The Blog Is Moving

      I've come to a decision - I'm going to move my blog.


It's not a decision I've made lightly - I like the setup of blogger.com... but there's no link to Facebook, so it's very tricky for people to leave feedback and responses.

So it's moving to http://aussiejenna.wordpress.com/

Please check it out soon!

Fat... plus decisions to make

    I'm feeling fat.

I'm feeling worse than fat - I'm feeling uncomfortable. I'm over 110kg now, and although being 6ft means I don't look super-fat, I feel really large. I know that I've been indulging in all the wrong foods and not exercising; so what do I do about it?

I know that I should stop drinking soft drink, stop eating sugary snacks, and eat less in general. But it's extremely tricky. A lot of it is lack of willpower, and the fact that I love all the wrong foods. And I should exercise - but that's really tricky when I have no energy (thanks to the antidepressants) and little opportunity to get to the gym (maybe I should get a treadmill?).

And Ash and I are currently discussing whether or not to have more kids.
I've been very very clucky since seeing my nephew at a couple of days old.  But I'm not sure if I can put my body through what it went through last time. Although, as long as I stay well hydrated, I shouldn't have the same problems. Dehydration caused a lot of my problems.

So... to have more kids, or not?
To find the motivation to lose weight, or wait for it to find me?
Decisions, decisions.

And even better - Coop has come up with one red spot on his foot, and he's got explosive diarrhoea - to the point where I looked at his shorts and t-shirt and decided to throw them in the bin (or rather my nose and stomach did). Looks like we may have another Pox patient soon.

xxx

The Adventures of the Chicken Pox Kid

     So Madd has chicken pox.

It first appeared on her legs on Tuesday morning. I sent her to school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, assuming that they were just mosquito bites. I was wrong.

On Friday morning I noticed quite a few spots on her lower back. There were a few on her stomach, so I figured that if there was a mass infestation of mozzies or fleas in our house, then we'd have to flea-bomb the house. So off to the doctors we went.

When we got there, the receptionist looked at Madd, and sent us to the nurse's station. I found that strange, because I really didn't see why. Then the nurse came along and had a look, and said "yep, that's chicken pox". I was dumbfounded. I hadn't even CONSIDERED chicken pox! Whoopsie!

So we've been home yesterday and today. We had to cancel our plans last night, today, tomorrow, school Monday, and Melbourne Cup Day Tuesday. Plans that I really was looking forward to.

Madd is actually handling it quite well. She was fine yesterday, albeit itchy. Stuck her in a Pinetarsol bath, which she HATED and screamed the whole time. Then, on advice from the pharmacy worker, we covered her in Solosite gel. We did that most of yesterday. Today she's barely had any issues. She's been very tired and restless, but overall pretty good. She hasn't scratched at all, and we haven't neeeded to put gel on. She's had one dose of Panadol, since she has some chicken pox spots in her "vajayjay" (I am very sorry that she has to deal with that). But she's been incredibly good. Misbehaving and melting down, presumably from being stuck at home with no routine happening and plans all changed since we can't go out - but not stressed about the chicken pox.

I'm dreading spending the next few days at home. Cooper has worked out how to get onto his top bunk, even though we removed the ladder - he just climbs up the side and swings his way up. So today I put the ladder back on, since there's no point in not having it there. It hasn't helped keep him off the top bunk at all. He's such a little climber, it drives me insane. Twice today he's decided it's a great idea to put a full toilet roll in the loo and flush it. Very lucky that he hasn't blocked up the loo yet. 

So it's been an interesting couple of days at home. I've baked lemon and poppyseed cupcakes, a cappuccino cake, and tomorrow's agenda is making a caramel slice.

I wasn't coping too well this morning, I can't handle the thought of being trapped at home. I've always loved the fact that I can pick up and go, even with two kids. I've always loved having my freedom. But knowing that I'll be stuck at home until at least Wednesday... that's not sitting well with me. Fortunately with Ash being home on Wednesday and Thursday I'll still be able to go to placement. Just hoping Madd is better by next Friday night, because I'm supposed to be doing a Mary Kay party at a friend's place (my first real gig).

