October 2011 Updates: Hahgoot’s updates Part 1 Time to explore some new hair styles!

To help keep Hahgoot positive about hair care, we borrowed this great book of hair styling for girls from Mika, and I even made up my own version (bottom right)

Hahgoot has greatly improved with her scooter skills and now both girls ride their scooters to school in the morning.

Hahgoot’s drawing for the school cookbook has won the honour of appearing on the book’s back cover, so she was invited to receive a special prize in assembly before the whole school: a bag with an apron and snacks! In a K-2 assembly she received another assembly award (below).

Hahgoot greatly enjoyed two lovely concerts, “Sounds Baroque” and “Musica Viva”, at school (these are photos of the show, taken at another school).

A big event this term was the annual Walk-a-thon fundraiser, where kids collected money from sponsors to support their efforts of walking 10 laps around the school grounds. Alma was very happy to sit with the big kids for lunch before the event started. Kwan, Bj’s mum and our neighbour on the right

Grace was especially caring and took over the role of babysitting Alma enthusiastically

The day was very hot and luckily 90% of the route around the school was covered. Hahgoot started off the journey enthusiastic... Grace Lily Hahgoot

After one lap her smart teacher, Mrs Di Donato, quickly paired her up with Deena, and walking hand-in- hand was a tremendous help in getting Hahgoot to finish all 10 laps, and in a good mood! The girls are showing off the cards they got ticked each time they completed a lap.

Lily, dressed in NZ All Blacks T-shirt, also paired up with a friend to survive through the heat

Alma had a great time: cheered from the sidelines, played on the equipment, sorted bowls, socialised with big and small friends (bottom right, with Emma, Deena’s older sister)

After the big effort the kids were treated to icy poles and a sausage sizzle pack while cooling off in the shade. Hahgoot seemed fine, though all her friends looked exhausted. I was a bit worried... Knowing my kid, she wasn’t registering the experience as it was happening and was about to explode at a later time... Trudy, Lily and Alma Hahgoot and Grace

I came back at the end of the day to pick Hahgoot up and she still seemed fine, even quite energetic and happy to run part of the way home, while her friends all looked wiped out tired. Now I was even more worried. At home I tried to calm her down with ice cream and her weighted vest before dinner, and had her do quiet activities like reading and drawing on the computer before bedtime. When she actually needed to fall asleep she went into major meltdown and I spent about 3 hours trying to calm her down with lots of physical activities from our OT sessions. At last, I made a nest from the off cuts sack and she fell asleep exhausted in it very late at night.

In the morning Hahgoot was exceptionally hard to wake up. I got a migraine from the previous day’s heat and the very stressful week which included no sleep at night, so found it even harder than usual to handle her. We ended up skipping the usual Friday morning play date at Grace’s house, cancelled the trip to Gymbaroo and walked to school late. My lovely neighbour Trudy saw me on the way to school, took one look at me and put Hahgoot in her car to take to school. I spent the rest of the day resting in the shaded house while Alma slept until the migraine subsided and the nausea passed. Grace was very offended that Hahgoot stood her up on their play date so I asked Hahgoot to write her a letter of apology. Hahgoot needs to understand her behaviour has an effect on other people, even if she doesn’t mean to hurt them. She lives in her own bubble, so it is important she realizes there are also people outside it, with feelings as well.

Left: Hahgoot got a cute sticker that smelt like bubble gum when scratched! Right: I managed at last to convince the music coordinator at the school to stop the lessons. Here is Hahgoot’s nice teacher, Jessica.

Hahgoot’s diet is very tricky and shifts around with her sensitivities. This is a typical pair of boxes she gets for school, Morning tea on the right, lunch on the left. The contents change each day as she needs a lot of variety. The food has to be in compartments as she won’t eat it if it touches or gets mashed. I have to pay attention to texture, colour and presentation when I make the boxes. And yes, I have special cutters to make veggies appealing like these heart shaped cucumbers... In our next presentation: Hahgoot’s Updates, Part 2