Things that Kayleigh taught me

As we go into a new year I was thinking about the thing that Kayleigh had taught us and things I should keep in mind for the year to come. For the new year i would like to remember Kayleigh by trying the think more like her in many areas:

1. Forgiveness - Kayleigh was very forgiving of many people that did the wrong thing by her. She was always the one to try and make things right between her and the others.
2. Happiness - Kayleigh was a happy person and tried to make sure that other people didn't get her down
3. Being grateful for what you have - Kayleigh was happy with what she had - she may not have had as much as some of her friends but she was fine with it. The few times that she asked for something and we couldn't afford it she never got sad or angry over it, but accepted it and said 'maybe later'.
4. Helping others - Kayleigh had a way in realising when others were down and needed help - even if she didn't know them and she helped them as much as she could - even if it just meant sitting down and listening to them and being a friend.
5. Trying your best - Kayleigh struggled in many of her classes (Maths, English) but she always gave it 100% even if she didn't get it. All I had ever asked of Kayleigh was that she tried her best - she didn't have to be good at it, just try.
6. Looking after yourself - Kayleigh was very into sport and nutrition and looking after your body - after all it is the only one you get.

Please comment on things that Kayleigh has taught you.

Golf

Kayleigh loved playing golf on the mini golf hole Terence made in the backyard at the house we lived in in Banks when Kayleigh was about 18 months old. Kayleigh quickly learnt that you hit the ball with the golf club and the point of the game was to gt the ball in the hole. So Kayleigh would hit the ball, waited until the ball stopped then ran over, picked up the ball and put it in the hole. It was so cute.

Terence made a mini-gold course in our backyard about 18 months ago, with bunkers and three holes. Kayleigh was really good (like all sports) and always beat me a golf. The only problem she had was hitting the ball too hard in our yard and making it hit the back fence behind the retaining wall - which is impossible to get the ball out of.

Getting ready to hit the ball

Putting the ball in the hole (Kayleigh is about 18 months old here)

Kayleighs Christmas

Kayleigh loved christmas and what we called her 'first' christmas was actually her second. Her 'first' christmas she was only 11 days old so we never counted that.

When we put up the christmas tree for the first time the look on Kayleighs face the next morning was priceless - she went out to the lounge room and stopped completely - I think she was wondering where on earth this tree had come from that had grown in the corner of the room. She did get used to it being there and was fascinated by the balls - which we had red, gold and silver ones - so much so that she did try eating several. Terence spent several times pulling small amounts of glass out of her mouth and bits of the colour. For some reason Kayleigh seemed to prefer the balls over the more palatable candy canes that were on the tree.

Kayleighs 'first' christmas was also Natassja's first as Natassja was born a month before. Kayleigh didn't quite get the idea of presents but has fun in the packaging and in the jump-o-lene that we bought for her that year.

Kayleigh at her 'first' christmas

Merry Christmas from Kayleigh

This is a picture Kayleigh drew last year of our Christmas tree. I didn't know we still had it until I found it in the crate we have put all of her things in.

Apologies

Sorry to All you people who read Kayleighs blog - the last week has been difficult for us and I have not found the strength to write about Kayleigh. I promise I should get something up in the next couple of days

Flexibility

Anyone who knew Kayleigh knew how flexible she was. Kayleigh was proud to know that she was uncommonly flexible and she loved showing off to anyone who came over. She would get on the trampoline and call out for the person to watch her and she would do a forward flip with no hands and then a backwards flip with hands. When she started High School last year, Ms Heading was amazed by the result Kayleigh got in the flexibility test. The test involved sitting down with your feet against a box which had a slide on top. The person being tested had to reach forward and push the slide as far as they could without bending their legs. Kayleigh pushed the slide all the way along the box and could have pushed it further it there was more room. Kayleigh could still do a backward arch and touch her feet with her hands. One regret that I have is that we never took Kayleigh to gymnastics as we couldn't afford it when she was younger - I know with her natural sport talent and her natural flexibility she would have been good at it, and she would have loved it.

