The big news from this week is that Jeffrey turned 50 yesterday! The BIG 50! I can't believe it. He doesn't look 50, but he says he feels 50, however that is mostly because of his hernia surgery and his inability to exercise for the past few months. Anyway, he had a great birthday. We went to the harbour to feed the fish, then we took the kids to the park, and then we went out to lunch to a restaurant, and the kids were great and we all enjoyed ourselves. The food was delicious too! When we got home, the kids and I decorated the dining area, and then we called Jeffrey out for his cake and presents. The kids and I had made the cake the day before, and they had gone all out decorating it. It was a lovely day with no drama, which is a huge win!
We have had a good week. On Friday after tennis we met our friends at the dog beach in Sawtell. It was a beautiful day, and the kids found a homemade raft there, and had a lot of fun floating down the inlet. We also played soft ball on the beach. Arley wouldn't join in, but he was fine just watching. At the moment he prefers to sit and let kids join him when they want to, and it seems to work out ok.
Arley has not been swimming lately, even when he is excited to go with friends. He has been finding the water too cold, and he has been refusing. He did the same at his swim lesson last week, so I was determined to get him into the pool over the weekend. On Saturday I took the kids to the Coffs pool, and Arley still refused to come into the water. Carmie and I were having a blast swimming and playing, while he sat on the edge of the pool and refused to come in. For 45 minutes I kept trying. Then I saw his old swim teacher who taught him last year before summer. This man has two autistic sons of his own, and he was there teaching a disabled woman how to swim. He was in the next lane over, and he called out to me to see if Arley was still taking lessons. I said yes but told him of Arley's pool refusal. So he called Arley over and told him he needed his help to teach this woman how to swim, and he told Arley to get on his back. Then for half an hour he had Arley swimming laps and showing this woman different strokes. I couldn't believe it. I was so thankful. Afterwards, he went to the office and told them he wanted to teach Arley again, so he will be Arley's teacher again as of next week. And then, as if that wasn't enough, I ran into him in the parking lot, and we got to talking, and I told him of Arley's fear of the beach, and now we are organising for him to take Arley boogie boarding! How kind is this man?! We have so many troubles, and some of them are small, and some are large, but when someone comes along and helps us, takes something out of our hands, it means everything. I'm so grateful.
On Sunday we went as a family to the Bellingen pool, and once again Arley didn't swim, but admittedly, the water was really cold! We still had a good time though, and remarkably Arley didn't say he was bored a hundred times and beg to come home!
Carmie's assessment wrapped up this week, and I got the results from the psychologist. Carmie did three different assessments and she came back with a yes to both autism and ADHD. We knew about the ADHD, that is an old diagnosis, but the autism is the one we were really looking into. So, yes, Carmie is autistic also. Carmie is all smiles and proud to be neurodivergent, which is exactly how it should be.
Carmie had another night of insomnia last night though. She has been on and off this week, some nights sleeping and some nights not. She was still able to participate in tennis this morning, but she is suffering. We try to draw a fine line between letting her take it easy and making her do enough to be tired at night. These days are hard!
Another day I took the kids to the harbour to feed the fish again. We took a walk around the break wall, and it went smoothly with only a little complaining from you know who. It is the Easter school holidays now, so I'm going to try to get the kids out for small trips most days, because we won't have our activities to go to. Sadly we have to stop horse riding for a while, and perhaps forever. Our new equine therapist isn't actually a certified therapist (even though she is great!), so the NDIS scheme won't pay for the therapy any more. We are trying to convince them, but it's looking doubtful We are really sad about it, Carmie particularly. It's just too expensive for us at the moment without the help from NDIS. It's silly too, because the horses are really the therapists, and the actual teacher has so many credentials, just not the certified therapist one. It's really sad.
Hoping for a good week going forward!
Waiting for friends at the dog beach
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