It has been a rather challenging week. I can't even remember what we did over the weekend. I do however remember Arley's massive meltdown on Saturday night. He lost the plot after hours of being frustrated that his computer is lagging. He came to dinner and was really dysregulated, and he just escalated from there. He got very abusive, and I ended up having to leave the house to take some time to myself. I left for almost an hour, and he was very apologetic when I came home. It was all really awful. We are trying to teach him to regulate himself when he escalates. His therapy team came over for a session on Tuesday morning, and we are starting to get a plan together. We are creating a calming down spot in his room with a dark teepee and a sensory box, and we're trying to come up with other strategies to help him. On Tuesday afternoon I took him to his first psychology appointment. His psychologist is the same one who is assessing Carmie. She's really nice, and after asking me many questions, she said she is going to tackle Arley's anxiety right away, as his anxiety is the cause of most of our stresses. I truly hope she can help him, help us. It's a start, anyway.
Jeffrey and I spent half the day on Sunday weeding our giant garden bed. It is horrendous. We have discovered that things grow really well here in Coffs, including the weeds. We simply cannot keep up with them. The garden bed is very big and borders the entire front and back yards. I have three blisters on my hands from our weeding session, and we barely even scratched the surface. There is only so much we can do, because I am so busy, and Jeff is waiting for a hernia operation. That's coming on March 9th. And then he will have several weeks of recovery. We will totally be overrun by weeds!
On Monday I organised a meet up with the Coffs Harbour homeschool group. It was our first meet up, and we plan to do it every week. This week we went to Diggers Beach. All of the kids had a blast, except for mine! Carmie had a big swim, but then she started feeling tired and weak (from her meds) and she sat like a little lump under her towel, facing away from the ocean. Luckily I gave her some food and she revived after 45 minutes and had a good play. Arley was another story. He is used to jumping the high waves at Mollymook beach, which is a surf beach. He has been doing that on his own for two or three years now. But up here, he has anxiety at the beach and is scared to go in the ocean. These waves are half the size he is used to, but now they are scary. I feel like I'm losing my mind. I managed to coerce him in for a swim for all of four minutes, and then he spent the rest of the time telling me he was bored and asking to go home. It was pretty awful. We were the first to leave the event I had organised. :( It's very stressful when he is like that, because he makes quite a scene in front of people (these were people that don't know his story too). But we shall persist.
Yesterday I took the kids to the mall to go shopping. Today only Arley went horse riding (and horse riding was a bust, he did nothing but complain!) and swimming, because Carmie is the worse for wear at the moment. Her meds she is trialling are messing with her. She was getting really dizzy and faint, so we lowered the dose, and then last night she slept from 10pm until 3am, and that is all. So, we are switching things up a bit over the next few days on the paediatrician's recommendation. We have another appointment with him on the 12th, so we'll see what happens then. Carmie wants to stay on them because she enjoys being productive and able to do things, but not sleeping has to be sorted. The only side effect Arley is having is he gets sleepy in the afternoons and often has a lovely nap, which is lovely for all of us! :)
I have hardly any photos from this week. Too stressed I think! I took a few shots while we were playing lego. Arley was not happy about it!
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