Christmas Carols

Kayleigh loved christmas and was quite fond of carols. This probably started when she was a baby. Her Nanny had given her a  large white xmas bear for her very first christmas (she was only 11 days old) - one of the ones that when you pressed its hand it would play a christmas carol. When I put Kayleigh in her cot, I would use the bear and sing carols to her until she fell asleep. As she got older, she started to learn the words to the carols and sing them herself. Her favourite ones to sing were probably 'I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus', 'Silent Night' and 'Away in a Manger' and of course Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Kayleigh enjoyed watching the 'Carols in the Domain' last Christmas on TV but was not impressed by the Wiggles (she never did like them) and equally unimpressed by Hi-5 now that the original members had all gone. Kayleigh had a very strong opinion on this - very funny to hear. Best of all, she was trying to teach Kiara the carols she knew - which was amusing as Kiara was only 3 at the time and didn't talk very clearly.

Family: Mum

Writing about the relationship between Kayleigh and myself is hard. Kayleigh was my first born and she was a special child (like all of them). I won't say Kayleigh and I had a perfect mother/daughter relationship because there were times that I got very frsutrated with her and there were times that she just didn't like me at all -- but I think that is like any other mother/daughter relationship out there.


Kayleigh was always there when I needed her to be - she helped with cleaning up and getting the other kids to do things. I suffered from PND - quite badly - and Kayleigh became almost a mini-mum in these times to try and take the pressure off. She managed to get Terry to clean his room and stop the other kids argueing when it was clear I was about to lose the plot. I helped Kayleigh with her homework when she didn't understand (apologies Mr Haidon the Shakespeare assignement was probably about 75% my doing and 25% Kayleigh) especially when she kept putting it off until the last minute because she didn't get it. Almost every night when I was getting them to go to bed, I would lay down with Kayleigh and Kiara (with Natassja on the top bunk) and talk to her about her day, the teachers and the people she spoke to in the day. I teased her about boys and talked in funny voices that sometimes creeped her out. We spoke about the difficulties she had with bullies and discussed strategies in dealing with them. We made up silly songs and sung to Kiara until she was asleep.


The thing that Kayleigh helped me with most was giving me the inspiration to lose weight. We got the WiiFit for xmas last year and every week Kayleigh would give me a hug and tell me I was getting smaller because her arms would go around me more (and never mentioned that she had probably grown in the week!). We would both get on the Wii Fit and verse each other trying to make the other lose by any means necessary - she gave me the motivation to do something about myself. Kayleigh told me she loved me everyday.

Being pregnant with Kayleigh

I was 18 when I fell pregnant with Kayleigh. I had only recently moved in with Terence and started university - but before you say anything, Kayleigh was planned - we wanted her from the start. My originally due date was the 9th of December (my birthday) which was revised to the 16th of December after the 4 week ultrasound. Kayleighs pregnancy was unremarkable. I only had one incident of morning sickness when I had a glass of milk one morning and then threw it up on the way to catch the bus to Uni. In the later half of the pregnancy I was working at Hungry Jacks in Tuggeranong as well as going to Uni. The worst thing about this was the way my feet would swell up by the end of the day and Terence would have to make me a bowl of ice water for me to put my feet in after work.

The day that Kayleigh was born I woke up at about 6am with a funny feeling - then my waters broke. Lucky for us, Terence had though ahead an put plastic under the sheet of my side of the bed - we had bought a new mattress only weeks earlier - so the bed didn't get any fluid on it. We quickly got my things and went to the hospital. I had not yet had any contractions. The midwife saw me an told us to go home and wait until the contractions were 5 minutes apart before we came back. So we went down to Tuggeranong and got some remaining baby things and went home. My dad turned up after midday to see how things were progressing and that's when the contracts started - first only every 20 minutes or so and getting more regular. By about 3pm the contractions were getting into the 'go to hospital' stage so Terence and I made the trek back to the hospital when we were admitted into Room 1 of the Birthing Suite. The birthing suite was lovely - a queen size bed, large bath and single room with lots of space.

