Baby Waterbottle
Last night Zoë watched me prepare a hot water bottle to take to bed (I put it at the foot of the bed because my feet get cold and take ages to warm up). It was in a soft, somewhat silky cover, but otherwise, it's just a rubber hot water bottle (and a black one, at that). I was holding it on my chest for a bit because my hands were very cold and I was putting one hand on my chest with the hot water bottle on top, which I find helpful.
Zoë decided that this made the bottle a baby, for some reason (probably the way I was cradling it). She wanted to hold it and cuddle it, so I put it in her bed with her. She seemed quite happy with that, so I left it with her until she'd fallen asleep (and then I put it in my own bed).
Today, I went out and got some new hot water bottles, one purple and one pink, with matching covers (which are knit, rather than silky, but the tops completely cover the lid, which is good). The pink one is for Zoë, and the purple one is for Miranda. I probably won't fill them with boiling water as I do my own, but tonight when it's bed time, each little girl can have her own hot water bottle to sleep with.
I don't know if it will make them sleep any better or go to bed any sooner, but it's worth a try, anyway...
Back to School
Well, we just finished up two weeks of school holidays. You'd think that would be relaxing, but it's not really, at least, not the first week.
Zo&eum;l gets very troublesome when she's bored, and when her normal routine is disrupted. She's getting better with the routine changes, but she's still awful when she's bored. Naturally, school holidays tends to put her in a not-so-good mood.
She got into lots of things, including managing to lose or hide all of my rings (wedding ring, diamond ring, opal ring, and a couple of silver ones). They were in a closed box, but she got them (knowing she shouldn't) and I haven't seen them since. I'm hoping that they're tucked away somewhere in a Zoë treasure cache, as she tends to do that. Yes, I was absolutely furious when I found they were missing. Yes, I'm still upset. I'm doing my best not to give in to that anger and to work through the grieving process (grief for my lost rings, some of which had huge sentimental value that far outweighed their monetary value, although the diamond is real and valuable). Eventually, maybe, I'll find them, but for now, I just have to accept that they may be gone forever, and that fairy changeling children do stuff like that. *sigh*
She also went over the back fence once. I thought she had learned not to do that, as she's gotten in trouble for it before, but apparently boredom and upset from change of routine was enough to make her try it again. And yes, she was being supervised, but she's unbelievably quick. Naturally, we got her back pretty quickly, and she got scolded for it and had to come inside. I also pointed out to her that running off or going over the fence is part of the reason she's not allowed to go outside more.
On a positive note, she's been eating really well lately, and the more she eats, the better her appetite seems to get. She's still not eating a big variety of foods, but now and then we can get her to eat a piece of carrot or apple, and she's been eating sultanas (raisins) and will drink several kinds of juice (including fresh juice from a juice bar). I've thought about getting a juicer to use at home, but it seems like a bit of a hassle, and I'm not sure it would be worth the investment/effort. What she'll drink from a juice bar on an outing may be totally different from what she's willing to drink at home.
Her communication has been quite good. She's using sentences, although sometimes in a quirky way. Just this morning she told me to "put cereal box on a table" rather than putting it away in the cupboard (she likes to look at it while she eats, for some reason).
We got a "Friends of the Zoo" pass over the holidays, which means we can go to Healesville Sanctuary (which is all native Australian animals and in a very rural setting) or the Melbourne Zoo (a wide variety of animals, including many endangered ones, and right in the middle of the city, although the zoo is very green and parklike, of course). So we went to Healesville and to the Melbourne Zoo and Zo&eum;l was really good and enjoyed it a lot. She said, "See animals!" a couple of times, and was generally very pleasant to take out.
Today she's back at pre-school and was just so happy to be going back. When she realized that she was going today (when she saw me preparing her snack box), she immediately put her shoes on and then helped me get the snack ready and found her hat to put in her backpack. I gave her a printed page of her "picture cards" to show her the schedule at pre-school (which was requested by her special education assistant), and she was really happy to have that, so I think she'll have a good day.
One other thing... we've decided where we'd like her to go to school, and we have a backup option. The first choice is a state-funded "special development school". They take kids with all kinds of intellectual and developmental problems. She'll have to be tested and qualify for the school (which I think she probably will), and we'll be arranging the testing soon, as we've already discussed it with her early intervention therapists. They agreed that this school would probably be good for her, assuming she qualifies.
If, for some reason, she doesn't qualify, there's a state-funded school specifically for autistics that will certainly take her. It's my second choice for a number of reasons, including transportation issues, but if that's where she has to go, we'll have to work out the transportation then. I'm sure it's a fine school, for what it's worth.
So, there's the Zoë update, and my apologies for taking so long to add this. If it's any consolation, there are some new pictures of her in the photo gallery...
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