This has been an interesting week. Firstly, we have been making some drastic changes to our diet, for the sake of Arley. One of his doctors has suggested going gluten and dairy free, so we are giving it a shot, at least for the time being. I have been researching a lot about glutamate and what excess glutamate can do, and it has been linked to autism and ADHD, among other things, so we are trying to get rid of the excess glutamate from Arley's (and our) diet. The problem is, glutamate is in EVERYTHING! Literally, it's in 95% of all packaged food. So, I have raided our pantry and given away our food, and we are making everything from scratch except for the gluten free pasta. The kids cried and cried when I told them their candy collection was going. But today they both helped me make some gluten free ginger cookies which they are very happy with. Our diet essentially consists of fruit, veggies, rice, nuts and seeds, and some gluten free flours, and whatever I can make from all of the above. We will try this for several months and then slowly add in different food items to see if it makes a difference. We have seen a difference in Arley's behaviour already - the last two days he only had one meltdown a day, both towards bedtime when he was tired. It will be interesting to see how this goes. He also had his best OT session yet on Wednesday. We have finished the brushing every two hours, but his OT suggested that we brush him on and off throughout the day. He only let me do it once today though, so I'm not sure if we will continue. There's no point if it makes him angry.
We are still spending lots of time at home, and I think we will be spending even more now that I have all of this cooking and baking to do. But we did get out some. We met our friends Kylie and Doug, and their kids Willow and Finn at the park in Milton for a Sunday night picnic dinner. However, it started to rain, so everyone came back to our house for dinner here instead. The only problem was that our water was shut off because Jeff had decided to fix the bathroom faucet that day and wasn't able to, so it just keep gushing water out of it until we turned the water off at the main. Despite that, it was a lovely night, and we are so grateful to have found friends who have a daughter Carmie's age and a son Arley's age, and they all like each other :) On Monday it was a beautiful hot day, so Jeff and I took the kids to north Mollymook beach. It was such a gorgeous day. Arley wouldn't take his shoes off in the sand (despite all the brushing therapy we did!), but we are working on it. Carmie just loves the ocean, and could have spent hours running in and out of the waves. On Tuesday went to the library and met our homeschool friends for lunch. We took Bella for a walk, and Carmie only realised halfway through that she was still in her pyjamas, her standard attire. These days she is either in pjs or a shirt and her undies. Her reading was insatiable this week - on Monday night I went in to check on her before I went to bed. She was still up reading, at 11pm! She was finishing up a 500 page book (with a few illustrations, so probably a 300 page book really) that she started at lunch while we were at the beach! Since then I have seen her finish another novel, and then tonight at bedtime she was saying that she didn't know what book to read. I told her to read the fairy book that we got from the library (two days ago). But she said she has already read it! It is mind boggling to me. And I am so so so jealous too! I wish I had the leisure to lie around reading all day!
We also did an art project this week, and we worked on a few things to improve Arley's fine motor skills. He was able to copy me in drawing a picture, which is a first step in him drawing on his own. I still had to put the pen in his hand, but he was really happy with his results.
And, the other news is that Jeff has a new job. We are SO happy about it - it has been a really long time coming! He is working at the Mollymook Golf Club, doing their stock taking, and receiving and distributing goods, and whatever else they need. He enjoys the work, it is good hours, they keep him busy, and his commute is about 3 minutes. It is so good for him. The kids are upset because they see him less now, and I am so much busier too, but it certainly brings more stability into our home :)
Creating their bird collage art project
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