As October ends

Final suit fitting...2 of my gorgeous young men :)

The days leading up to Simon & Beth's wedding have been quite busy, more so for the bride and groom admittedly :). So tomorrow is the big day.
There has been final suit fitting, hair cuts, nails and facials and last minute shopping and fun and laughter and stress


Bouncing and bubbles

and Surprises
ohhh...its Adam!!! What's going on? Liam arrives home from school to find a reception committee waiting for him.




Naomi & Adam have
arrived from Sydney...Liam was very surprised when he arrived home from school to see them standing there. Liam adores his brothers. He jumped happily on the trampoline with Adam and was his little shadow the following day...he even tried to follow him into the bathroom and stuck his hand under the door...as soon as Adam was out he was then again. It was really cute. I'm not sure Liam's brothers realise how special his response to them is...

Walking the dogs


















Hens high tea...followed by dancing and dinner for young hens :)....sorry I have no bucks photos!!

Hens






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Beth and her Mum, Glenda

and wedding rehearsals...I predict tears on the day :)



The men:
Simon, Damian & Adam






They are going to be such a gorgeous and emotional couple :). Adam & Naomi are also in the bridal party, which is rather lovely.
Tonight, perhaps for the last time, we will have all our 3 sons sleeping here and tomorrow will be another new beginning...and the beat goes on...








Even in the rain and mist the Dandenongs are beautiful


Needless to say, tomorrow will be awesome!!!


Hugs, Sharon

Debonaire

Its hard to believe that Simon and Beth's wedding is just one week away...Liam has had his first suit fitting and it went extraordinarily well. This is the thing with autism, it can look quite invisible, but you never know how he will react. The autism is really only slightly noticeable in one of these photos...and only if you know what to look for.
I did know it would be better not to go late in the day and I think he rather liked being picked up early from school.

He coped very well, not minding being handled by a strange woman he had just met and even looked like he was enjoying himself. She didn't mind that he had a little run around the store or even that he joined the window display and watched the cars go rushing down Mitcham Road.
I believe the lack of stress and her acceptance helped him enormously. If we had tried to contain him too much, the story may have been quite different.

And just what is it about a suit that can make a boy or young man look soooo adorably cute.



Ahhh you've gotta love the way your sons scrub up.

Hugs, Sharon

Treefall

The tree facing the road (left), those bushes behind the tree are on the other side of the road; and towards the house(below)

The Friday before last we heard a crashing sound...Kris even wondered if there had been a car accident on the road behind our house. The weather had been very chilly due to an Antarctic blast from the south and we had been swept by wind and rain.


This huge (dead) tree had crashed through our back fence and hit the edge of another tree...the dogs were unhurt 'huge relief" and I was able to move them closer to the house before they thought of getting out through the gap.

The tree through our back garden






Where the top of the tree crashed into our tree, which is almost 2/3rds to our house.


As Liam is allergic to dog saliva we fortunately have this area, though the dogs felt a bit uncomfortable being there. Of course Khya loves to dig, so overnight she had flattened the new shrubs and dug 3 holes...Kris was quite distressed. With the searing summers and lack of rain, it was the first time in years this area had looked so verdant...oh well it'll recover I guess. This is what I saw when I went out the back.

The filled gap in the fence

The next day the council sent men out to cut the tree off our fence...as you can see the hole is now filled with non-ascetically pleasing corrugated iron (but at least the dogs cannot get out). I had had to add to the short barrier the councilmen had put up as there was NO way it was going to keep a German Shepherd in.


Chopped wood

Removing the tree from the fence (below)

We still don't know what is going to happen with the fence...afterall it was not our tree that damaged it, and I worry about the longevity of the gap-filler and the strength of the surrounding edges of the fence.

Still we were very very lucky :)

Hugs, Sharon

Sydney (photo heavy)

Well its been an interesting couple of weeks.
After a bad start to the school holidays, Liam was fit and raring to go. He loved the holiday programme and I got a couple of hours to do things Liam isn't so keen on...not that I got those new bathers...I seem to be oddly distorted in the mirror and exposed shall we say less than flattering fleshy bits. So I wore the old one and tried to keep the water level near my neck...as a girl in one shop said it won't matter once you are in the water...she should try having my shape :)
As the holidays ended we extended them with a trip to Sydney to spend some time with Adam and his gorgeous wife. We went by car of course...Liam and the car cope very well, Kris loves to be in control. We only had one incident with Liam...one simply cannot expect one to fulfill his part of the bargain (who knew) and expect to leave without chips...as I slid him across the shiny tiled floor to the door where I attracted DH's help. One look at Liam's thunderous face and you guessed it we had late afternoon tea. We got shafted by the tollway as they as we went throught the exact chane isle...and you cannot argue with a machine that you are not a truck but a car...were we really that heavy LOL
Adam was sooo excited when we arrive he locked us all out of their unit with dinner in the oven (and Naomi was at a hen's do in town) LOL.
While in Sydney we took Liam bowling...he loves the bowling on the wii so is fascinated with it in real life for a game and a half...then I think the noise and lights become unbearable and its time to go home. We had fun and Liam even got a strike.


At their local park...he loved the swing and even went on the slide. Naomi and Adam also enjoyed themselves :)














We also went on a walking track that leads from the park through a mangrove area to an inlet.













During a "short cut" (it turned out it wasn't LOL) we saw this odd formation of vegetation, went under the freeway, along walkways...we were gone for a few hours. Liam coped marvelously...we only had a few collapsures (not unjustifiably considering how I had brought no drink or snacks with us and it was a long walk...I thought we were just going to the park for a bit. I suspect we had far less complaints than with a tired , thirsty neuro-typical child.
We went back to play in the park on the following week-end with friends of Adam & Naomi's...they have a gorgeous 18mth old daughter...she's like a little doll. Liam did notice her and seemed quite curious and gently stroked her cheek. She was also curious about Liam. Interestingly both children exhibited some jealously when Adam was paying attention to the other one...he was very fair and was rather pleased that Liam cared :)
We also went to the Aquarium at Darling Harbour...Liam loved the train trip in, loved the penguins and was fascinated by the turtles, he hated the volume of people and that Daddy was taking too long...he attempted an escape...towards the light (was the wrong way).... mutinously refused to go in the right direction, so decided to crawl away (harder for Mum to pick up), then collapsed on the ground. He eventually gave up and we hid in the toilet for a while (Kris was blissfully unaware and taking photos at the time) and then we came out through the cafe.......and I guess you can guess what happened next :)



Kris also got a lovely kiss from a happy son :)






After a little wander around, we headed home via a bridge that led straight into Price Waterhouse. One tired little man slept very well that night.










The next day we did absolutely nothing and took him to the pool the following day. Liam loves water. It was very very busy. Kris , however decided to go for a couple of fast laps, despite his rather sore shoulder and boy did he suffer the consequences (a lot of pain due to a partial dislocation of his left shoulder) ...in fact he still cannot use that arm properly and its driving him crazy...after having just recovered from injuring his knee, he said he's feeling somewhat aged.




Our final trip was to the Hunter Valley...Liam hates the strong alcohol smell, but loved having a bit of a run outside...and he does love going for a drive..
It was wonderful to catch up with Adam and Naomi...I absolutely loved cooking dinner with Adam one night. I had forgotten how nice it was to cook with someone else :)

When we got home, Liam was sooo excited he raced around the front garden (several times). He loves to visit Adam & Naomi in Sydney, but he also loves to come home again...but then again don't we all :)

At think thats enough for this post.

Lots of hugs, Sharon