Becca is finally cutting her teeth!

Well, FINALLY! Becca's teeth are finally starting to come through. Her two bottom front teeth are peaking through the gums. I thought she was going to be a little gummy-bear forever!
Lets hope she doesnt decide to start biting when she's feeding though!

Matty's sick!

Poor Matty is sick! He woke up at 10:00pm last night vomiting. None of us got to bed until 2:00am this morning. He's thrown up twice today as well. He's refusing to eat, although he has been keeping down fluids so that's good. Hopefully he'll get a full night's sleep tonight. No school for him tomorrow unfortunately. Poor little bugger!

Funding Approved!!

Matty got the funding approved for AEIOU!!!! The funding covers half the amount ($7000), Centrelink picks up another huge chunk with the childcare rebate, and then with however much is left over AEIOU is going to work out fortnightly payments for us, instead of having to pay for it all upfront. Finally a break at last!!!

So happy!!! Now we know that he'll be right for all of next year. What a relief!

Well, Matty never ended up being on TV! :( What a bugger! Ah well. He's starting going there officially this week, from 9 - 12 every day. The poor kids - the four of them have never been away from their parents before, except to stay with their grandparents, so they are all feeling separation anxiety really badly! I keep trying to make it sound fun, and say things like "So you're off to school today to play with "x"". Matty shakes his head and says "No!". Its so heartbreaking dropping him off and hearing him screaming "Mummy!" as I'm walking out the door. But as hubby said, its either do it now or when he's five and about to start school!

And at least he's saying Mummy now! lol

His teachers said he had a lot of fun outside today though, playing with water etc. My parents came over this afternoon and played with him some more. The poor thing was stuffed and fell asleep on the loungeroom floor at 7:15pm!

Matty on TV tomorrow night!

Well, Matty had his first chance to be in the paper today, and he blew it! The Chronicle came round to AEIOU to take photos of all the kids, and Matty was not having a good day and wouldn't stop screaming. All he wanted to do was go outside, but they couldn't let him out because the builders were still out there and the fences were down, therefore too dangerous. But, he may be on TV tomorrow night! Win TV came round after the newspaper guys had left, and luckily it was just as the builders had finished and the kids were going out to play. He got heaps of footage of Matty on the fort and playing with Dianne (his teacher) so cross fingers that will get on the news tomorrow night. The official opening is tomorrow, so the TV guy said that they were going to edit the footage from today with the stuff that will be taken tomorrow. Here's hoping it all goes well! Tomorrow is going to be a huge day for the kids. The AEIOU team from head office are coming up, and I think that there are going to be politicians, possibly the mayor etc in attendance. Should be good!

Pissed Off !!!

Oh man, what a day Friday turned out to be! We went to have a look at AEIOU, Matty's new daycare centre. While I was talking to the teacher, I said, "So, the funding is good to go, isn't it?". She said "I'm not sure, give head office a ring and check with accounts". So I did and they had no idea what I was talking about! Apparantly WE have to apply for the funding, after being told that they were organising it. So he's supposed to start in a week and we have no idea whether we will get funding or not. Had we been advised of this we would have organised the funding application a month ago!!! At least he's allowed to attend until whether we find out about the funding or not. *Sigh* Talk about stressed!

Well, it's been a week since my operation and I'm still sore! I'm not supposed to do any lifting for 6 weeks, but that's near to impossible with a toddler and an 8 month old baby at home!

Speaking of Becca, she's now sitting up by herself! I can't believe that she's going to be 8 months old tomorrow. We'll be celebrating her 1st birthday before we know it!

We went to see a naturopath today for Matty. His paediatrition keeps on wanting to sedate him, but honestly, we don't think his behaviour warrants it! Anyway, the naturopath has done him up a tonic of different herbs and minerals that ASD kids have problems absorbing, and also some that will help him concentrate better etc. So we'll give that a whirl and see how it goes. We're also going to look at going on a Casein free diet as well, but we'll wait until we have the gluten free one down pat first! We haven't heard from AEIOU yet regarding when he is to start, but I'll give them a ring on Monday to see how everything is going.

We had a little family partly at the in-laws for matty last night, and my SIL and her family are arriving from the coast tomorrow laden with pressies apparantly (they've just come back from the states, and bought up big!). Can't wait to see them all again.

Hospital!

Well, this week took a turn for the worse - I ended up in hospital Thursday night getting my appendix out! We had to cancel poor Matty's birthday party on Saturday, but at least I got to come home Saturday morning so I spent most of his birthday with him. We gave him his pressie and had Chinese for tea. I'm feeling rather sore at the moment though, a lot like when I had my caesars! I cant lift the kids for 6 weeks either which is going to be hard. I've tried lifting Becca of course, but I can only hold her for about 30 seconds before I have to either put her down or sit down. Finding it hard to bend over too. I worked out the only other "non-essential" part of my body I have left is my tonsils! I now have a total of 9 scars on my stomach, all of which Matty finds fascinating. Anyway, we're going to hold a small party for him next weekend probably. Its lucky that the poor little fella doesn't really get the concept of a birthday yet, so it was just another day for him.

I'm sick of having medical problems and being "sliced and diced"!!!

