’m going to get the girls some furniture to go in their wooden dolls house that I painted.  Perhaps I might even splash out on some wooden dolls to hopefully supplant Barbie :grin:.

In the meantime I’ve got my in hospital tests on Monday the 30th June.  My MRI has now been scheduled and is on 6th of August.  So I’m looking forward to Monday when I get at least 5 hours to have a really nice nap whilst the Doctors sedate me and stick cameras up my rear end (lucky them).  Peace. Quiet. Sleep.  I think a camera up your rear end is a small price to pay for such luxury.

Annie woke up at 2am this morning screaming and has been crying ever since, painkillers been doing nothing.  Turns out she has a nasty case of swimmer’s ear.  We’ve got antibiotic ear drops, antibiotic syrup to drink and permission to increase her dose of painkillers for a couple of days.

Edited to add - and I totally caved around 6am today and rang Foxtel (our cable tv provider) and ordered the childrens tv package because I couldn’t deal anymore. 2 hours sleep and sick kiddies make for insane mummy.

Yesterday (Monday) the girls and I went to the Melbourne Museum with my good friend S. Her partner J had to work which is a shame as we had lots of fun and I missed J being around to laugh with me at the antics of S and the children.

Particularly amusing to me was the horrified reaction of S and Annie to the conception and birth movie. I pulled them out as the baby’s head was emerging. Both had such similar expressions of horror and disgust it kept me giggling for the rest of the day.

Heidi loved the museum and I loved seeing what interested her. We all had fun in the childrens area, Annie latched onto a primary school group and I think would have happily stayed with them for the rest of their tour (if the teacher had let her).

We visited the display on the human mind and all had fun playing with the interactive displays that mess with your sense of perception.  One interactive display showed what your level of alertness was - calm, alert, watchful, worried, stressed.  You put your hand on a metal plate and it played a sound and a graph charted your response to the sounds.  I started of at ‘watchful’ and remained there the whole time, in a constant steady state of watchfulness no matter what sounds popped out.  Thats the way life is when you are out and about with two pre-schoolers.  S remained in a steady state of ‘alert’.  Annie started off as ‘alert’ but when the sound popped out the graph skyrocketed to ’stressed’, then down again.  Interesting stuff.

Both girls were wearing their “Who Am I look inside” tags which was greatly reassuring as Annie had a tendency to wander off out of sight.

Annie wandering off - yet again

I also took the pram which gave Heidi a place to hide when everything got a bit too much and she used her new chewy necklace a couple of times. Which reminds me I must post about her new sensory diet at some point.

All in all a great way to spend the day.

Now my screwup.

Screw Up Tuesday is the brainchild of Bettina. Once a week we can confess our screw ups, good for the soul right :D.

I ordered my groceries through Coles Online last week and got them delivered. This was fantastic, no impulse purchasing, no major dramas taking the girls grocery shopping. All smooth sailing… that is until I realised I’d not purchased anything for my lunches. I remembered to get stuff to make lunch for hubby. I remembered to get stuff for the girls to eat for lunch. But nothing for me and I’m not a great fan of vegemite sandwiches :(.

I also neglected to purchase any convenience meals for days when I’ve just had too much. So we ended up getting McDonalds for dinner last night. 12 days of no-takeout. A record for us. Ah well. Now I just have to try and beat that record.

Quick health update. Monday 30th June I will be going into hospital for the day to have some further tests done for my Crohns. Wooo. So much fun. Not. I need to have an MRI and am waiting on the hospital to call back and tell me when that will be. Very likely things will go quiet for a few days around here over this weekend and the beginning of next week.