397 + 293 Weeks

Jeffrey and I went to Sydney this weekend, to meet up with my good friend Ramsay from Aiglon.  I hadn't seen him in 17 years, but we had kept in touch.  It was so good to see him again, and introduce him to Jeff.  We met him for a drink at his hotel, then we walked down to Darling Harbour for another drink and an afternoon snack.  We followed that by a trip from Circular Quay to Manly so Ramsay could put his feet in the ocean, and then we had dinner there.  We ferried it back to the city - it was 10:30 by that time, and the ferry was full of all these young 20 somethings on their way out for the night.  We felt so old and tired!  Ha ha, how life changes.  Anyway, it was a blast to see Ramsay again and catch up after all of these years.  We met him for breakfast again the next day before catching the train back home. It was really nice to get away for a night and catch up with such a dear friend.

The kids have had a great week, except for when we picked them up from Lolo and Dida's after our Sydney jaunt.  Arley was in a bad way, and had an hour long meltdown that ended when we got him out to the beach.  We decided on a beach dinner for a change of scenery for him, and it did the trick.  He has been pretty good for the rest of the week, still naughty but nothing we can't handle.

The beach has been beautiful this week, although the water has been rather cold.  That didn't stop the kids from swimming though.  The water is so clear, it is ridiculous how lucky we are.  The kids also had horse riding, drama, swimming and Scouts.  Arley is trying out Scouts this year, but is too scared to be there on his own, so I have to stay too, which kind of defeats the purpose of the activity!  However, in watching Carmie and Arley interact with the other kids and the Scout leaders, I realised how truly lovely my kids are!  They are very sweet and polite, and it was good to see.  We also got out this week flying the kids' drones.  Carmie flew hers into a horse paddock with waist-high weeds and plants.  She climbed though the barbed wire fence to retrieve it, and ended up having to be rescued by a stranger who was driving by in a huge truck.  So silly!

We had OT today.  Our therapist is doing play therapy with them right now, and is trying to teach them both how to come up with new ideas for playing.  Apparently neither kid is skilled at coming up with ideas for play - they can't just imagine up something new or fun to do.  It comes along with the black and white thinking of autism.  If they haven't done it before, they can't imagine it.  So, we are now trying to teach them an arsenal of play activities so they stop bickering with each other and actually play together.

And our other news is that we are taking the kids camping for the first time.  We are leaving tomorrow morning, and we are just going locally so if all hell breaks loose it is easy to get home.  The kids are beyond excited.  I am truly hoping that they have a blast, because we would love to camp with them a lot.  We have wanted to for years, but we never felt like we could because Arley was so difficult, but now it is definitely time.  Arley is really excited about wearing his headlamp at night time, and Carmie is excited about being outside exploring.  So, fingers crossed!  We are planning on a two night stay, maybe more if it goes well (or less if it is a disaster!).  We could stay a month though, with all of the provisions I have packed!

Here are some silly videos of the kids trying to do the long jump.  They crack me up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkOKs4JMIBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsSkp46qCAo

Ramsay :)

This is what I get when Arely waters the garden.

Working on my latest painting.  It's a doozy.