Matty has been accepted to AEIOU !!!

We just found out that Matthew has been accepted into AEIOU!!!! And even better, they are organising funding for us as well through their scholarship program! Without the funding and childcare rebate it is $14,000 per year, which we simply cannot afford with both of us at home. We are so excited for him! We have orientation at the end of next week, and he starts the week after that. It's full-time from 9 - 2:30, and is going to be such a good break for us! I'm really hoping he enjoys it. Slightly sad, as he has made some friends at special ed, but I'll just have to make sure that he has heaps of play dates with them over the holidays and on weekends!

Ok, ok, ok! lol. Thanks for the kick up the bum to update this Gail!

Well, everything is chugging along here. The biggest news is that Matty has an interview with AEIOU on Friday. They are a specialised Autism centre which focuses on Early Intervention for children from 2 - 6 years of age. Its kind of like a child care centre, with the child care rebate as well, but they have on staff speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists etc to work with the kids intensively. Matty still only has about 8 words in his vocabulary (he'll be 3 at the end of this month) so hopefully he will start saying some more words soon!

We've also started him on a gluten free diet, as a lot of Autistic kids have problems processing gluten. Its only early days with the diet, and you have to be on it for 3 months at least to see the full effects. I think its starting to work already for him though! Food doesnt seem to be going straight through him like it used to, and I think he's starting to get a bit calmer as well.

Hubby may have a job soon in a traineeship with a computer store! The owner of the computer store is having a meeting with CRS (hubby's employment place) on thursday to find out about the incentives etc. If he can afford it, then hubby has the job!

I'm going to try and update this every Friday from now on (I've been incredibly slack!). Bye for now!

Beccas Baptism Update

Well, Becca's baptism went well! It was a lovely day, and not too cold in the Cathedral. She did cry a bit during the ceremony, but the poor darling was starving! The reception afterwards was great! The cafe next to the Cathedral catered and we had the reception in the conference room at the Cathedral office. The food was brilliant - sandwiches, hot platters, scones etc. We also got two cakes from the Cheesecake Shop which were yummy. There was that much left over food that we were eating it for the next two days, and the dog still had a great feed with the leftovers after that!

Becca got lots of great gifts, including bracelets, Wedgewood bowls, cutlery sets, and what I was most excited about - a scrapbooking kit! Now to get some photos developed!

Rebecca's Baptism

Becca's baptism is on Sunday, and it is freezing today! Naturally her baptism dress (the "family" one) is short sleeved and satin. We've bought a jumpsuit for her to wear underneath. I hope it's not going to look too silly, but all you will be able to see of the jumpsuit is her arms. The dress is one of those long traditional ones, so no one will be able to see her legs or feet. I pity the poor little thing though - she has to be totally naked for the baptism, and the Cathedral is freezing at the best of times! We're having morning tea in the conference room in the parish office afterwards, with about 20 rellies coming. To be honest, I'll be glad when its all over. I hate planning big events - all the stress about trying to please all the guests and crap. Its supposed to be a day for Becca, but instead we're stressing about the day meeting everyone else's expectations. I know that we should think "stuff everyone else - its our day", but honestly, its often easier to try and please others than to have them bitch about it for the next few months!

Got Matthew's hair cut today for the baptism photos, and he looks fantastic. He had a complete freak out of course during the cutting (he hates it with a passion), but once it was over he calmed down. Chris had to hold him on his lap while I had my head on Matty's shoulder so he could play with my hair. We worked out a secret to distract him as well apart from the usual food - the hairdresser gave me the spray bottle and I sprayed water on his hands and on the bench (he's water mad). He was still crying but sat still and played with the water, so it looks like we have a solution! The promise of donuts also helped! ;) I can't believe how grown up he looks! Not my little baby anymore!

Wow, my very first blog. I'm a complete novice to this so its been a real learning curve for me. Thanks have to go to my best friend in the whole world, Gail, for giving me the link to this site.

Well, about me. I'm married to Chris, and have two georgeous children - Matthew who is 2 1/2, and Rebecca who is 4 months old. It's great being a mum, but it can also be a challenge. Matthew is Autistic, so caring for him is a full-time job in itself, with running around to appointments for Speech Therapists, Special Ed unit, Paediatritions, Psychologists etc. We're lucky to have some great help for him here though. Disability Services QLD just called and he can start receiving their services after the school holidays. They have Speech Therapists, Social Workers, the whole lot there. So that's going to be great. And better yet, it's free.

Becca is just georgeous. She's the happiest little girl, and hardly ever complains. But boy she can be noisy. She "talks" at the top of her lungs, and of course its when Matthew is asleep. Trying to tell a 4 month old to shush is just a futile effort - they just think it's funny and babble even more loudly.

Apart from being a full time SAHM (Stay At Home Mum), I'm also working on my first novel (when I get the time, which is not very often. lol). Its a fantasy epic, so look out JK Rowling. Ha, I can only hope I'm half as good as she is. My other projects which are also sadly neglected is my scrapbooking and crocheting. With my scrapping, I'm currently working on an album for Matthew. My crocheting is a baby blanket, probably for Becca. Well, it's pink and purple at any rate.