529 + 425 Weeks

 It's Thursday again, and here I am doing another blog post, and I can't believe the time has passed so quickly.  We have had a good week, although Carmie has been a bit under the weather.  She has been nauseous on and off, particularly at night, and she has had a sore throat as well for the past two days.  Arley was bitten by a spider last night on his finger, so he was up late icing his finger.  He was in a lot of pain.  Needless to say, we took it easy today.

So, the good news is, we have friends!  Haha, this is not extraordinary, but I never thought it would happen so soon.  On Saturday we met up with the kids' friend Lexi and her family for a wonder around the night market and then dinner on the beach.  It was busy and noisy and fun and the kids had a blast playing on the beach while we got to chat, and then we went and got ice creams.  We got home after the kids' bedtime and they crashed out, they were so tired.  Then we met up with them again on Sunday afternoon for a scooting, skating, shooting hoops session at these huge netball courts.  Jeffrey brought the drone and it was fun.  Arley was having a tough time - he felt left out because Carmie and Lexi immediately started chatting together and he didn't know how to join in.  He spent some time in and out of the car, but he did manage to get himself out and having fun.  He's a tough cookie when he senses things amiss for himself (and usually things are in his head).  He feels rejection very strongly because his self esteem is shot. It's really hard to pull him out sometimes too :(

Carmie and I went to the Sunshine Plaza mall on Monday.  it is huge!  There is a river running through it, and a ropes climbing course, a cinema, wine bars, and any stores that we will ever need.  Coming from Ulladulla, this is kind of mind blowing.  Coming from Coffs it still makes me trip out!  Now if only we had more money...ha ha.

We all bought secondhand bikes, so we can ride around our neighbourhood.  Arley hasn't gotten on his yet - that will be an effort and take a bit of planning.  He has to be very regulated, as it is a bigger bike than he used to have, and it's been over a year since he has ridden.  The last time he had a break from riding he literally thought he was going to die from riding a bike, so my fingers are crossed.  I have been getting out most days, and this morning I found a new bike trail I hadn't seen before, so I will explore that sometime soon.

On Tuesday we started our first family Zoom therapy session with our new psychologist.  It went really well, and I can see that it will help.  This first session was about how people react to the same situation with different emotions, and identifying different feelings of happiness on the happy scale.  We have homework to do before our session next week.  It's easy stuff, but the kids only have attention spans for things like this for so long, so they started to fall apart a little in the end.  

We were supposed to be going to a place called Rush Adventureland tomorrow with the homeschool kids but Carmie is not feeling well enough and just tonight Arley's spider bite 'popped' (gross!) and he's in pain, so it looks like another quiet one for us tomorrow.

528 + 424 Weeks

It has been a good week.  On Friday I took the kids to the trampoline place, the Big Boing.  They had fun, but we didn't really gel with any local homeschoolers.  The place was huge and the tables were all spread out, with people sitting in little groups.  We weren't welcomed by anyone, so we didn't know who to talk to.  It was kind of a bummer.  The kids still had a good time, and met a girl but she was here on vacation, so that doesn't really help.  They played air hockey and had a bounce and did the ninja course.  It wasn't the best introduction to the homeschooling community.

But...we had a very successful playdate on Tuesday.  It was awesome, in fact!  The kids met a nine year old girl called Lexi, and her mother Nicky and her little brother Felix.  We met them at the park in Mooloolaba, and from there went for a play at the beach, and then continued on to get ice cream.  The kids and Lexi clicked immediately, and I couldn't be happier.  They are so stoked and can't wait for another play.

On Wednesday I had organised a meet up with whatever homeschoolers would join us.  Quite a few came, which was good, but it was a little overwhelming.  Carmie wasn't well.  She had been up sick with nausea the night before and didn't get to sleep until 11:30.  She mostly sat and read and asked to go home, even though there was a girl who was trying so hard to play with her.  Arley took a while to warm up, but ended up playing with two boys his age, so I'm calling that a success.  And the good news is, two of the mothers have taken us under their wings and we are seeing them again tomorrow, for a smaller playdate - the same girl who was trying to befriend Carmie, and the two boys Arley was playing with.  We are going to knock Carmie out tonight so she sleeps!

Today Carmie and I took a trip to one of the malls here.  It still seems great that we can just go to a mall now.  It sounds silly, but Ulladulla had nothing of the sort.  There is so much to do here, I am kind of boggled by it.  There are highways and motorways everywhere connecting all the different towns and places, and I am not quite used to the size of the place.  But we are loving it, and we talk about how this has been the best move pretty much every day!

Poor Carmie has been getting nauseous a lot lately.  Her referral for an endoscopy was denied because the doctor's receptionist forgot to add her bloodwork, so I had to go back to the doctor.  So, we are still waiting to hear back about when she will get her endoscopy, and until then she can't change her diet.  I hope it happens soon, we would love to get it over with and get her back on track.  Her numbers are very high and the doctor said we should look at it like she definitely is coeliac, but we need the endoscopy before we make a lifelong change.

