What to do with a jumper with a broken zip?

I bought this jumper at an op shop recently but after a couple of wears, the zipper broke.  Apart from the zip though, the rest of the jumper is in good condition and I didn't want to just throw it out.  My solution: upcycle it into some pants for Gideon!  Remember these pants I made last year?  Well, that's the basic format I used to make these ones. 

Front of the pants

They're really quite simple to make, no hems or side seams to sew! I simply cut out the sleeves of the jumper, cut out the crotch and sew them together.  Then (to give a bit of a roomier butt seeing Gideon is still in nappies) I add a panel in the middle and put in some elastic.  Simple!  A nice quick and easy project for a Saturday. 

Back of the pants with an extra panel added

Who can resist a cute photo of a nappy butt in tight pants? 

The new herb garden!

 

I know it doesn't really look that impressive, does it? I wish we'd taken some before photos but basically this garden was an overgrown mess of rose bushes and weeds. A useless space.  Seeing as we've kind of outgrown the herb garden we created a few years ago, we thought we'd make this space into something usable.  It's actually quite a big area.  So far we've planted parsley, rosemary, oregano, lemon thyme, thyme, coriander and mint seedlings.  Basil will go in once the weather is warmer.  I'm planning to throw some seeds in as well so the herbs will spread across.  And I might even put in some spinach and rocket for winter.  I think it will be easier to maintain here as well.  Because it's right next to driveway I will be able to weed it on my way inside.  Now to work out some way of keeping our free-ranging chooks from digging in it! 

Of course the kids always love to help outside! 

Busy sweeping the dirt away...

I'm looking forward to tackling some more of the garden.  We are planning on turning the slope you can see next to the herbs into a tiered vegie garden (although that will require a lot of work and a lot of digging out rocks - sorry Chris!) 

Jacob is seven!

Every year, without fail, I marvel at how quickly a year goes by.  Maybe it's just because Jacob is the eldest that each time he has a birthday he seems to be getting so much older.  We are learning with him and he's taken us on an amazing journey as parents!

It's been such a huge year for him.  Starting with his Autism diagnosis in June last year.  Since then we've started him on a GF/CF diet, biomed treatments and speech therapy.  He's been doing so well on these treatments and we've seen some huge progress.  He also started at a different campus for primary school with a new teacher and that has done wonders for him.  He really is at the perfect school.

He constantly delights us, frustrates us and makes us laugh.  The way he looks at life is unique and always amazes us (and reminds us to pay more attention to the smaller things in life).  Socially he has changed a lot this past year.  He loves to talk to and play with all his school friends. 

Jacob with the cupcakes he decorated on his actual birthday

Opening presents - his new block crayons were the most exciting present I think.  He loves to draw and create. 

Jungle cake for the party with school friends - you may recognise it as the same cake from Esme's birthday a couple of years ago ;) 

Happy Birthday to our beautiful boy - thanks for letting us share this amazing whirlwind of a journey with you!

When your child doesn't understand emotions

I felt compelled to write this post after the turn of events that happened in our household last Friday.  While most people have been incredibly supportive and generous in their offers to help in the aftermath, there have been others who just can't understand that 'punishing' Jacob for what he did will not work.  Sure we can, and do, model the correct behaviour and talk to him about how he can respond more appropriately to his emotions next time but the thing about people who have Autism is that they often do not understand emotions or else they display what society would call 'inappropriate' emotion when faced with a challenging situation.

Perhaps I should rewind a bit and explain what actually happened!  Last Friday was a curriculum day and I'd planned to do something special.  We were going to visit Daddy at work.  Jacob was doing his usual thing of completely ignoring me when I reminded him a million times to get ready.  Cue: screaming when the rest of us walked out the door when he wasn't ready.  He got himself dressed eventually and came out to the car but then wouldn't get in the car.  I started the car like I usually do to show him that I was serious about going and then jumped out to coerce him into his car seat.  Unfortunately this time, I had put the car in reverse and left the hand brake off (so flustered was I about Jacob!) so the car started rolling backwards.  I realised straight away but by then the car door, which was open, had hit the pole under the carport and I could hear the screech of the hinges being pulled apart.  I managed to get back in the car and put the hand brake on but by then the door was wrecked and couldn't be shut.

Needless to say, I was so angry at Jacob.  Yeah, I know.  It wasn't entirely his fault but all his mucking around had caused me to not be able to concentrate properly.  And so silly things happened.  I tried to shut the door but couldn't.  Meanwhile Esme is crying because she's upset about what's happened and Jacob is sitting there smiling and saying, 'The door can be fixed.  It really can be fixed'.  It.is.so.hard to stand there and keep your cool with your child when they are smiling and not remorseful at all about their actions.  And I'm sorry to say, I did not keep my cool.  There was a lot of shouting involved.  I got told by Jacob that 'we can still go Mummy.  We can go on the train instead'.  It wasn't until Jacob realised that, as a consequence of what had happened we would NOT be going to Daddy's work that the meltdown happened.  Jacob's meltdowns are full on.  Tears. Screaming. Hitting.  Kicking.  Pinching.  The best thing to do with him when having a meltdown is make sure he is in a safe place away from others as he is likely to really hurt someone and then ignore him until he calms down.  I thought he was in a safe place this time.  But then I heard a crash and turn around to see that he has put his foot through a glass window (luckily I guess that he was still wearing his gumboot). 

I couldn't believe it.  Not only has the car door been wrecked.  Now the window too.  I didn't even have any words to express my anger at this!  And yet again.  No reaction from Jacob.  There was no guilty shock from him that you would expect from other kids.  No 'I'm so sorry I did this'.  Just nothing.  I think he may have even said he did it because I wasn't taking him to see Daddy.  And his resentment at not being able to see Daddy at work continued despite him having broken the window.