Initially I spent time in the waiting area of the birthing unit with my knees on a chair, laying across a table on my elbows. The Midwife said it was a good position to allow the bay to adjust its position better. Eventually we went back into the room and put some music on - The soundtrack to 'Braveheart'. The contractions were started to get quite painful and I requested the Nitrous Oxide for pain relief. The midwife brought it in and gave me the breathing mask - funny enough though they are supposed to start the gas level at around 5% and then up it as they go. The midwife forgot to change from the last patient so I took a deep inhale and got all warm and fuzzy in the head and slumped almost asleep on the floor. The midwife then noticed that she had left it on 40% - not that I was complaining!!!!

Eventually, the midwifes though a warm bath would help the pain and I got into the lovely huge bath tub, nitrous oxide and all. The contractions were quite painful by this stage. . The NO2 was making me sleepy as well and Terence had trouble holding me up in the bath. The mid wives kept telling me not to push to let it come naturally and I told then I couldn't help it. They told me then to get out of the bath as second stage had kicked in.

I got out and they had me standing up holding onto a rail. They placed a mirror on the floor so I could see what was happening. I saw Kayleigh's head crowning and gave a really big push - and her head was born. The midwives all shouted to stop pushing (so they could check that the cord wasn't around her neck) and then the next contraction she was out! Terence cut the umbilical cord and the midwives cleaned her up and  she sneezed - the cutest little baby sneeze EVER! She never even cried. They weighed her and measured her and she was perfect. Kayleigh was born at 23:23 on the 14th of December after an 11 hour labour.

Birthday Parties

We were never much one for birthday parties with the kids - the thought of all those other kids running around the house was a little too much for us - mostly it was just family doing the birthday cake thing. Kayleigh did have two birthday parties to celebrate the two main milestone she got to -her 10th birthday and her 13th.

Kayleigh tenth birthday we had about 12 girls turn up at our house one Saturday for two hours. They did the whole 'find the lollipops in the backyard' which was fun - we found lollipops in the yard for WEEKS after that they missed. They did pass-the-parcel and complained that there wasn't prize in every single layer. One lovely little girl told Kayleigh that I obviously didn't know how to run a birthday party because everyone was supposed to get a prize and I was doing it all wrong. Then the girls found the fishpond in the backyard - I think they all ended up in it. One girl even stripped down to her underwear and ran around the backyard. The best part was when the girls ripped down all the decorations and popped all the balloons at once. Kayleigh had a great time.

For Kayleighs 13th birthday she had a BBQ and movie night - she invited 5 people but only 2 could come - they both turned up and informed us that thy had already eaten because they were vegetarian!! So much for the BBQ. They watched two movies - Ice Age 3 and something else I can't remember and Kayleigh was really happy.

Freckles

Kayleigh always had freckles (well except when she was a new born) and she had a large freckle on her nose which she was sometime a little self concious off. Kayleigh was a outdoors child and that is probably why she had so many freckles, but they were starting to fade a little as they do when you get older. I always though she looked beautiful and her freckles were always part of her and her personality.

From Nastaha Bedingfield (one of Kayleighs favourite singers) and her song 'Freckles':

'cause a face without freckles is like a sky without stars
Why waste a second not loving who you are
Those little imperfections make you beautiful, lovable, valuable,
They show your personality inside your heart
Reflecting who you are

Some of Kayleighs' work

Shown is some of Kayleigh work ad ommens from her Year 6 portfolio - I finally dug it out today. You can see some of her work and what she thought about it.

School: Year 7 Technology - Wood and Metal

Kayleigh stopped doing Band and picked up Design Technology: Wood & Metal in second semester with Mr Barkley. This class was Kayleighs favourite and all the help she gave her dad over the years really helped.

For the wood component of the class, Kayleigh made a pencil box - and even her dad was impressed by the finished product - the corners were flush and the finish was impeccable. For the metal component she made a pen holder which she gave to her granddad. For the plastics component Kayleigh made a mobile phone holder with a picture of Tweety bird in plastic on it - it was quite cute and she used it to hold her mobile while it was charging.

