Well, it has been a busy week with my mum here. She arrived on Friday afternoon and left this afternoon. We didn't tell the kids she was coming. I went out "to the pharmacy" to pick her up, and then we sat her in our lounge room and told the kids I had bought them a surprise and it was on the coffee table. You should have seen their excitement. They were so happy, and so surprised. It was lovely.
The weather was on and off all week. We had a fair amount of rain, but two very sunny days where we got to go to the beach. Arley has been scared to go swimming at the beach, and so never wants to go, but we told him we were going to dog beach which he quite enjoys. Right before we left we found out that dog beach (Park Beach) was closed, so we went to a different dog beach in Sawtell. He was already pretty grumpy about it. As soon as we got there, just after Arley had walked down the stairs, he got knocked over by a dog off a leash. The dog turned around and growled at him, jumped on him, scratched him and barked in his face until the owner pulled the dog away. So not good. You can imagine what Arley was like. He was crying to go home. Most kids would be scared of dogs after that, but Arley instead wanted to find the dog and murder it! Instead I took him home! He said he is never going back to that beach again. Luckily the next day we coerced him back with the idea that he could catch little fish in his net. But the problem was that there were no fish there that day! We got him swimming a little, but he was all out of sorts and started really acting up, lots of shouting and being super grumpy. Mum got a little taste of what we deal with when we leave the house.
Another day Mum and I took Carmie down to the harbour to feed the fish and have some ice cream. We went shopping at the mall, Mum played a lot of games with the kids and did a lot of crafts, and Mum and I played lots of Scrabble (we won four games each, I think we are very evenly matched!). In the evenings Jeffrey and Mum and I played Rummikub - such a fun game. And Jeffrey and I went out to dinner in Sawtell one night, and it was SO nice to get away for a date night. The food was great, the service was great (you scan your phone to get the menu now, how cool is that?), the atmosphere was great, and afterwards we took a walk to the beach. We love Sawtell and would love to move there one day.
Arley had OT with his support worker on Tuesday. He didn't want to cooperate at all, and was in a rotten mood. That afternoon he had a session with his psychologist, and he was even more uncooperative! He just kept saying things like, "Why do I have to go to this stupid place? You can't help me. No one can help me. This is so stupid and boring. I hate it here." This went on for 50 minutes while the psych kept trying to draw him out. He kept punching the couch and his leg in frustration. Awkward. The psychologist has not yet finished Carmie's assessment, but she did tell me that Carmie does meet the criteria for autism as well. I have had to fill out two more questionnaires, and then she will write up her report and then I'll know more details.
We had horse riding this morning, and Lolo came to watch. It was a great lesson. Carmie looked confident and did really well, even though she was on a horse she hadn't ridden before. And Arley did great, as opposed to last week when he was completely noncompliant. It was a really good lesson. Arley told me tonight that this was the first lesson he has enjoyed in Coffs Harbour. So good!
The kids are missing their grandmother terribly now that she's gone. I wish Lolo and Dida weren't so far away. It's hard, because Coffs is the best place for us, but it's hard without them here. Poor Carmie cried herself to sleep tonight. Breaks my heart.
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