Holly gone done be ill, like

She's been teething for ages and wearing all the hallmarks of that process like a trooper, but after last night it's occurred to Sue and I that Holly is actually ill.

She's been dribbling and having "pink cheek" like any teething baby, even a touch of warmth on her forehead. Last night though, she was restless, really really warm and kept hocking up all we gave her, usually accompanied by coughing fits.

Sue took her to the doctor today and she's actually got a chest infection. In the grand scheme of what we've endured this year, this is really nothing in comparison, but to see the usually happy joyful little Holly reduced to an exhausted listless mess is not nice.

I guess this is all in anticipation of all the wonderful bugs she'll pick up when she starts nursery properly from next week.

Bloody nose.

Sue needed Em to go to the toilet. I think that's what started it off this time. She'd done a bit of stuff in her nappy and we needed her to get cleaned up.

The grizzling, crying and incomprehensible gibberish didn't stop until we were done with the loo and washed hands were being dried. 

To calm her down, I figured a treat was in order - an apple! I took one out of the fridge and proceeded to get Em to help me wash it. As we were washing it under the tap, I noticed it was covered in red. It was a freaky "The Shining" moment where I thought the taps were running red with blood. 

Oh no. It was just Em's nose. 

We quickly put the apple down, grabbed some tissues and proceeded to be serenaded by further crying, wailing and gibberish. After what seemed like eternity, two pieces of chocolate and  change of scenery Em finally calmed down enough to be able to wipe most of the blood from her hands and face. 

We did talk to the doctors about this previously and they think her membranes in her nose are just too thin which causes this. I would like to get this sorted, as it seems any amount of undo stress on her - whether real or imagined - ends up with a bloody nose as a result. 

Fireworks night... an almost success

Today was full of activity .. for Sue, Em and I.

First we went to the Aussie Rules Football match at the Oval (a place that is hands down the worst signposted sport ground I've ever been to).

That went off without a hitch mostly ... Emily only freaked out on the train into town twice and that was tunnel related. We took her ear defenders with us, in case the game or fans were too loud and she was happy as anything to have them on. She looked quite good walking through the underground tunnels with them on.

With the afternoon's success under our belt, we felt reserved optimism that the fireworks night wouldn't be another complete washout; thinking that Emily's only "fear" was the horrific noise the fireworks make and that they would be countered by the ear defenders. 

Our first indication that smooth sailing was NOT ahead came on the walk to our chosen fireworks site - Carshalton Park. There were some individuals starting their festivities early and Emily could hear them quite easily, even through the defenders and was not amused. 

At this point, Sue and I knew we were in for a crappy evening. 

For the first few minutes of the fireworks, Emily refused to take her hands off her eyes, which obviously pushed back the ear defenders from her ears, completely negating any positive effects. We had a rug with us, and I figured system shutdown was imminent ... again, so let her lay on the rug. We put an afghan over her to keep her warm and she used the holes in that to peek out at the fireworks. 

The tide had turned. 

At times, she was even bold enough to completely uncover one eye to look at the fireworks. I told her how they were "sparkly" and she said it back to me. 

After the fireworks, it was time to light the bonfire. I took Em over to the fence to look down into the pit where the massive fire was. As it was lit, I could see on Em's face how transfixed she was. The thought "pyro in the making" did cross my mind, but who knows what she was thinking. The flames were dancing and cut a very bright figure against the dark sky and she could have been taking any aspect of it in - most possibly that for something so bright it was nowhere near as loud as the fireworks. 

We eventually retired back home and had some dinner, before Emily fell asleep in a pile on the kitchen chair. 

While the evening wasn't a COMPLETE success, the fact that Em left the fireworks awake was a major milestone!

Impacts meeting for Holly

Sue and I attended an Impacts meeting for Holly today.

We had all the professionals in Holly's life there - speech and language, paediatrician, physiotherapist, dietician, and occupational therapist. Only person missing was her play therapist.

We sat around a talked about how we all thought Holly was getting on with health, feeding, development, etc. and if there were any concerns.

It was quite a good forum for everyone to get to understand Holly and her condition from all angles and get a better idea of the big picture.

It was also encouraging to hear from all the professionals there that they thought Holly was making wonderful progress and that some of the concerns Sue and I had (like Holly not really taking to the sippy cup all that well) were to be expected for a normal child of her age. She's not out of the woods yet though, as her development is still behind a "normal" child of her age.

