451 + 347 Weeks

What a week we've had!  We said goodbye to Oma and Opa on Friday morning, and as a parting gift, Opa gave the kids some money.  They ran to their computers to research what to buy, and Arley decided on a mouse.  I said we wouldn't get mice, but we might be OK with rats.  The kids' little faces lit up so much, I couldn't go back on my word, so the next thing I knew, I was calling Jeffrey at work to tell him we were going to Nowra to pick up some rats, and to expect two new pets when he got home.  We stopped off for veggie burgers on the way (see photo below!), and made it to the pet shop right after lunch.  As soon as the kids saw the rats, they were in love and had named them, so there was no going back!  We walked out of there with two rats, a year's worth of litter and the biggest rat (bird) cage I have ever seen.  And the kids LOVE their new pets.  Carmie's is called Nacho, and Arley's is called Jackie.  They are both male, and are almost 8 weeks old.  They have been handled a lot, so they are really friendly.  And I had no idea how much fun they are to watch!  Arley made them a lego bed, and then the kids transformed that into a two story lego house, which the rats love.  They have distinct personalities, with Arley's rat being the braver of the two. Which is lucky, because a couple of days ago he ended up in Bella's mouth!  The kids were playing with the rats in our ensuite bathroom, and Bella opened the door (she is a very skilled door opener!!), and Jackie hid behind the toilet, but Bella was like lightning and got him.  Bella carried him out to our closet area, where she dropped him to get a better bite.  Arley was hysterically screaming, and I ran in to see him crying and tackling Bella.  I found Jackie hiding near my shoes, covered in dog slobber, but not a puncture wound on him.  Arley was absolutely beside himself, and the amazing thing is, I told him he had to calm himself down so he could hold Jackie to calm him down, and Arley was able to pull it together and regulate himself for the sake of his rat.  Bella spends a lot of time whimpering around the cage, but she has been pretty good since then.  Not that we let her around the rats when they are loose any more!

We had lovely weather this week, and we managed to get back to Collers Beach.  We played a game of Finska (so fun!) which Jeff and Carmie won, and the kids had a swim.  On Tuesday after tennis, I took the kids to North Mollymook for a swim, and we finally had one of our absolutely stunning beach days.  We have been hanging out for a day like that all summer, and we were so bummed that Jeffrey wasn't with us.  You'll see by the photos, it was an amazing day, and the beach was ours!

The kids had horse riding today, and they were great.  The arena is still being finished off, so the lesson was in the paddock again, where they are not allowed to canter.  Their trotting is coming along well, and Carmie was super speedy today, too fast even!  Afterwards we had an OT session, because Arley's NDIS review is coming up.  The therapist and I went over all of our goals for him this year, to see how he has improved and where he needs help.  He has come so far, but there is still a long way to go.  It's funny, for most people to talk to him and look at him, they would think he was neurotypical, a very smart six year old.  But then they don't see the behind the scenes; the anger issues, the lack of self-regulation, the inability to do tasks he should be able to do, the rigidity, the need for control, the black and white thinking, the inability to receive instructions, being unable to go barefoot, the complete tactlessness...When they say autism is an invisible disability, they are so right. So, as far as he has come, and as unbelievably brilliant as he is (we played spelling quiz over the dinner table tonight, and he got every word right, and these are words such as delicious, guitarist, destruction), he still has a lot to overcome.  And that's just one of my kids!  The other hit herself in the head with her own tennis racket at tennis practice today!  That's dyspraxia for you.

Yes, so the kids scooted and I walked to the Leisure Centre this afternoon, where they practised their tennis.  They lost 3 balls in 15 minutes!  Ha ha, definite room for improvement!  Afterwards we went and bought ice blocks to cool off.

We have come up with a token system to get the kids to do things they should be doing, and they can earn different prizes.  I don't love doing external motivation tactics on them, which is why I haven't really done it before, but I've come to realise that Carmie's ADHD requires it.  It has been a success as far as Carmie is concerned - she has earned 10 tokens in three days.  Arley...not so much!  I'm hoping he gets incentive when he sees that Carmie gets to go to the ice cream shop this week-end :)

Here is a video of Carmie riding Percy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHRO3GOYrUU

Here is a video of the kids and their rats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM1qfudRg8s

 Finska at the beach

 The most beautiful beach day ever!

 Giving the horses some love :)

 Naughty Bella.

450 + 346 Week

 So, this week Oma and Opa came down for a visit.  Last week the kids and I went over our family tree (maternal side), and we talked about where their grandparents and great grandparents were born, and some family history.  This lead to the kids wanting to do an Austria night to celebrate their Opa's Austrian heritage.  They made flags, made signs, pompoms, and decorated in red and white.  They were so excited to see their grandparents.  We made Austrian dessert, and an Austrian meal that was so paprika-strong that we ditched it and made an emergency pasta!  Despite this, it was a lovely evening, and the kids only had a few little mishaps due to over-excitement.

Horse riding was cancelled because of rain on Monday, but this turned out OK because it was postponed until this morning, which meant that Oma and Opa could come to watch.  They met our beloved horses and saw the kids in action.  Afterwards we went to the bakery for morning tea :)

We found a tub filled with tadpoles at horse riding, so we caught a few and brought them home.  We are now learning how to keep our new pets, and the kids are really excited to see them transform into little froglets.  They have named them Derrick, Andy, Ron, Bob and Toby, but aren't sure which is which!

We actually made it to the beach this week!  Of course I forgot to take my phone, so I have no lovely summer beach shots, which means I have a total of zero beach photos this summer.  The kids even convinced me to get into my wetsuit and go wave jumping with them.  It turned out that the waves were huge and we couldn't go out very deep, but we had fun all the same.

Arley levelled up in swimming this week, and will have a new class time (which is a real pain in the butt because his new swim time is 6pm on Mondays - right when we eat dinner!).  But it is great that he is becoming more accomplished in the water.  It won't be long before Carmie levels up as well.

We got the kids to the sea pool for a swim with Jeffrey this week.  The water was way too cold for me, but the three of them had fun, while I had even more fun reading my book (a rare occurrence during the day!)

Tonight we had a dinner out with Oma and Opa.  We went out to the Pizza Guild in Milton, and it was really great.  Good food, outside seating so the kids could be noisy and move around, nice atmosphere.  It was a lovely evening.  The kids are sad to see their grandparents go,  but they are looking forward to catching the train up to Lemon Tree Passage to visit them :)

It's been a good week.  The kids have started becoming a little physical with each other again, so we are going to have to start implementing the old techniques we learned last year.  I think it is because they have been play-wrestling so much with each other, they are now used to invading each other's body space and being physical.  We're putting an end to it, because there has been too much lashing out this week :(

Apart from that, it has been a good week.  I am half way through my commissions, but at this point I just wish they were over!  We have had a bunch more sales with the business, so we are pretty stoked about that :)

Arley being a spy

 Levelling up

 Dinner tonight