Hope everyone is well
Jen
xxxx

Autism Obsessed

     Since finding out that Madd has autism, it seems to be all I blog about.
A lot of the reason for that is because dealing with it takes up more time than anything else in my life. But tonight I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog about the REST of my life.

     Cooper is 27 months old, and an absolute terror. He loves to climb up the drawers and onto the kitchen bench. He'll sit there and play with whatever happens to be on the bench. He loves to stuff his little cars and trucks into random socks. He is now speaking in 3 word sentences. He craves routine... can't put his bag in the backseat after creche, it must be in the boot because that's where it's always gone. At night, he watches In The Night Garden, then gets his "milk" and goes to bed. It's a great routine, calm and peaceful - and he responds well to it. He's about to go up to the next room at creche, he is moving up from the toddlers' room to the big-toddlers' room. I'm a little disappointed, because the staff in the toddlers' room are fantastic. Nothing against the staff in the bigger room, but I'm very familiar with the staff in his current room. But it's all part of growing up.

     Madd is covered in bruises at the moment. She's fallen off her bike a few times, fallen off her scooter, and been bumping into things. Her legs look awful, covered in bruises and scratches and grazes. But she's coping quite well. She went to bed on time tonight, which is massive! She was in bed by 7:30, and asleep almost immediately. She had a great time for Halloween - we always go down to Mum's place, since her whole neighbourhood love to do Halloween. She dressed up as a witch, and we painted her face green. She looked absolutely fantastic.

She had a great time, and was super-polite as always. She didn't say too many inappropriate things, and wasn't too forward. She did extremely well.
(please read this blog in regards to "scripting")

I, however, had high anxiety. I was freaking out about door-knocking with people who may not have been participating in Halloween. Fortunately for me, we ran into a few of the neighbours that I do know, so we went along with them.

I have only 2 weeks left of placement. I'm glad in one way - I'll get my free time back! But I'm devastated, because I really do like it there. Had a pretty crappy day today, I ended up coming home sick because my stomach got really upset for some reason. But overall I'm really liking it. I'm hoping to get a job there, even if it's just casual work. Otherwise I'll try and find some work next year once school goes back.

My new car is amazing. I know it's only an old car, but it runs really well - and it has the 2 things I really wanted; airconditioning and power steering. Madd loves it, and it's the perfect size. It's cheap on fuel, and... I just love it!

I'm selling Mary Kay makeup - I've never been a really girly-girl, and never bothered with makeup. But I love the colours, and the skincare is just magic. They have a peach hand set that's just amazing, it keeps my hands nice and soft even with me washing them 15 times a day. The best part is that the "hostess benefits" are sales-based, not party-bookings-based. So there's no pressure to get a certain number of friends to book parties from your party. And the prices are pretty reasonable. It's my latest love.

Ash is... Ash. Nothing much changes with him. I'm not looking forward to summer, when his work hours skyrocket and he's never home. But I'll survive, as always.

Hope you're all doing well, drop me a line :)

Fear and other emotions

     So today after class, her teacher approached me.
The first thing out of her mouth was "I know this is a small issue, but I thought you'd want to know."

Seriously?

Seriously???

This is a fantastic thing!!! The old school didn't even bother to tell me about major issues like her hiding in the playground instead of going into class. I am super-happy that the teacher has told me about today's issue, regardless of how small she thinks it is.

    Before school (in the few minutes between me dropping her off and class starting), she found a basketball on the basketball court and started playing with it. A bigger boy came up to her (he's a known school bully, and apparently quite a nasty kid) and said "That's my ball, give it to me NOW." Madd being Madd, wasn't intimidated at all, and said quite frankly, "No, I found it here and I'm playing with it."
They started pushing and shoving each other to get the ball. Teachers saw it, and intervened before any damage was done. It turned out the ball did belong to the boy, but there was no apparent reason for it being left on the court unattended.

    The teacher was quite worried, because the boy could have seriously hurt her. The teacher was surprised at Madd's tenacity, and said that most kids would have backed down and given the ball over if they were stood over by a much bigger kid.
As I explained to the teacher, that's all part of Madd. She doesn't have any immediate fear of people. She has no idea about giving people space, and wouldn't have thought to back down. Had the teacher not told me about it and dealt with Madd's feelings about it, I would have copped an afterschool meltdown. But the teacher recognised that Madd, despite not backing down, was feeling stressed - and she spoke with Madd at length.

