January

Images

"A good omen" 1/ 365

Red Tailed Black Tailed Cockatoos are my favourite birds. They have a distinct call and I smile each time I hear it. A good start to 2022

"Shady day" 2/365

I try to get up early to walk Penny, but the sun often beats us. I do laps of the streets with shade so we don't overheat.

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"Portrait of a mother and fur child" 3/365

Penny has not heard of personal space. We are all covered in "dog confetti" and wouldn't have it any other way.

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"Morning Serenade" (movie still) 4/365

White cockatoos in the morning.

"Backflip" (movie still) 5/365

“Backflip” Short animation with sound. It is sometimes hard for me to articulate just how much my son ( with ASD and ADHD) impresses me each day. He has just started doing backflips in the pool. They do not look at all like this, they are rather ungainly and would not score well at the Olympics.This animation is my attempt to show you how the backflips make him feel. Self assured and confident and strong. This animation also represents my heart, which leaps and soars with pride at every one of his successes.

"Double handstand" 6/365

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"Washed away" (movie still) 7/365

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"Short of wrapping him in cotton wool" 8/365

“Short of wrapping him in cotton wool”. As Omicron numbers grow we are desperately hopeful that we can keep it away from my son until he has his vaccinations when the 5-11 year old roll out begins next week. Pictured is my husband protecting us all as much as possible by limiting our exposure to the community -Working hard and then doing all of our shopping. I am in a COVID bubble with my daughter and son. She and I are vaccinated and literally bending over backwards to protect Alby who I drew red because he is in danger. As a result of his extreme prematurely his lungs are not good. When he gets sick, he gets really sick, but short of wrapping him in cotton wool we are doing all that we can.

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"Window lizards with confiscated Nerf Gun on top of fridge" 9/365

Having a chirping colony of geckos on the kitchen windows even makes the washing up enjoyable.

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"Did anyone else read that amazing article about eels"?_(movie still) 10/365

"The Negotiation" 11/365

Just because vaccinations (as of yesterday), have become available for my sons age group, it doesn’t mean that I can breath a sigh of relief and just book him in for one. Having a needle phobic, Autistic son, means that negotiations and preparations have been going on for some time. As a result of his prematurely, his lung function is quite poor, especially when he gets ill, so vaccination is a priority.
Here is what we did to prepare;
1. We have spoken at length about why he needs to be vaccinated. 2. He went to the vaccination hub when his sister got vaccinated and is now familiar with the venue so knows what to expect. 3. I opened the negotiations for a reward. He is all about rewards. Physical rewards have always been a great motivator for him.
We came to an agreement, 5 Packs of Pokémon cards PER vaccination.
Since agreeing to the terms a few weeks back, Alby has started to waiver on whether he wants the cards at all, and has suggested that he might just not get vaccinated.
This morning I sweetened the pot and offered a 5 minute swearing amnesty on the way home from the vaccination. You should have seen his face light up! Now he can’t wait to get vaccinated!

"First Dose" 12/365

For those of you following along, Alby’s first vaccination went well. I feel like all of the preparation we did helped so much. We had one slight hiccup when he accidentally looked up at the wrong time and saw the “giant needle”( his words) about to go into his arm. His eyes became super animated and he murmured “oh god”. The nurse was on her game though and vaccinated him before he had time to process it. He said it really hurt but was over really fast and was waaay better than a blood test ( multiple blood tests are the cause of his needle phobia). He was given an ice pole by another nurse and quietly sat and read his book for the allotted 15 minutes post vaccination.
For those of you wondering about the 5 minute swearing amnesty, he said the F word loudly once in the car but that was all. Apparently the allure of swearing was worn away by the permission.

"An afternoon walk" day 13/365

Life is such a joy when you walk at the perfect time of late afternoon (between having to wear a sun hat and dodging clouds of mosquitoes) and the light is magical.

"Dog" (movie still) 14/365

I Love the way digital drawing allows experimentation. I am very precious with my paper and art materials, so digital art gives me a freedom that I adore.

"Australian Summer" 15/365

Sometimes the hot can be overwhelming.

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"A delayed return to school" 16/365

The Omicron delay to the return to school is seen as a boon in my house, anyone else?

"Ugh" 17/365

A hot and humid day saw us all entombed in the house to escape the sun. It is still miserably hot tonight. Hot nights are the worst.

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"Turning off the night light" 18/365

My son somehow seems to be able to sense when I go into his room to turn off his nightlight. Sometimes in his sleep he shocks me by sitting bolt upright and looking at me with unseeing eyes.Just the chance that it might happen terrifies me. So I usually awkwardly bend around the door frame to turn it off instead.

"Still water" 19/365

It’s very quiet here in our self imposed isolation. Today we made the decision to keep our children out of school until Alby has had his 2nd vaccination and it has had time to reach its highest level of protection. It’s going to be tough to home school for a few weeks, but necessary to keep him as safe as we can.

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"Still running from that sun" 20/365

"A quick wet walk" 21/365

Not even the rain could put Penny off when she started dancing around eager for a walk last night.

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“Alby dug a hole” Day 22 of my 365 daily drawing project. In fact he dug many holes as he got us all to watch. He took a small garden spade with him to the beach last night and had a great time digging.

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My nearly teen likes to sit in the dark. I remember enjoying the same. I have taken to doing the Mum thing of opening the curtains and windows. Full circle.

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“Handstand, one handed handstand, one handed split leg hand stand,two finger stand, headstand,repeat”.Drawing 24 of 365 day drawing project. Anxiously waiting to see if the mother and son synchronised handstand competition is going to be added to the next Olympic program. We will be ready.

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“Sometimes you lose yourself” Day 25 of my 365 drawing project. Balancing parenting, creating and cleaning is a lifetime challenge.

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