Kayleigh chose to do wood and metal work in Year 8 because she loved it. For year 7 she got an 'A' and her report from Mr Barkley read ' Kayleigh demonstrated outstanding achievement of the knowledge , skills and understandings expected. Her conscientious application to all aspects of this subject is reflected in excellent results. Kayleigh is an enthusiastic and confident student who has demonstrated a high level of understanding this semester.'

School: Year 7 Indonesian

Kayleigh had Indonesian for second semester year 7 with Ms White. Kayleigh did not really like Indonesian - she found it a little boring and she didn't see the point. But, as usual, she gave it all she had. Her assignment was to create a childrens book which she did on Fruit 'mana mana' which is displayed in the library to this day.

Kayleigh may not have liked Indonesian, but as she did try, she did well and got an 'A' and the Academic achievement award for Year 7 Indonesian that semester.

School: Year 7 Dance and PE

Kayleigh had Ms Heading for Dance and PE in Year 7. Kayleigh chose to do dance in the first semester of year 7 even though she had no experience with dance or anything like it. She was in a class with some of the girls that were nasty to her in year 6 and it made her self conscious about what she was doing. Kayleigh had co-ordination but lacked rhythm. Ms Heading mentioned that Kayleigh was the most flexible girl she had in dance but Kayleigh found it difficult to 'get' some of the moves - she particularly had trouble with 'popping'. One of her friends told us that she had been trying to show Kayleigh how to do the move properly and ended up doing it the way Kayleigh was instead - which they both found really funny. The only part of dance Kayleigh didn't like was the assignment - she had to watch 'Step Up' (a movie) and answer some questions. Now Kayleigh favourite types of movies don't include American style 'bad boy meets good girl' dance movies and she found it extremely tedious to watch - and she forced me to watch it to so I could help her with her assignment if necessary. Kayleigh got a B for Dance and an A for PE.

School: Year 7 Food

Kayleigh had 'technology' Food in first semester of year 7 with Ms Deo. Kayleigh liked the class but couldn't understand a word the teacher was saying. They cooked the basic things in this class - ANZAC biscuits, Orange basket. Kayleigh's teacher, although hard to understand said the Kayleigh was a good student with excellent food presentation skills (must have got that from Terence) and a pleasure to teach. Kayleigh got a B for this class, but she said she never wanted to do it again.

School: Year 7 Maths

Maths was probably Kayleighs hardest subject - she always struggled with it and some of the concepts where just hard for her to figure out. For Year 7, Kayleigh was in level 3 with Mrs Kupke. At parent teacher interview Mrs Kupke said Kayleigh was a good student that really had trouble linking concepts together. Kayleigh was put into the quick start program, that was designed to assist students with maths difficulties in learning and remembering the basics - like times tables and basic addition and subtraction tricks. This program really helped her in her calculations and both myself and the teacher could see a marked improvement in her work from this. Kayleigh achieved a C in Maths - probably the highest maths mark she ever got.

School: Year 7 Science

Kayleigh started the year in Level 3 science (the bottom level) because she did poorly in Year 6. However with a change of school and the resounding change of attitude, Kayleigh excelled at Science. Her first teacher was impressed by Kayleighs knowledge of the elements and the periodic table and her behaviour in class. Kayleigh had to do group work and a speech and she managed to persuade some of the disruptive students to assist in the task (I think one had a crush on her - so that helped).

The second semester Kayleigh was put up into Level 2 with Ms Thompson. Again, she shined in this class, achieving a B at the end of the year. Kayleigh got 98% in a home assignment to write out the procedure for measuring temperature when melting ice-cubes - she only lost marked for missing a leg on the tripod in the scientific diagram.

School:Year 7 Band

Kayleigh only did band for the first semester of Year 7 - she had Mr Cusack and she didn't seem to get on with him much. It must have been a personality thing as everyone else seemed to think he was great.

Kayleigh played the flute in band - and I was very proud of her for doing as well as she did. Kayleigh was in the intermediate band even though she had been playing the flute for only 6 months - she was as good as girls that had been playing for 2 or 3 years as part of the schools band program in primary school (she may have had a advantage because I also play the flute and I taught her).

