Baby Photos

I thought I would share a couple of baby photos of Kayleigh which I liked.

Less than 24 hours old

3 months old

6 months old

Family Photos

Kayleigh really liked getting pictures done with the whole family. She paid for one of the christmas photos one year and insisted that we were all in it. Family was very important to her and all the family pics we have she is smiling and making sure that the other kids aren't being stupid.

One of the family photos from christmas Kayleigh kept in her bag and took it to school. I am not sure why  - and at home she kept in in her cupboard in sight of where she could see it when she was in bed.

The photo Kayleigh took everywhere with her

Kayleigh was a little frustrated as Kiara kept wiggling.

On top of the hill behind our place - Summer 2010

Kayleighs thoughts on Immigration

Kayleigh's Thoughts: Immigration

Somedays when you talk to you kids, you realise that they have thoughts and understanding about all sorts of issues that you probably think that they don't. A week before Kayleigh passed away, I was driving down to the shops with just Kayleigh when she told me she had been thinking about the 'boat people' and immigration of people to Australia. I don't know if they had been doing work on this at school, but it was a big topic on the news at the time. It was one of those moments where I thought to myself that Kayleigh really was growing up and that she was socially aware of the 'big issue' topics and not just concerned about her own issues.

Kayleigh told me that she knew why people wanted to leave their own countries and move to Australia due to wars and persecution, and she  could understand the risks involved in getting on a boat and trying to get here. The thing that Kayleigh said she had trouble with was what they did when they got here. Kayleigh stated that immigrants should probably be segregated from Australia society until we knew who they were (just in case they were terrorists) but not just the boat people but all people that claimed refuggee status when here (the people that arrive on plane) but while in detention they should be doing mandatory English lessons and the dentention should be set up in a way to mirror australian life, with schools and shops and workplaces, so that the people could gain an understanding, basic english skills and life skills, familiarity with the currency etc so when they were granted refugee status and were out in society they already had some basic skills to assist them.

Kayleigh also did not like that when immigrants were given Australian residency, then they were allowed to bring their family to Australia. This attitude was due to someone we knew who married a chinese girl, who within 1 year of getting married (and therefore gaining Australian residency) had brought her parents, her brothers and sisters and her Aunt and uncle to Australia through the immigration policy of keeping families together. Kayleigh thought that each person should be considered on their merits of what they could bring to Australia, not just because they were related to someone who lived here.

It really was a eye-opening conversation to have with Kayleigh and we had a great discussion on the pros and cons of mandatory detention and why the immigration policies are the way they are.

Reign of terror!

As the oldest child, it was sort of expected that Kayleigh would help out with the younger children. Every morning she would help kiara and Lucas get ready for school and tell Natassja and Terry off for being too slow. Kayleigh was really good at making sure that the other kids were behaving themselves (even if kayleigh was doing the wrong thing!).

When the others were not doing the right thing, Kayleigh would use stand over tactics and several times I stopped Kayleigh punching Terry or Natassja, I walked in on them arguing, with kayleigh grabbing the others with one hand and her arm pulled back with a clenched fist in the other. Kayleigh was so good at getting the others to do things because she reigned over them in terror!

Burning the candle

I always wondered if Kayleigh was getting enough sleep. As a baby she slept really well sleeping through the night at three months old, but as she got older she got harder and harder to get her to go to sleep.

We all know teenagers get into a habit of going to bed late and then sleeping in, but for Kayleigh most nights we were struggling to get her into bed and asleep before 11 at night. Some nights it was because she was talking to Natassja, but Natassja was always asleep by 9:30 at the latest. Kayleigh would then just sit around awake sometimes until after we were asleep. Kayleigh also had a habit of waking up about an hour after she went to sleep to go toilet. I read later that his may have indicated a problem with the electrical signals to her heart. Kayleigh was also one of the first kids awake, she rarely slept in. Because of his Kayleigh regularly had black rings around her eyes and sometimes she got tired and slept in the afternon.

Maybe Kayleigh was burning the candle at both ends and in the end burnt too brightly.

The paint incident

When we moved into the house we are currently in, we wanted to make it homely and so gradually painted each of the rooms. As I told you in the 'Poo' tale, Kayleigh made it a little difficult to get it done.

One day we were getting into painting the main bedroom, which we were doing all white as we got a really good bargain at Bunnings on a 10litre pot of Dulux paint. It was easier just to get straight white and do both the wall and the ceiling the same colour. Kayleigh and Natassja were keeping themselves amused with their toys in the room and playing on the swings outside. Terence filled up the tray of paint again and kept painting, but he forgot to put the lid on the paint tin which we had on the laundry floor. When we had to fill the paint tray up again, we opened the door to the laundry, and there was Kayleigh, paint up to her elbows on both arms, hand prints all over the washing machine, dryer, walls and floor and painted footprints from one end of the laundry to the other. Terence took one look at Kayleigh and put her in shower and told me to clean her up while he started on the laundry. The paint on the white goods wiped off really easily, and the floor was OK to mop (several times) but Terence had to wait for the paint on the walls to dry before he could sand it back and re-paint the laundry.

The balloon release

The balloon release last weekend went really well. In all there was probably 50 balloons, mainly blue, including some balloons for Sam (orange balloons), Brandon (green balloons), Benjamin and Molly (other children who have passed away too soon). I don't know how many people turned up but there was quite few, many of Kayleigh's friends.
I gave a speech and almost cried (which I didn't think I would) and then I played Kayleigh's favourite song 'My heart will go on' on my flute. We then let the balloons go. They were visible for such a long time and it made me feel sad allover again.