We also got Bella out to a dog beach one day.  The beach was absolutely beautiful, and stretched on for miles.  It was a gorgeous day too, and the water was as warm as it is in Mollymook at the end of the summer.  I've been told that some days the water here is like bathwater, and that is exactly how I like it.  I've also been told that the first summer here is very hard to get through because of the heat, but that you get used to it over the next summers.  Fingers crossed!

The fun never ends.

At the Big Boing

527 + 423 Weeks

I don't have much to say this week!  Lockdown is over and we are allowed to go out, but we haven't really gone anywhere!  We have been chilling at home.  Monday was rainy and awful, the first and only day of bad weather we've had since we've been here.  I have to say, winter on the Sunshine Coast is gorgeous.  Mornings are still a little frosty, but the days are absolutely beautiful.  It feels like spring.  And my plants are responding in kind - my lettuce has started growing, and so have many flower seedlings I planted.

We have been having a really low-key time and it's been nice.  We took the kids to the park around the corner one day and shot some hoops and played handball on the courts there.  I bought a secondhand bike so I've been riding around, as well as taking morning walks along the trails.  We've been spending time outside in our yard, and playing lots of games.  Arley asked to do the world puzzle again, but this time he asked to do it by himself.  It was remarkable to watch.  He would pick out a piece from the box, look at it for a few seconds, and then place it exactly where it was supposed to go in the puzzle.  His memory is astounding.  Meanwhile, Carmie hates puzzles and will have nothing to do with them.

Today we did our first zoom therapy appointment with our awesome new psychologist.  She is taking us through a program called the Westmead Feelings Program, which is fifteen appointments split into three sessions, five appointments each session, with a two week break in between.  It is a very intensive program where she will teach Jeffrey and I do be emotion coaches, and where she will teach the kids how to recognise emotions and how they feel in their bodies in different situations, and how their actions are perceived by and have an affect on others. It sounds like exactly what we need, and I really hope it helps.

Tomorrow the kids and I are going to a trampoline place to meet other homeschoolers, and on Saturday I'm taking them to a Roblox gaming session where kids get together and play Roblox.  Next week we are meeting up with a homeschool girl on Tuesday for a play, and then on Wednesday I have organised a group park play to meet even more homeschoolers.  There are so many around here, and so many activities to do, I am sure we will find out feet in no time.  The kids are really excited.  I am too :)

Making slime - it was actually a disaster, but fun all the same.

Best costumes ever.

On my morning walk.

Bella in her new kennel

Puzzle master

Decorating cupcakes

526 + 422 Weeks

We have been in lockdown all week.  I keep thinking that as far as being in lockdown goes, this is the best place for it, and our old house would have been awful, but then I keep realising that if we were in our old house, we wouldn't be in lockdown!  It was supposed to be a snap three day lockdown from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday evening, but it was extended to Sunday, and now it looks like it will be extended again.

To celebrate settling in we took the kids to Aussie World.  This was on Friday, before the lockdown.  We all loved it.  Sadly Arley was half a centimetre too short to go on a couple of the rides that he wanted to go on (the really scary ones!!), but the ones we did go on were really fun.  Jeff and Carmie went on the really scary one - I can't believe he convinced Carmie to go on it.  It was a really fun day without any dramas, so we are going to go back again as soon as Arley gets a little taller!

Jeffrey and I have been busy digging up old dead plants and weeds in the veggie beds of our new house.  Today I planted a bunch of veggie seeds, so fingers crossed they take. We also had a large dirt area near a fence where the grass wasn't growing, so Arley and I got all of our fossils and made a garden bed out of the dirt.  We have been busy planting flower seeds and the clippings I take off plants on our walks.  Carmie thinks it's hilarious that I have been snipping off people's plants and always has a good laugh when I come home with my pockets full.

We have also fixed up the kids' cubby house.  Arley swept it out and hosed it down himself, and now we have put some mats down and some large pillows, a blanket, and some snacks out there.  Arely wants to decorate it, so we are going to get some fairy lights and let him hang drawings inside.

The kids and Jeffrey have also had a swim in the pool, albeit in their wetsuits.  One day it was 27 degrees! I almost jumped in myself.  It is going to be great having a pool this summer :)  The kids and I have been having small fires in this tree stump that has been used as a fire pit. They are very excited about living here with these things to do in the backyard.

The lockdown is frustrating because we had plans this week to get out to homeschool activities, however I have to say, Arley has been fairly calm which has been nice.  Maybe he needed this time to settle in.  Carmie has been having insomnia on and off and has been emotional.  I went to the doctor today to talk to her about Carmie's coeliac diagnosis, and to follow through with my testing, and the doctor wrote out a referral for Carmie to see a paediatric gastroenterologist to have an endoscopy.  She said Carmie's numbers are really high and she would put money on it that she is coeliac, but before we all limit our diet even further, she wants a complete diagnosis.  After Carmie gets her diagnosis, we have to get Arley tested, which is going to be a nightmare.

I wish we weren't in lockdown within our first month of moving here, but as far as lockdowns go, this one is pretty chill!

At Aussie World

Our makeshift natural fire pit

Arley is really into doing puzzles with me lately.  I love it.