Another example of how Madd's atypical behaviour can be dangerous to herself. If the boy had hit her, she would have hit him back. She never backs down.

Madd has made a couple of friends since she started at this school. She connected with one girl immediately - this girl N has been great with Madd. It's not often that Madd instantly bonds with someone.

The other kid is a boy who's a couple of years older than her - I'll call him B, for privacy reasons. B has severe Cerebral Palsy, and is in an electric wheelchair. He has lots of gadgets on his wheelchair, like buttons that can be pressed with his head to make his communication device speak for him. He can say "Hello" by pushing a button with his head. The teacher said Madd is very interested in the bits and pieces on his chair, and she's always chatting with him.

I'm glad that I've raised a kid who doesn't see a kid with a disability as "abnormal". To her, he's just another kid. She doesn't have "tolerance"... it's not about tolerating him. She doesn't seem to realise that not everyone is as accepting. But that stems right back to her coming with me to volunteer with Yooralla. I worked with an older Italian man who had Muscular Dystrophy. She used to chat away to him, and she got to understand quite a lot of what he said. She is also exceptionally good at lipreading, since I started chatting on video chat with a young guy who has an SCI (spinal chord injury). My mate with an SCI can't speak, so to chat with him you have to lipread him. Madd's become quite good at it.

So I'm very happy with her at the moment, she's been super-calm since the change in schools.


 

Explaining about autism

So.... We're sitting in the psychologist's waiting room. There's a little boy of about 4 who's desperate to play with Madd. MADD, however, is in a mood. She just wants to be left alone. She's not taking the toys he's playing with, but she won't share the ones she's playing with.

The mum and dad of the boy are lovely. The boy's mum is trying to encourage their son to leave Madd alone. I'm trying to convince Madd that she is being rude. Neither of us are having much luck.
So... Insert awkward smile and apology from them about their son who's climbing all over my legs while he plays in front of me, and my returned awkward smile and apologies for my kid's refusal to acknowledge their boy exists.

I realised it doesn't matter whether they know Madd is autistic. Because they're not judging her. Or me. And I'm not judging them. These 3 strangers have just taught me something... That not everyone judges my kid's behaviour, they don't give a fig about it. And I'm developing more understanding about what other families might be dealing with.

Yay for understanding.

Haircutting Dilemmas

    So today I noticed, while shopping at a different centre to usual, that a hair salon had a cheap price for haircuts today ($13.95). I looked at the ratty ends of Madd's hair - she had her hair cut in layers last haircut, and as it grows out it's getting very messy and ratty at the ends. So I asked Madd if she'd like to get a hair trim (expecting her to say no as usual), and she surprised me by saying yes!!

So off we went to the salon. We waited for about 10 minutes, and she chatted happily with no signs of anxiety. When it was her turn, she hopped up onto the seat. Usually I'd tell them how much she hates having her hair cut, but I decided not to this time. I figured I'd just see how she went.

It didn't go well.

Not because of my kid, but because of the hairdresser. She looked at Madd's hair, and said "I'm sorry, but I can't cut her hair today. She has nits."
I groaned, and explained to Madd that she had headlice and couldn't have her hair cut today. She didn't have a meltdown or get upset (although she did get an upset look on her face).

We went home, and treated her hair for lice. As I combed her hair out post-treatment, I was pulling out comb-fulls of......

Not eggs. Not lice.
Dandruff.

My first thought was "Crap. The eggs aren't coming out." But as I combed over her hair several thousand (not exaggerating here) more times, there was nothing coming out. And all I could see was dandruff.

All those days of not showering and weeks of refusing to wash her hair have taken their toll on her scalp. So I put her in the shower (forcibly, I had to pin her in the shower because she refused to shower - and with the de-lousing stuff in her hair she needed to wash it out and shampoo it), and washed her hair with anti-dandruff shampoo with antibacterial stuff in it too. So that should help.

So NEXT time I take her to the hairdresser, I must remember to warn them that she has dandruff and NOT lice.

Although I'll admit it was a relief that she didn't actually have lice.