So Not On The Spectrum

Baby Bear totally amazes me all the time.

He actually gets the point of eye contact and has done from a young age. For months now, if I'm reading and he wants my attention, he will grab my face and turn my head so that I have to make eye contact with him.

Beanie Bear has just started getting into imaginative play and will occasionally bring me a pretend ice cream or cup of tea. This morning Beanie put a pretend (invisible) chocolate down on the table for Baby Bear, and Baby actually made the motions of picking it up and pretending to eat it! At 19.5 months old!

Loo Bear wasn't too bad with this kind of stuff at the same age but it blows me away just how naturally it comes to Baby Bear.

Update

   

Finding beauty everywhere

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Loo Bear has been enjoying the puzzles in the CSIRO's Double Helix magazines.

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Shmoo has been perfecting his gluten free raspberry and lemon friands*. He has now made them several times, including a batch for our homeschool monitor. We had our review (and Loo's initial monitoring visit) in August and it went very well.

*We made the friands with Nuttelex a couple of times so that they were dairy-free and whilst they were okay, they're definitely much better with real butter.

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I'd given up on our cauliflowers and hadn't checked on them too closely for a while. While collecting herbs one morning I glanced over and noticed a huge head of cauliflower. We've had 3 more since and we're also still getting lots of yummy silverbeet, parsley, kale and beetroot.  Shmoo has taken to helping me weed the beds and keep an eye on the developing cabbage heads.

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The last few months I've been getting back into making our own yoghurt and have even branched out into making labneh. So easy and yummy.

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We had fun making some bird feeders recently. The OH poked a hole in the bottom of 5 plastic cups. We then used a length of kitchen string to tie 2 craft sticks in an 'X' shape and threaded the other end through the hole inside the cup and securing to the outside with sticky tape. Repeated for all 5 cups. We mixed 1kg wild bird seed mix with 250g softened lard. The boys packed the seed mixture into the cups; removed the tape; and pulled the string tight so that the craft sticks rested snugly against the top of the cups. We froze the cups for a few minutes until they had set and then removed the seed mix from the cups and hung them up outside.

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Baby Bear had a cardiology review a while ago. At 18 months old he was not impressed with being stripped down in front of strangers in a strange environment, attached to strange machines, and poked with strange equipment. He put up with being weighed (9.29kg with a nappy on - below the 3rd centile line still) and then cracked it. He was very vocal about his displeasure. I breastfed him through the ECG and that somewhat distracted him but by the time we got to the echo he was totally over it. He wouldn't feed anymore and refused to be distracted by the apps on my mobile. They couldn't really get a good view of his heart because of his screaming and squirming around but it looked like there probably wasn't anything 'significant'. The cardiologist was happy enough to schedule the next review for 2 years time, when Baby Bear should be old enough to be a bit more cooperative and allow us a better look at his heart.

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It's been a tough winter with us seeming to catch a cold or flu every 2-4 weeks for the past 3 months. The last cold has left Baby Bear with a mild chest infection and a horrible case of oral thrush. His mouth is causing him a lot of pain and I haven't been able to brush his teeth because he screams and his mouth and gums bleed so much. Our GP has just put Baby Bear on antibiotics 3 times a day for the chest infection and to make sure nothing nasty has gotten to his heart through his mouth. He's also on nilstat 4 times a day for the thrush. Poor baby. He's terrible at taking meds and I'm also giving him probiotics, kefir grains, xylitol and coconut oil so it feels like I'm trying to coax him into opening his mouth all day. Fingers crossed that it all clears up very quickly! 

Autism Diagnosis

Beanie had his autism assessment this week through the Tasmanian Autism Diagnostic Service. He had a 45 minute one-on-one assessment and then I did the parent interview, which lasted about 1.5 hours (the assessor also recently did a phone interview with Beanie's Early Intervention teacher). This morning I went back for the assessment findings.

Over the years I've wavered... is he or isn't he? When things are cruising along and we've got a good routine going he seems fairly typical (although, to be honest, with 2 others in the family on the spectrum and one with ADHD, half the time I'm not sure what typical or normal is!). I was a bit concerned that, with all early intervention, his issues wouldn't be so obvious to the assessor, that his learned behaviours would help him mask it. Of course, I probably should have known that these assessors are very experienced and trained to pick up on all the little things.

Apparently it was rather glaringly obvious that Beanie had issues across all criteria and was given a level 2 for the severity rating; but she said she could see how far he'd come thanks to all the early intervention (and she was quite taken with his 'sweet and endearing' nature). She had lots of good suggestions on which areas to focus further intervention on so I'm looking forward to receiving her full report.

Chocolate Winterfest, Latrobe

In recent weeks we've had storms, gale force winds, power outages and other typical Tassie winter weather. On Sunday it was snowing when we left home but a (mostly) sunny day down on the coast for Chocolate Winterfest...

Shmoo and Loo were busking as part of their performing arts class. The 5 kids sang at 4 different venues for half an hour at a time (and then we had another half an hour to get to the next venue and set up).

  

Oddly enough, I was so busy chasing a sick and teething toddler and moving from venue to venue that I didn't end up with any photos of chocolate. But we did manage to find a few minutes to indulge in some tasty treats at the end of the day after the boys were done singing. 

A Little Book Work

Shmoo - quickly getting the hang of division. Using Base Ten blocks for visual help.

Loo - still needs lots of practise with his writing but is slowly improving. The short attention span and distractability don't help but writing about a pet dinosaur scaring people does. :) 

Lego Lab

Shmoo's Lego science lab, complete with a microscope that can be raised to place a petri dish underneath. 

Stanley Seaquarium, Tasmania

A recent trip to the Seaquarium at Stanley with the homeschool group...



 
The rock pool... And shark egg cases.

  
Hermit crab... Female cowfish... Seapen.

 
Spider crabs... And a cute but rather melancholy looking cuttlefish (Beanie thought he looked sad because he was lonely and wanted a friend).

Harpoon with sperm whale jaw bone that washed up on the west coast of Tassie in 1967.

Tony Abbott - Dumb Ways to Lie

Tony Abbott - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Speech Assessment and Paediatrician

This week Beanie has had an assessment with the speech pathologist and an appointment with the paediatrician (which we've been waiting for 7 months for... All part of his ASD assessment). 

He came out smack bang in the middle of the average range with the speech assessment, which is fantastic (I am more than happy to have an 'average' child!). 

The paed we saw was great - knowledgeable, thorough and helpful. It's her opinion that Beanie does have an ASD (and agrees that his staring episodes are probably a part of that) and she will send through the paperwork to the Tasmanian Autism Diagnostic Service for his formal assessment. She also sent Beanie off to give a urine sample and have blood taken to rule out any illnesses or genetic issues. Pathology had a bit of trouble getting the blood and had to wiggle the needle for a minute. Poor Beanie screamed and screamed. He says that it hurt more than when he got stitches in his face. But the blue teddy bear and chocolate frog they gave him afterwards helped a little. 

Between appointments and extracurricular activities - making the most of the winter sun peeking through the clouds... 

What beautiful colours... at any point on the spectrum