We have had a tough cookie on our hands this week. Arley has been sick with a cough - he came down with it last week on my birthday, which is probably why he made the day so awful. We had our OT session on Friday (at the beach!), and he was still coughing like crazy. Our therapist put all of his bad behaviour down to his illness. He is pretty much better now, and his behaviour has improved, but his aggression and 0-60 anger has not. So, there has been a lot of shouting from him again this week, and quite a bit of hitting, plus one really bad episode on Sunday night when I turned into a monster because he just would not go to bed. I finally blew a gasket at 10:30 and got him in his bed by 11pm. Nightmare. But there is some good news too. Arley went to a circus workshop with Carmie this week. It was his first ever activity without me present, and there is no way I ever would have guessed that he would have the courage to do it. He was nervous, but braved it out, and absolutely loved it! He keeps asking when he can go back. So that is a huge hurdle for him - getting over some serious separation anxiety.
So, it is the school holidays, and it is really nice to have a break from all of our activities. It takes the structure out of our days, which is difficult for Arley, but I love it. Carmie has been doing lots of reading, and quite a bit of drawing too. We have had a beach day, and an afternoon in town, with hot chips for lunch, a play at the harbour, and then shopping (I finally was able to get Arley out of his pink hat and sunglasses!). One day Jeffrey was home and he wanted to take the kids to the park so that I could paint. Carmie decided it was going to be Narrawallee Park, so she hopped into the car, and Arley joined her (usually he would kick up a big stink having to leave me). They stayed for three hours! Arley would never have done that before.
Today we went to the kids' friends Finn and Willow's house, to meet their new baby sister Heather. She is just tiny, and so sweet. The kids played well together until the end when Finn's name-calling got the better of Arley and he lashed out and hurt him. It makes me so sad that he can't keep his cool. It makes playdates hard, because I just can't count on things going smoothly, and I'm a little worried we won't be invited places after an incident like what happened today :(
On a good note, Carmie did a little performance with her drama group tonight at the Art Fest Art Walk. It was very cute, and she has come so far. The last time she was up on stage she had stage fright, but tonight she was fine - she has really come out of her shell, it was so nice to see. She delivered her line and even directed a friend who had frozen in place. And now Arley wants to join her drama group. I'm not so sure he can handle it, but we shall see.
Here is a video of my two scallawags in town:
And a video of Arley reading:
Our OT session at Collers Beach
And another day at Collers Beach
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