We are going to reconvene in 6-months time to see where we are with Holly's situation.

End of dry times

Every good run comes to an end.

Since Emily's been going to school, she's been nappy-less during class. Not only that, she's been completely dry. This has been going on for over a month, even when she went full time starting last week.

However, when she came home today we found out she had two accidents. Sue and I aren't all that worried, as one bad day in over a month of going nappy-less is quite remarkable.

Nappy is dry on arrival

As per Rainbow's request, Emily spent most of the school day without a nappy.

My original fear of her bowels having their own way on the ride to/from school was for naught, as the "nappy-less" experiment was to begin once she arrived at school, not on leaving home.

From what we've seen, things worked well today. Rainbow asked us to check if she was dry (or more exactly, if her nappy was dry) when she got home. Which it was.

Here's hoping this is the start of the end regarding potty training. It's been a real pain in the arse.

Holly is "Chatty Patty"

Holly. Things are going well.

Over the last few days, Holly's really started coming into her own and developing her own voice.

Neither Sue nor I have a yardstick to measure her development against, with Emily's autism viewed in hindsight, but I'm not sure if things DO happen overnight.

Sue and I have been trying to get Holly to mimic us, doing the "buh, buh, buh" sound and shape with our mouths, but recently, Holly's started "talking" to us. She's also developed additional cries. She's previously really only had the "I'm awake feed me"cry. This has now been augmented by a sort of "I'm here, play with me" cry that's not as intense.

It's very interesting seeing the development of Holly and even the experts are saying they're seeing quite an advance in her behaviours, etc.

On the flipside, she still has more movement than she needs and there's still concern over this. Over the past months, Sue and I have learned to take any silver lining as a silver lining though. I'm just happy something good is happening.

Nappyless for Emily? Finally?

Nappies. Good riddance finally?

Emily came home from school today and Sue informed me that her teach would like her to start going in pants only.

My first thought was "what does she have against skirts?" Then I realised, she meant no nappy, just underpants. My second thought was, "what if she fouls up the taxi on the way to / from school?"

This COULD be a big step for Em and one I'm not sure she's ready for. We've been potty training for her for what seems like an eternity and she has been getting better lately. However, she still has the occasional nappy that's incredibly heavy, so we're not capturing everything.

If school think now is the time, Sue and I are more than happy to work on their plan.

Em's first day of school

She's done it before and she'll do it again, but today Emily started school.

This isn't nursery or whatever Dragonflies was, this is "reception". In my day we called it Kindergarten. A full day of teacher supervised play, basically.

Em looked very smart in her Green Wrythe Primary school uniform as Sue and I both took her to the school gates. Em being a little girl was a bit freaked out that we were handing her over to some strange woman in a building she'd never seen, but given how easily distracted she is, I don't imagine the freak out lasted long.

Em's doing half days this week to get her adjusted to life as a Red Squirrel at the Rainbows Opportunity Base and it'll be full days from Monday on.

End of holiday

For the past two weeks, I've been on holiday in Canada without the girls. Sue took both Holly and Em to Australia on Aug 8. They arrived back today and I'm going to be back UK-ways tomorrow.

The original plan was for Sue and the girls to go to Oz for three weeks, a trip I couldn't afford time or money-wise. While they were swanning around the Southern Hemisphere, it was suggested I make the best of the time and come to Canada for a couple of weeks, which I have done.

I've Skyped the girls almost daily and it looks like they're having a good time. Holly, in particular, seems to be more alert and erect, which is good, as her back muscles were part of the area that needed work. I've been watching and rewatching the videos I have on my phone and Youtube of the girls.

It's given me a sort of insight into what it would be like if all I had to remember the girls was these videos and photos. A reality with Holly that was almost too real. I'm really glad this particular situation has a happy ending.

Em starts big school in a couple of weeks. She'll be a fulltimer at Rainbow Opportunity Base at Green Wrythe Primary School.

Between now and then, we have one more big transition for the girls - moving house. I got the keys on the 14th, while they were in Oz, and have moved some stuff over so far. It's going to be quite a busy few days when I get back moving the rest. It will then be an even busier few weeks after that adjusting Emily's routine.

Between coming back from holiday, moving and starting a new school, it's probably more than she will be able to handle. I'm hoping in this case, I'm proved wrong.