I’ve put together a little social story for Heidi about Annie and I going away.

After some thought I kept it very simple. I put in a table with the 3 days and 2 nights we will be away. This way I am hoping (if hubby remembers) that at the end of each day / night that square can be crossed out. This should give Heidi a very visual way to see when Annie and I will be back.

It isn’t the best social story I’ve every done because I left it to the last minute and I realised after printing it that I didn’t use the bigger kid friendly font I usually use.

Here is a .pdf copy of the social story:

Going-Away

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

Smiley Saturday time again. If you want to join in then click on the Smiley Saturday link above and head over to Lightenings to enter your Smiley Saturday link.

This gave me a good laugh earlier in the week:

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.

Hot Hunk Thursday is the brainchild of WiddleShamrock so head on over to see more hot hunks

This weeks hot hunk was made much hotter by his relationship with the out of this world Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), yep, this week it is the hunky space hero John Crichton (aka Ben Browder).  I’ve only got pictures of the two of them together because IMHO John wouldn’t have been all that hot without Aeryn and she is smoking hot .

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.

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

My screw up for this week is that yesterday I decided to make a quick visit to Safeway for 3 items I needed to purchase. If I’d been thinking straight I would have gone to Coles but no I decided to go into Safeway with my two girls.

A bit of background here, our local Safeway recently underwent a renovation, they’ve taken out the express lanes and put in 4 self service checkouts. So if you have 12 items or less instead of quickly zipping through the express checkouts you have to either use the self service checkout or line up behind trolleys filled with mini mountains of groceries to be served by an actual human.

My second screw up was yesterday I decided it would be faster to use the self service machines. Hah!

Get to machine, no counter space to put down what I am carrying.

“Unknown Item In The Bagging Area”

“Wait for Assistance”

but but I haven’t even started yet

Select use own bag option and put bag into bagging area.

“Unknown Item In The Bagging Area”

“Wait for Assistance”

Grrr.

Try to scan first grocery item, Heidi runs away. Grab her and pin her to the counter with one leg.

“Unknown Item In The Bagging Area”

“Wait for Assistance”

okay so they’ve not got a fall back plan for preschooler in the bagging area. Fine.

Wait for assistance Get lecture about pressing button that says I’m using my own bags.

Last I checked Heidi was not a bag.

Watch the people with full trolleys leave after going through a checkout staffed by a real person.

Proceed to scan next item.

Handbag on my arm swings into bagging area as I turn from scanning the item towards the bagging area.

“Unknown Item In The Bagging Area”

“Wait for Assistance”

Start swearing. Wait for assistance. Get same lecture about pressing button that says using own bag.

Scan final item and get ready to pay. Take too long getting money out.

“Payment Error”

“Wait for Assistance”

Pay, take items, leave. Swear never to return again.

Every single time I use one of those machines at Safeway I get error messages, I keep forgetting the horror and getting caught out.

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.