Tonight I was in charge of feeding the girls and putting them to bed while Stephan and Sabine had other obligations. I fed the girls and while I cleared the table and cleaned the dishes Lara read a book on the sofa and Lili played with her mini kitchen. As I tidied up the kitchen I thought about how I LOVE these spring (summer gets even better!) evenings when dinner is over and its still light out side. The world is slowing down but the light still draws people out of their homes, and prompts them to leave the windows and doors open a crack for the evening air. It probably has even more to do with happy memories from my childhood of being able to go out and play at this time in the evening, regardless, I love it.

After taking a moment to enjoy the evening and finishing tidying the kitchen I took the little one upstairs to bed. Lara panicked a moment having finished her book and not knowing what to do next. She settled for a puzzle while I put Lili to bed. Whew! That was a close one. So I changed a diaper, dressed Lili in her jammies, played several games of "This Little Piggy" and tucked her in with a song.

In the meantime Lara was finishing her puzzle downstairs. Realizing how late it was I decided the puzzle would do and we wouldn't play a game before Lara went to bed. We almost always play a game before bed, and Lara is not such a fan of switching up the routine (this is typical Autism). I just missed another meltdown but thankfully found the words to explain my decision to her satisfaction.

Lara and I did the bed time prep, toilet, jammies, teeth brushed, hair brushed and then dramatically tip-toed down the hallway to her room trying not to wake Lili. She climbed into bed and I pulled the covers up over her head. Laughing she pulled them down again but I just threw them over her head again. This might sound silly, such a small game but actually the fact that I was able to play such an insignificant little game with her, and that she would laugh, was pretty significant for me. Usually she doesn't allow me to be silly and only gets upset if I forget this and try to be silly with her. And I didn't realize until now, that I love working with children, because I can be silly and they love it. So for Lara to accept my little game and to enjoy it.....well, it made me pretty happy.

Having properly tucked her in I said good night to Lara. Then she said to me, "Good night my dear friend, Kaija. Sleep well." And all the way out the door she was telling me that I was her dear friend and good night and that she loved me. Of course that would make anyone feel pretty good but its even more special coming from Lara.

With Lara, I know that we are friends and I often get kisses, hugs and smiles from her but I also have to fight so often to try to make her understand what it means to be a friend and what friends say and what is not friendly to say. I don't take it at all personal but having someone (even a child) constantly telling you that you can't do something is really a drag. I don't mean to say that I listen to what she is telling me that I can't do, but she get's so consumed by it that its no longer fun to be around her. After having such a nice evening with her and after hearing the wonderful way that she said good night, I am reminded of how lucky I am to be her friend and to live this year with her and to get to know who she is.

K.

Chapter 5: The best for last

Part 1: Airlie Beach. We arrived late in the evening on the bus and as the story goes, there was no room at the inn. Apparently Airlie Beach it a popular place to be for New Years Eve. In the end of course we managed. And stayed long enough to discover what an interesting little place this was. This tiny little town consisted solely of hostels and hotels, travel agents, and bars/restaurants. With the occasional shop for your sunglasses, hats and of course the abundance of suncream. And it was packed, packed with people.




Part 2: Sailing!!!!!! This is definitely at the top of my favorites list. From Airlie Beach we took a 3days, 2 nights sailing tour of the Whitsunday Islands and the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef. I'm pretty sure I love every minute of it. Okay, maybe not the minutes at night when I was trying and failing to sleep in the beastly Australian heat. But everything else was fabulous!


Absolutely nothing but ocean, us and some far off islands. And I couldn't have been happier. :)


Cruisin'

On our way into the beach to hang out for a bit and do some snorkeling and even some diving!!! Those exclamation marks are more for reflecting my angst than excitement regarding that last activity. I've seen Finding Nemo! I know what's down there! Jens and I also went to the Aquarium in Sydney and I also know that the cute little sharks and rays in the Disney version are not so friendly off the screen. More than that though I just find snorkeling (and diving is way worse) to be disorienting.


This is pre-dive, hangin' out on the cool coral beach. Do I look a little nervous? I was waiting my turn and watching all the others go in and come our raving. Not that any of them could convince me not to be nervous.


By the way, those stinger suits are pretty hot, huh? Yes, I said 'stinger suits'. That's because they are meant to protect us from death by stingers!! It's a dangerous world out there.


Hahaha. Okay, so the diving story is this.....
Our diving instructor, Max, gave us a little lesson here in the shallow water before we went under. We practiced breathing, the hand signs to use when we were underwater etc. Then we started our dive. Or at least the others did. I tried. But then I was feeling so anxious and my heart was racing and then I couldn't get the silly breathing thing down because my breathing was much faster because my heart was racing because I was freaking out!! So...I resurfaced. Max came up to talk to me, told me there were some "cool fishies that wanted to say 'hello'" or something ridiculous like that, that made me feel like I was 5 years old and then we went down together to join the rest of the group.


Now this is more like it. Relaxing in the sun. I'll admit that the diving was cool, I'm glad that I've had that experience. But my heart never stopped pounding the whole time and I was very relieved to be back above the water in the end.


Back on the boat watching the sun go down. Incredible.


I'm so happy to be on a boat!!!














We were on a boat with quite the lot of characters. It was great actually to talk with everyone and hear their stories. We actually had four other Americans on our boat and three from Cananda. An Irishman and a Scotsman(that was fun). A few Danish kids, and don't forget the Germans. So we entertained ourselves with talking. And then of course we were entertained by The Trio. That's what I'll call these guys, the two in the water attempting some kind of flip and the one taking the photo. That's the Irishman, the Scotsman and a guy from Georgia. They've been traveling around Australia together and they were always up to something.


Hangin' out at the beach. What a great life...


Hey!!! I just swam with a family of Turtles!!!


This was a sad day, back to the harbor. Except I was really, really looking forward to getting some sleep.


And sleep I did at this gorgeous resort!! After we returned from out sailing trip we took a ferry out to Hamilton Island to this fancy pants resort for a couple days.


If you don't know the Dahlgren family we don't really do resort vacations, so this was a new experience. There were five pools (overlooking the ocean), one even had on of those bars that you swim up to (not that we could pay for one of their 6 euro drinks if we wanted to), a few different hot tubs, and of course, the beach. There were shops, movie rentals, a gym and of course everything you could need or want out there on the water.


Our resort apartments.




Oh, and everyone on the ISLAND, also the residents, drives around in one of these golf carts.


Yet another pool.






:( Leaving the islands........and soon, Australia.

K.

Chapter 4: Sydney

It was a bit of a grey welcome to Sydney. We tried to make the most of it anyway :)


Sydney Harbour.




Not very spectacular with a grey backdrop, but there's the Opera House!



The obligatory photo of me with the Opera House.


And me with the Harbour Bridge.








This is as high as I climbed on the Harbour Bridge but some crazy people pay money to strap on a harness and climb to the very top of the bridge!!! No thanks.




That's more like it!! This is day 2 in Sydney, on the ferry out to Manly Beach. I wish I could explain just how happy I was to be on a boat on the water. I don't know but it just felt great to get out on the water, even though it was just on the ferry.








Maybe I was a little snap happy because I was on the boat.




Manly Beach.






Coming back into the harbour.








One beach is just not enough!! Here's Bondi.








New Years Eve!! We camped out at the park with all these people waiting for the fireworks show from the bridge there in the background.




There it is......


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

K.