She did have trouble reading music so we spent a lot of time writing the names of the notes on her music sheets. Kayleigh favourite song to play in band was the Pirate of the Caribbean melody. Unfortunately, when Kayleigh had to play individually for assessment at the end of the semester she had a cold and it was playing her asthma up badly. Trying to play the flute while trying to breathe is difficult and after the assessment Mr Cusack mentioned that he though she was better than that. This really got the Kayleigh and she asked me to allow her to change out of Band - which I did. Kayleigh got a C for band - not bad for a girl, with asthma, who had only been playing for 1 year.

School: Year 7 SOSE

Kayleigh also had Mr Haidon for year 7 SOSE (Studies of Society and the Environment). Kayleigh was good at SOSE and I believe she got the concepts well. At the parent teacher interviews I was told that Kayleigh was well behaved in class even though there was some other 'disruptive' students in the class. She always applied herself and got her woprk done.

SOSE is the class that Kayleigh liked to tell Mr Haidon he was wrong. The LED TV she showed him was during a SOSE excursion to the Hyperdome to learn about advertising. The assignment on Blu-ray was for a technological compenent of SOSE. Kayleigh did so well at SOSE she won an acedemic acheivement award for it that year - meaning she came in the top 2 in her class. And she got her first 'A' ever.

School: Year 7 English

Kayleigh had Mr Haidon for english n Year 7. Some of things she did she found easy and others she really struggled with. Kayleigh had to write a story that included three different elements - and she wrote a great little story about a dragon, a dragon killer and the politician. She had a do a assignment/poster on letter sounds and she created a really 'out there' poster that is still hanging in Mr Haidons room.

Kayleigh struggled with assignments and work that required analysis on subjective things, or tasks that did not have definative outcomes. Her Shakespeare assignement on the theatre she found very difficult to complete as she did not have a set of questions to answer - but research and making up her own project based on the knowledge she gained. Her best assignment was anything that required a speech - these she was good at.

Otto

As a family, we didn't play computer games much and we didn't have a Wii or anything until last Christmas - however their was a game on my desktop computer that Kayleigh that she played for almost 12 months until she finished it. The game was called Otto's Magic Blocks

The purpose of the games was to bounce Otto on each of the squares, turning them the correct colour while avoiding the other creatures. One of the 'creatures' she called Oi Oi Boy because everytime Otto got close to him he when 'Oi' and chased after Otto. Extra points were given if you strung together  a series of blocks without bouncing on a already changed block.

I tried to beat Kayleigh score on many occasions but I was never successful - Kayleigh had a knack at playing this game even though she would have been only 8 or so when we had it. Kayleigh was excellent at figuring out the best way around each level to maximise her points and was just better at navigating her way around the creatures.

Roast Lamb

We had roast lamb for dinner last night and it reminded me of all the roast lamb dinners we had as a family over the last few years.

Kayleigh loved roast lamb and every time we cooked it Kayleigh and I would argue over who got the lower leg bit. As a child, my mother always got it, so I as a 'grown up' I felt entitles to it as the meat was always tender and I like chewing on the bone. Kayleigh felt the same way. Each time I got the roast out of the oven I would be fending off Kayleigh and her knife and fork trying to get to the piece before I put it on my plate.

Eventually, we started buying a side of lamb that came with not only the roast leg of lamb, but an extra lower leg piece - which solved our problem - I got my piece and Kayleigh got hers. No more scuffles in the kitchen . . .

School: Year 7 Camp

Everyone at camp

Kayleigh was so excited when she found out she was going to a camp at the beginning of Year 7. The camp was inland (I forget the exact place) and she wnet dirt buggy riding, made a raft and did all sorts of fun things. Kayleigh made a few of her friend at camp and she was so happy that we let her go.

Kayleigh phoned us each night as she took my mobile with her and hid it in her pillow. She told us that she shared the dirt buggy with Ethan and they almost tipped over. Kayleigh told us she won the limbo contest - which she found easy (pics to come) and she had a great time.

Winning the Limbo contest

Raft Building