I think Jacob did calm down about half an hour after this happened.  Then he was completely back to normal and happy again like what normally happens after a huge meltdown.  Luckily the car door was fixed the following Monday.  It only took a couple of hours and was a lot cheaper than what we'd thought it would be.  The glass, however, cost us $360 to be replaced.  Kind of an expensive day.

Both Chris and I were really angry at Jacob.  We talked about things we could do to make him realise the consequences of his actions.  Taking money out of his moneybox to pay for some of the window.  Restricting some of his activities.  That type of thing.  But after a lot of discussion after the event (when we were both much calmer!) we realised that was just pointless.  He wouldn't understand why he was being punished.  He was angry.  So he responded in the only way he knew how.  By showing that in a physical way.  What we need to do is teach him alternative way of coping with an emotional overload.  It's not a quick fix solution but something that we will work towards together. 

I really think that the hardest thing about raising a child with autism is the emotional side.  It's so hard not to feel frustrated that your child is not responding in a socially appropriate way to particular emotions.  It's hard not to feel frustrated that your child doesn't feel remorse for doing something wrong.  It's hard not to hear your child say 'sorry' for something they've done.  Often just the simple act of 'I'm sorry Mummy' or seeing your child realise that they've done something wrong can make you feel less angry with them.  But we don't get that with Jacob.  We just need to understand that he is wired differently to others. And that's ok too.  I hope this post has helped those people in our life understand him a little better. 

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, no refined sugar*

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate*

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, salt and baking soda.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the grapeseed oil, agave nectar, and vanilla extract.
Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined.  Fold in the chocolate, then place the dough in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Spoon a heaped tablespoon onto the tray and press down firmly with your hand to flatten.
Cook for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden.  Leave to cool before serving.

*These biscuits will be sugar-free if using vegan chocolate like the Loving Earth brand or my hubby's own raw chocolate.  

This recipe is from Elana's Amsterdam's 'Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook'.  Check out her blog too - there's lots of other recipes suitable for those with allergies. 

Gingerbread

Dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, no refined sugar

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 large egg

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda, and cloves.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the grapeseed oil, agave nectar, vanilla extract, golden syrup and egg.
Stir the wet ingredients into the almond flour mixture until thoroughly combined.  Cover the dough and let chill in the freezer for an hour or so.
Roll out the dough to about half a cm thickness between two sheets of baking paper.  Dust with some almond flour if it is a little sticky.
Remove the top sheet of baking paper and cut out the biscuits using biscuit cutters.  It takes a little practice to work with this dough as it's stickier than gluten containing doughs.  You can try dusting your cutters with almond flour or dipping in hot water between cutting each biscuit to help with this.
Transfer the biscuits onto the trays and cook for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Let cool on the trays for about 30 minutes.

This recipe is originally from Elana's Amsterdam's 'Gluten-Free Almond Flour cookbook'.  However I have made a few changes to the original. 

Busy

It appears I have been a little slack on my blog lately! It hasn't been intentional.  Life seems to be so busy at the moment.  I always knew that this year would be pretty crazy with two children at two different campuses of school but I didn't realise exactly how crazy it would be!  Last term was all about getting the kids settled into new rhythms.  We had lots of half days and early pick ups as they settled in to their new rhythms.  I am hoping that this term is going to be a lot more settled - no more half days and I have organised for a friend to pick Esme up from Kinder on certain days of the week (doing a 2pm then 3pm pickup was doing my head in!)  Fingers crossed anyway! 

We've all been healthy and happy though.  Jacob has been going really well at the moment.  He's still gluten-free and dairy-free with us monitoring his sugar intake very closely (we choose to use natural sweeteners instead of refined sugar in things we cook for him).  It's been a slow process to find recipes that he is happy with.  While he can be quite fussy, we seem to have developed a repertoire of things that he likes to eat now.  We have a gluten-free, dairy free bread that he likes now and he is happy with cashew milk as an alternative to milk (we are going through cashews like crazy at the moment as we use them in a lot of other things as well!)  It's still a fair bit of work to prepare and plan his food ahead of time but the benefits seem completely worth it.  We haven't even attempted to eat out though as I imagine that will be very hard! 

We've just been back to his biomedical practictioner and are on a slightly different regime.  He's now on a different kind of probiotic as well as his regular SB and gut relief.  We've also added a calcium supplement as well.  We are going to start trialling him on tiny amounts of A2 yoghurt soon.  We have tried in the past, but after discussion with his naturopath we decided that we were giving him too much at once.  So this time around, it's teeny tiny amounts and monitor his reaction. 

He's been seeing the Speech Therapist weekly and we are just about to start seeing an OT to help with some of his sensory overload issues.  He also started doing Eurethmy at the end of last term with his old Kinder teacher.  He still talks about himself in the third person, so we are hoping that both the Speech Therapy and Eurethmy will help bring that awareness into himself. 

Esme is loving Kinder at the moment.  She is in a lovely group and it's great to see them all play together so well (it is a big group of mainly girls in her Kinder this year!)  She has made some very special friendships in the group, ones that will continue throughout her school years.  It's so interesting seeing her socialise and play with the other children as we never really saw that with Jacob. 

Gideon is growing up so quickly.  In just over 2 months he will be two!  I'm not quite sure where that time went.  He is still my 'baby' but is quickly becoming his own little person as well.  He got his first pair of shoes on the weekend.  Up until now he's only been in soft leather soled shoes.  He completely refused to put his foot down or walk in his new shoes in the shop.  I just found it so funny - I think he's going to be my little bare-footed hippy forever! 

I think that's all our news caught up for now!  Hopefully I will be able to do some more regular posts this term although the beauty of having my own blog is that I can just do it whenever inspiration hits!