Ack! I Can't Catch A Break This Week!

I'm sick.

And... I have a sore leg/foot that, for the life of me, I can't remember injuring.

And... I sent my girl-child (a mere 7½ years old) away on a two night school camp this morning (oh dear God the planning that went into that! Every scrap of clothing and every other item had to be individually named. In the end I threw each day's clothing into a big ziplock, wrote "Thursday" and "Friday" on the front, plus a third baggie for "Spare clothing", and hoped for the best. I am absolutely certain she'll forget something, but anyhoo).

And... Boof has had his curriculum-based swimming lessons each day this week - public schools here (at least in my state) set aside a week of lessons once a year, about 1.5 hrs each lesson (ie, one lesson a day). This means a packed swimming bag every day, which means remembering to dry out/wash swimming gear each night. Added to this is Jay's regular Friday swimming lesson (he goes with his class to a special needs swim lesson).

And... Jay goes on camp NEXT week (also for two nights) but is going alone for the first time (staff at the school are going and are brilliant). So there's planning for that.

And... also had Jay's NEP (negotiated education plan) meeting today - he's doing really, really well (for those not aware, an NEP is like a step up from a parent-teacher interview and is geared toward keeping everyone on the same page regarding the unique approach to teaching each special needs kid can bring) Jay's average to above-average when compared to other kids (in the general school population) with most of the 'needs' part of his 'special needs' relating to social issues rather than academic ones. The teachers and aides continue to rave about what a fantastic student he is which makes us ridiculously happy. They're also gearing him up for inclusion this year in the standardised national literacy and numeracy testing for his year level (grade 5). This testing was introduced a few years ago in Australia (to be done at year levels 3, 5 and 7) and Boof did it last year (grade 3 for him then) so we know what to expect, but still, it's a unique experience and also essentially an 'exam', so we have lots to talk to Jay about regarding it. Jay was exempt from his Year 3 testing due to his disability but everyone thinks he'll do fantastically this year so it will be really interesting to see where Jay lies on the scale. Numbers, he knows back to front and sideways. Literacy is also really good but he could have issues with misunderstanding the question (numbers are like a language to him, with finite answers - written language not so much, although he's well above average in the 'finite' aspects of it, like spelling). All in all though, we're incredibly proud of Jay.

And... speaking of Jay, we're looking to the immediate future and how to broach the subject of his disability to him. Until this point, we have not spoken directly to him about autism. There are a whole raft of reasons why, which I won't go into now, but suffice it to say that all three kids are getting older and offhand comments have shown up here and there which indicate that it's 'time' to begin explaining it to him. So that we have answers (in 'his' way of understanding them) on hand, we're paying a visit to the Autism Association in my state early next week to snaffle some of their library books and his class teacher is running us up a little binder with explanations of various things in age (and disability) appropriate terms.

And... this all signifies a fairly huge turning point for us. Puberty is right around the corner, which scares us horrendously I should point out, and the older Jay gets, the more necessary it will become to explain certain behaviours he has to him and to the younger two. We don't feel right doing that before we've spoken to Jay about it all, so here we are. I'm petrified. He'll either be very 'meh' about it, or he'll be insanely curious and totally confused. There's no middle ground with Jay, which is why its even more important that we do this initial 'you have autism' conversation in the right way, with the right resources to hand. For the most part we're pretty instinctual parents, but for this, if we make a mistake, it could come back to bite us in the rear.

AND ALSO... I'm like the world's worst guest blogger. I'm doing Kitchen of the Week over at Happy To Be At Home and with everything that has been going on, I've not had much of a chance to write up my days and send them in to the wonderful Toni. They're coming! But it will probably be a case of Days 2, 3 and 4 all in the one post, LOL. It's a bit hard to concentrate on max ibuprofen. Writing this post is the longest I've sat down since Sunday.

And approximately twice as long as I've slept since then also.