Mum will do it

I have the trouble of being a mother who does things for her children. That's fine except when it stops them doing things for themselves. I was given a little reminder of this the other day from our consultant. It stung, but I know she's right.

Bright Eyes will draw and paint at preschool, but not at home with me. The only time he's done it is when I've been unavailable to be with him. He yells "Come on mum - help help!" when I get out the crayons. The other day I said, "Ok, hang on. I'll come in a sec." When I eventually got there, he had done it himself.

I constantly need to hang back and give everyone the chance to do stuff for themselves - not just Bright Eyes. It goes against my nature, but I know it is for the best.

Today's progress

I went back to the homeopath today. It was reassuring to see her. Bright Eyes did make a lot of progress under her up until I gave it up three months ago or so. He's on a new remedy, so we'll see how it goes.

I also did some focused RDI today after a bit of a break. I'll have a clip to show our consultant referring to parental resilience. I needed to be very calm today!

And... he went to preschool happily! Amazing. This time it is because of sheer bribery. The preschool staff have made him a 'treasure box' filled with cool stuff they know he'll like, including a brand-new Brum Toy, to play with only at preschool. Talk about an excited child! He practically ran through the door.

Yeah.

I am really really really tired of autism.

Progress

Things were much better today. Bright Eyes is adapting back to his GF/CF diet and seems to be becoming calmer.

I was very very happy to discover a really good bread recipe which he has taken to very easily. I've made it twice now - once with sultanas and once just plain - and it tastes lovely. Even my husband likes it!

This is how I did it:

In a small bowl combine and leave the following:
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar

Mix up the wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cups rice milk (or water)
4 eggs
4 tbsps oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients:
4 cups GF flour
an appropriate amount of the Orgran gluten substitute (read the packet)
I also added 1/2 cup of LSA mix (linseed, sesame and almond)
(For the raisin bread, I added about 1 cup sultanas and a bit of sugar)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Combine everything and mix well. Put it into a well oiled bread pan and smooth it out with oily hands. Score it down the middle and leave to rise in a warm place under oiled plastic wrap for up to 90 minutes.

Bake for about 1 hr at 200C.

Preschool

Check here for a description of getting Bright Eyes to preschool this morning plus the other shenanigans that accompanied it.

Sad eyes

Poor Bright Eyes has not had such bright eyes recently. He's been pretty aggro, especially with his brother for the last few days.

It's not because his brother is particularly difficult - he just seems to have a need to get him away and express his dislike loudly and violently.

I've noticed his eyes being quite glassy again too.

I have a bad feeling that it's because he hasn't been on his diet for a while now. At first he didn't seem to react to gluten, but the longer time goes on, the more I think I need to get him back to the GF/CF diet.

I'm dreading it. It's going to be so difficult to take bread and biscuits away again. You can pray for us if you think of it!

Co-ordination

This is a great little addition to the family wheels, made by a friend of ours. He chops little bikes in half, adds a pole and attaches them to bigger bikes. Kiddies get to ride safely along with parents and have a great time.

Bright Eyes tried it out today with both mum and dad (pictured). We went around the block a couple of times and had a ball.

It's fantastic for working together in coordination. We both have to pedal, and as it's tricky to turn in tight spots, we need to work together to get it facing oppositely.

I can see some good fun from this. Thanks Pete B for making it!

Apprentice again

I was pleased to see that Bright Eyes is getting back to being interested in being an 'apprentice' again after his bad week and a half.

This morning he helped me put out the church morning tea, finding bowls and opening packets. We found the tea trolleys and wheeled them out, trying to be careful over the bumps.

Then this afternoon he helped daddy wash the car. "I can do that," he said frequently. "I can help!"

It's nice to have him back!

The grace of other people

Bright Eyes had such a bad weekend that by Sunday I was a mess. I dragged him to church and had to beg out of my two responsibilities there because neither he nor I could cope.

Thank God for other people! They could see straight away that I was not coping (crying on people's shoulders will do that for you!) and I got rescued. The youngest and the oldest were both offered play dates for the afternoon so I could spend some decent time with Bright Eyes and get him back into a good place.

I was able to go up to a friend who had previously offered to come and play with Bright Eyes and say "I need you!" She came around that afternoon, and then again on Tuesday and spent an hour playing with him.

That afternoon I got a phone call from someone who noticed I was not ok and who offered a meal. She's a great cook, and I accepted right away! Later, there was another phone call offering babysitting.

Nicest of all was my husband who was due to go on a three-day conference on Monday. The attraction was a famous speaker from the US. He gave it up and stayed home with us just to make sure we'd all be ok and stay sane!

I'm pleased to say that Bright Eyes is much calmer now and is back to his more pleasant little self.