Thursday - first visit to Autism SA

Some remarkable things happened today. Yesterday, I had decided to give up my little bit of free time in the day when Angus slept to give my full attention to Tasmin. I usually expect her to have quiet play time on her own so I can get on with things, but this has never been successful. She's a child who never stops talking while she's awake, LITERALLY, and cannot play or do anything independently without adult prompting. So I let her paint, the first time in ages. She did the usual things, like paint on herself and get paint all over the kitchen floor but at least she was happily occupied for a while. I gave her an early bath and dressed her with her undies and pj's.

So on Thursday morning I was AMAZED to discover that (a) Ian had forgotten to put her nappy on at bedtime, and (b) she was totally dry. At the age of three years and eight months, she had her first dry night.

The other thing was that on Tuesday night I decided I would TRY to stop yelling at her. I didn't used to yell like this, but this year I've become a yelling mum, not at Angus, but at Tasmin who tests every minute of the morning before she leaves for the day. So I stopped. And while we were close to being half an hour late, because that's how long it takes to get an uncooperative Tasmin ready in the morning, things were more harmonious at home and I felt better about it.

Angus and I had a little trip to Autism SA and it took about three quarters of an hour to convince them to let us be borrowers from the library (even though I had called to check this the previous day). It's been four weeks to the day since our diagnosis and we are still waiting for our Autism Advisor to meet with us. Considering this is only a small organisation, and that more than 700 people are diagnosed with autism every year in South Australia, perhaps it's not surprising.

So we returned with four books and a DVD for Angus.