HAPPY NIU YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dear relatives and friends,

Here's wishing you all a happy and Ox-picious Niu Year.

Leen leen kou sing.

And for the children: Fai kou cheong tai.

Couldn't wait for midnight last night, so slept early, after a very full reunion dinner. Angie and Sam came over for dinner too. Yes, we get to Loh Hei in Australia too and it's in the middle of the table. See? The kids had a full day yesterday so they slept soundly last night. Bryan was the first one to wake up, at 7am. Boy oh boy, I was too tired to get up... slept on for another hour but woke up with a headache. Made tong yuen for the family... what a sweet way to start the new year. The kids had fun making the tong yuens. Bryan calls them "dinosaur eggs". He didn't eat them, of course. After a bit, Caitlyn decided it was too "stretchy" for her to enjoy.

In line with tradition, we all decked out in red today. Even Mother's PJs are red! Bryan is all in red too... including his jocks.. he got bitten by mosquitoes while they were out playing with bubbles... so it's double redness for him.

My 3rd Cheque

After 1 long years' wait, I finally earned my USD52 cheque. I earned it from one of those online survey taking websites. Not bad for doing a few clicks for my opinions, a few times a month. This year's pretty packed. Will try to do up a daily schedule for the kids... if time permits, I'll start blogging for money for real... if not, then have to postpone it to the next year. Ouch!

Bertungkus-Lumus

++Deep concentration++

Don't let him fool you... this is just a freeze frame showing him calmly at the table, quietly going about his tasks.. All these while I have been stopping him from using the scissors so much so he hasn't developed that fine motor skill yet. Now that he needs to learn to write and cut stuff, I have to start letting him use the scissors at home. He holds his pencil as though he's writing chinese calligraphy. It's going to be a looooong process which I believe will improve with time.

Bryan's ABA therapist and Case Managercame by today for his first session and he responded well to her. Well, she IS young and pretty, for one.... She will be scheduling another therapist to come to the house for another 2x2hrs per week! I'm so happy... So for this year, he'll get 2x full day ABA (13hrs) in school and further 6hrs at home per week which comes to a total of 19hrs. Ideally it should be about 40hrs per week but hey who's complaining! Other than that, he still gets his 1hr speech therapy once a fortnight, weekly Occupational Therapy and I'm looking for Social skills sort of therapy for him as well... Well, he only has this year to get free services. So I'm just going to pack him!

All God's Creatures Big and Small..... and Colourful....

Zoo In The 'Burbs

Bryan getting ready to mind a chick

All set!
Since Boxing Day's zoo outing was such a disaster, the mini zoo came to us instead. The Forrest Lakes Shopping Centre in Thornlie has the most amazing exhibitions. Once a year they have the snakes and reptile show (you'll be able to read it from my previous blog) and now, a mini animal farm... I didn't know it existed... I thought of going out shopping at Coles and thought of taking Bryan with me..... When we arrived there, Lo and behold the smell of animals greeted us.. Man you should have seen the look on his face! He behaved very well during the entire outing.... UNTIL.... it was time to leave the mini petting zoo.. he didn't want to leave, so I had to grip his arm really firmly and took him away to wash up at the toilet. But luckily he regained composure really quickly. Phew!

I'm going to catch yoooooooooooooooou!

He loved feeding the chicks by hand, loved covering the guinea pigs with straw and telling me that "the guinea pigs are hiding!", loved to stroke the lambs' butt and at one point, looked up the calf and wonder what the dangly hairy bit was..... I'm just glad he didn't pull it although he did grab the tail once. Got them eating out of the palms of my hands
He was tickled pink when he saw this..... I guess he didn't remember seeing chickens this colour... I guess I can't fault him if he coloured his chickens pink and blue...

I wonder if they glowed in the dark too.........
After shopping with Bryan, we went home and since it was only 1230, I figured since the mini zoo closed at 2pm, I'd rush Caitlyn there for some fun. So within 30mins, I was out again, in the 40deg heat, battling hot winds... with Caitlyn. She didn't really stay very long but she had a go with feeding the chick, brushed some lambs, stepped on some poo.... For the LAST time, I'm an ALPACA.. not an ASS... now stop poking me THERE!

Things Are Looking Up

Things are beginning to look good.... The ABA teacher from ISADD called today to say that she will start Bryan's home-based ABA next Thursday! She will come by weekly from 1-3pm. That would mean that Bryan will have ABA 2 full days on Mon and Tues and 2 hours on Thurs. For the rest of the days, he attends mainstream at the same school. I am so happy that he has the support he needs over here. Honestly, I don't think he'd be able to get the same free support if we were back in Singapore...