Thursday, 6 March 2008

Heaps of News!!

Becca's Birthday

Rebecca had her 1st Birthday on the 28th. We had a party at home with the relatives and she was spoilt rotten. Lots of new clothes, some toys, and a funky My Little Pony cloth nappy! (that was from us). Can't wait to put it on her!

Great News!

We had a meeting with Matty's teachers at AEIOU today. They have recommended that after the Easter holidays that he move to a part-time placement at AEIOU of 3 days a week, and to a mainstream kindy for the other two days! They said that the progress he has made is just amazing.

Another thing that they said - apart from his speech, which obviously needs work, he really has no other autistic traits. In fact, they said that were he to be assessed today, they seriously doubt that he would be diagnosed ASD at all! It is true that the other kids there are a LOT worse than he is. His teachers have said that what he really needs now is to be mixing with neuro-typical kids so he can observe behaviour and speech and hopefully learn from them. He'll still go to AEIOU 2.5 days per week to access the speech and OT, and the other 2 days to get interaction with NT kids. He's just outgrowing the other kids at the centre, they said!!!!

Well, this is the whole point of AEIOU - to get the kids into mainstream!!!

So excited for him!!! We have 2 kindys in mind - one next to the school where Chris starts work after easter, and another one that we looked at last year which we also like. We've got an appointment on monday to go to the one near Chris' work.

Chris' New Job

Other exciting news: Chris got a job! It's only casual, but its a job! Its a crossing supervisor at one of the primary schools. Not just any school mind you, but the one that we are hoping to send Matty to! They have an excellent rep for dealing with special needs kids, particularily kids with Autism. In fact, their rep is so good that the ECDU (Early Childhood Developmental Unit) moved premises to be closer to the school.

More importantly than the money though (although that is great!) is the confidence boost that Chris has gotten from getting this job. He is just over the moon.

Finally things are starting to come together!

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Geez I'm slack! It's been a whole month since I updated this! lol.

Well, our news this last month - Becca now has 3 teeth, two at the bottom and one at the top which has started coming down. The other top front tooth is starting to cut through now too.
Matty started back at AEIOU this week. I think he's glad to be back. A boy that he used to go to Special Ed with last year has started this term, so there are 5 kids in total now. The occupational therapist has also started there full time, and they have a part time speech therapist starting up this term too. We've got parent-teacher meetings next week, and then some of the big bosses of AEIOU are coming up the week after for an info and "meet and greet" night. And its a kid free event, so that should be good!

Christian had a great birthday! We went out to the park in the morning with some of the mums and kids from AEIOU. The kids all had a blast playing on the swings, slides etc. After that we went back to one of the mums' places for coffee and a chat. That night we went over to Chris' parents place for dinner. Of of Chris' cousins was up from Melbourne and was there, so Chris was thrilled! He hadn't seen his cousin for over a year.

Other news - Chris has had 3 job interviews in the last week! Two were for the City council (water management and I.T. Both were traineeships), and the other interview is for a cleaning company servicing their high pressure cleaners. He's really hoping he'll get that one, as its full pay plus a company car! So fingers crossed that he gets that one!

Becca will be one year old on the 28th. How time has flown! We better start organising a party I think! Anyway, that's about it for today!

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all have had a great holiday break. Back to the daily grind tomorrow! lol

We've had a wonderful Christmas! Matty and Becca scored very well indeed with all the presents from Christian's side of the family. Clothes, toys, books, more toys - you get the idea! Matty got a HUGE Tonka truck from Grandma and Grandad, playdoh stuff, just heaps of things. Becca got a few new outfits which is great. The size 00's are getting a bit tight around her belly! Plus she got some stacking cups, a pull along caterpillar thingie, 2 dolls, and a cd as well. Becca loves kissing people and things, and one of the dolls she was given makes kissing noises and says "I love you"! Bec thought it was wonderful, and kisses the doll every time it made the kissing noises. Everybody together now: "Awww!"

We ate way too much food! There were 15 of us for lunch at the in-laws, and we had everything - turkey, ham, pork, veges, salads, plum pudding, brandy custard, rum butter, icecream, chocolates... the list goes on! Had a sandwich for tea! We gave Matty a Raggs DVD, the book "Animalia" by Graeme Base, and some of those magnetic letters for the fridge. He loves those letters! Becca got a dress, a matching cloth nappy, and the book "Cinderella". Mum and Dad came over on Boxing Day for another feast / Christmas. More presents and more food! Christian gave me the book "Eldest", the sequal to Eragon. In hard-cover, limited edition! Its all gold and embossed etc. Looks really cool! I can't wait to start reading it, but am being good and resisting until I finish reading my current book, The Mists of Avalon.

New Years was a bit of a non-event for us. I was in bed by 10:00pm with Becca, and Christian climbed in around 11:45. Neighbours down the street let off some firecrackers at midnight, and I could hear "Happy New Year!" being yelled far in the distance, but that was about it! Damn we're getting old!

Mum and Dad are coming over for tea tonight. It's Christian's birthday tomorrow, so we're having tea with them tonight so they can give him their pressie, and going over to Christian's parents place tomorrow night (on his birthday) for tea. His cousin Robert will be up from Melbourne, so Christian's really looking forward to that! We haven't seen Robert for nearly over a year.

Oh, and another event (sort of) - today is exactly 11 years since our first date!