Explosive!

I was talking with a friend today and it reminded me of the time Kayleigh was really little and she had one of those explosions that only parents can relate to. These are the types of stories you tell when your darling daughter turns 18.

I had gone to visit on old school friend at her Mum's house. Kayleigh was about 1 month old and I was wearing my nice white jeans. My friends mum had just bought a lovely new yellow fabric lounge - only delivered a couple of weeks before. Kayleigh was fast asleep on my lap after a good feed and then she squirmed and let go. Up until that stage I had never seen a explosion like that one. It came up both sides of her nappy, up her back, through her clothes, down the leg of my nice white jeans and all over my friends mum brand new yellow lounge. I was mortified. Terence took control and took Kayleigh to the bathroom while my friend and I tried to clean me up and the lounge. My jeans came clean, but that nice yellow lounge was stained from then on. Oops.

Memory: Virginia

Virginia is my friend and she wanted to share her memory of Kayleigh.
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Before we had kids we were a lot more social and we practically lived at Terence and Jude's every other night so we regularly spend time with Kayleigh and the family and eating the best roasts ever:)
Kayleigh was always happy to see us. I used to love to see what the girls had been up to,Kayleigh and natassja would make up silly dances and come out and show us....i would also receive a few drawings from each of the girls now and again which i still have.

Kayleigh was very good at sneaking in on adult conversations quite funny really...Terence would say Kayleigh "OUT" and she would leave only to return into the conversation a bit later without Terence realizing.
I also used to make shortbread sometimes and take it over which i know Kayleigh loved and would sneak some with the others while we were watching movies in the lounge which Kayleigh would also watch the movies from around the corner i could see her shadow and every now and again i would give her a little smile.

Kayleigh was a gorgeous girl inside and out and i really miss the times we had but so glad i got to meet that very special girl:)

Monica

Monica is our babysitter who Kayleigh absolutely adored. We first met her in Bunnings where she worked and she called us the 'happy family'. Kayleigh thought she was soooo cool. Monica started babysitting on a fortnightly basis when Kayleigh was 11 and every Tuesday Kayleigh would be asking us if it was the Tuesday that  Monica was babsitting. She would get so disappointed when it wasn't. When I got a new job, Monica started babysitting every week which Kayleigh thought was fantastic. When Monica pulled up in the driveway Kayleigh would run out and give her a big hug, and when she left after, Kayleigh would walk her out to the car and give her another big hug. In a way Monica was like the big sister Kayleigh didn't have. Kayleigh looked up to Monica and thought she was the best!!!



Kayleigh and Monica



Monica, Kayleigh and Natassja



Row Row

For Kayleigh's first birthday we got her a rocking horse that she called Row Row. She loved that horse and 'rode' it every day. When she was really little she cirled her feet under Row Row for extra grip. She especially liked riding Row Row when the music was on. At times when I was watching her I thought she was going to tip over backwards because she was rocking so hard, but she never did. She got to the point where that little rocking house was almost standing for a couple of seconds at the end of its rocker and then down it would go, and Kayleigh would have a huge grin on her face. Natassja 'inherted' Row Row when Kayleigh got to big and evetually that poor little rocking horse fell apart.

The pancake parlour ad

When Kayleigh was little she absolutely loved the pancake parlour advertisement. Every time she heard it on she would come running from where ever she was in the house and then watch and dance to the music. One time she was in her high chair eating her dinner when it came on and she literally climbed out of her highchair, jumped down and ran to see her favourite ad. When she got older she didn't remember the ad but it was amazing how, as a child of 1 she could hear it anywhere in the house and always came running.

'One of those types of girls'

Talking with some of the girls yesterday at the balloon release talked about Kayleigh and how she was was just one of those types of girls. One of the girls that just seems to get along with everyone, no matter what they were like or what year they were in. And it was true. When kayleigh started high school she was friends with people in year 10, year 9 year 8 and also people in her own year. She would come home and tell me about playing handball with the year 10 boys, and talking to a girl in year 9 who was bullied and how she helped her. Then Kayleigh told me about talking to the boys in year 7 in her wookwork class and how she showed them how to use the tools. When she started year 8, she was quite happy to talk to the year 7's and help them around the school, help them make friends and was always nice to them. There were only a few girls that she didn't talk to and that was because of things that had done to her in the past. Kayleigh truly was a friend to everyone and she treated everyone the same, no matter if they were popular, loners, struggled with friends or struggled with education. Kayleigh was just one of those types of girls that really did make friends across the whole school, and those types of girls are rare.

Falling in the pond

In Nannys backyard, Terence helped make a nice fishpond with a small stream running into it. Nanny and Grandad put several fish in the pond and it was quite nice. One weekend we were visiting Nanny and Kayleigh had gone out into the backyard to play. Terence and Nanny went out to check on her and she had managed to get around the back of the pond and leaning over to touch the fish. Terence yelled out 'OI' and gave Kayleigh such a fright she fell head first into the pond. She came up spluttering a completely covered in small green pond plants - from head to toe - with a big lump of it on top of her head! Nanny whisked her off to the shower but had a good laugh later about the look of complete surprise of Kayleigh's face.

The pond Kayleigh fell in