564 + 460 Weeks

I can't believe a week has gone by already.  I had a night and a day off this week.  I drove down to Byron Bay to meet my sister who had flown up there to go house hunting.  We went out to dinner, relaxed by the pool, had a lovely breakfast out, and saw four beautiful but not-quite-right houses before I drove home.  It was a flash trip that we organised the day before, and given the fact that the kids were completely unprepared for me to leave, it all went well.  Jeffrey had the kids on his own which he isn't used to, and I had a lovely break!  How good is that?! :)

Jeffrey and I took the kids up to Noosa on Saturday.  It is only 50 minutes north of here, and very beautiful, with great shops and restaurants.  I hadn't been there since I was about 11.  We walked around, did as much window shopping as the kids would allow, found a restaurant we could all actually eat at, and then walked along the beach before heading home.  It was nice, and a relatively successful outing.

The kids had their Monday mentors and that went well.  On Tuesday their support workers came and looked after them for four hours.  Arley actually left the house with them to get bubble tea.  Jeffrey and I took the opportunity to go to the big mall and have a browse and buy a few things.  I'm still waiting for the day when I get a few minutes in the house alone, but I believe it will happen!

Arley has been quite shouty lately, losing his temper a lot.  We are bribing him with his iPad at dinner time if he hasn't shouted all day.  He gets one chance to calm himself down if he gets angry, and if he can do this throughout the day, he gets an iPad dinner.  So far, so good!  We have discovered that consequences, natural or not, just don't work with this kid, but the offer of more screen time does!

I don't have much else to report.  I'm still not 100% after COVID.  I am fully up and about, and will be starting back at the gym tomorrow, but I feel about 5-10% COVID-y.  Just not quite right. :(

Only a few pics this week, and none of Arley.

563 + 459 Weeks

It has been quite a week!  We were supposed to be in Bowral for Easter, and flying home from Sydney today, but that didn't happen.  Everyone is fully recovered from COVID except I have a lingering cough that is driving me crazy and giving me a headache.  Anyway, we had our Easter egg hunt at home with Jeffrey on Sunday.  The kids were very excited, and Arley said he thought it was the best Easter ever...until that evening when he discovered that Bella had eaten a good amount of his Easter eggs :(  Then it turned into the worst Easter ever.  Luckily Bella didn't get too sick.  She was a bit drooly and shaky the next morning, but she was OK.  She ate Arley's large egg, three small eggs, a couple of hollow eggs, a Kinder chicken, and 7 Lindor chocolate balls.  Those are the wrappers that we found in Arley's bedroom and scattered around the backyard.  So naughty!  I was worried about Bella, but by the time we discovered how much she'd eaten, it was beyond the timeframe of making her vomit.  And Arley is still upset about his lost Easter eggs!

We still haven't really left the house too much.  We got the kids to a park we had never been to before.  They had a little play and then we played a family game of Finska.  When we got home, Jeff and I both immediately fell asleep on the bed.  I am still very tired, and obviously not fully recovered yet.  It was good to get out though.  The kids and I have walked to our neighbourhood park a couple of times too.

The kids had their mentors Holly and Josh come over on Monday, and that went really well.  On Tuesdays I have organised for two other mentors to come take the kids off my hands for four hours.  Arley's mentor's name is Jack (we have met him a few times before), and Carmie's mentor's name is Abbey.  The plan is that the mentors work with the kids one on one but together at first, taking them places together and then eventually separating them.  It was supposed to be my first time in the house alone on Tuesday (the last two times I had planned this, it completely fell through).  The mentors were supposed to come play games at home with the kids for an hour to connect with them, then take them to the supermarket, then out on a picnic lunch.  Arley refused to go.  When he found out that the mentors were staying for four hours, he freaked out, said it was way too long, and then refused to leave the house without me.  No amount of bribery was working.  So the mentors ended up taking Carmie up to the shops to get some bubble tea, and they brought some home for Arley and then played with the kids in the house.  So, it didn't quite go to plan.

The kids both had their psychology sessions again, and we are working on creating consistent schedules for the kids that include exercise and project work and social time.  It's not easy because they have so many therapies on and Arley hates to leave the house.  He started his social skills group yesterday and he actually quite liked it.  Carmie starts hers tomorrow and I think she's looking forward to it too.

I'm thoroughly exhausted from this parenting business!  Plus, I published a small book this week called "After Your Child's Autism Diagnosis".  It's on Amazon.  I'm glad it's done - I've had it in me for a while, nagging at me, so now it's out there :)  But it's no wonder that I'm tired!

562 + 458 Weeks

So, we never made it to Ulladulla, Bowral and Sydney.  On Thursday of last week I thought I had overdone it at the gym because I was achy.  I went to bed early with a headache.  On Friday the headache was still there and nothing I took got rid of it.  I was still achy.  Over the course of the day I took two RATs and both were negative.  So I went ahead and checked into our flights online, and ordered groceries for our stay in Ulladulla.  I woke up early on Saturday morning, and knew something wasn’t right.  I tested positive for Covid two hours before we were to fly out :(. SO bummed!  Then I had to spend the next hour with an aching head cancelling our flights and groceries.  Cancelling the flights was a drama, because of course, I had already checked us in.  And then I went to bed for two days.  The kids were really upset.  They were expecting to get on a plane for a vacation, and instead they were told their mum was in bed with Covid and they were staying put.  Arley wanted Covid too so he could come into my room and be with me.  Carmie also got a sore throat and was tired.  We never tested her, but she definitely has it too.  She broke out into a rash / hives on her legs yesterday.  She doesn’t have much energy.  And Jeffrey tested positive yesterday, but he is hardly affected at all.  He’s up and about today washing the cars - so he is definitely doing fine!  Arley is the only one who isn’t sick at all.  He is actually in screen heaven.  You’d think he would get bored of being on his screens, but nope.  He’s only bored off his screens.

So, I have nothing to report this week except for illness.  The good thing about getting it now is that I had done two weeks of extra work so that I wouldn’t have to work while we were away, and I had cancelled all of our appointments because we weren’t going to be here.  So we have been able to take it easy.  I was really looking forward to getting the kids’ cognitive assessments done, but we’ll have to wait on these.  Next week the kids are starting a social skills program each that goes for nine weeks long, so we will have to wait until at least June to get the tests done.  And I’m not loving the thought of the south coast during the winter (it’s one of the reasons I wanted to move from there so badly!), but we’ll go then if we have to.

So, I only have one photo from this week - Carmie saw a photo of her Oma and Opa from 1983, and she couldn’t stop laughing, so I snapped a photo.  Hopefully I’ll have better news and more photos next week :)

561 + 457 Weeks

We've had a few ups and downs this week.  A highlight was Autism Awareness Day and an autie party that we went to on Saturday.  There is a new centre for autistic kids opening up and they had an opening day party.  All the kids there were autistic, as well as the mentors (some were ADHD), and it was great.  Everyone was inclusive and understanding of needs.  They even managed to find a pair of socks for Arley to wear on the jumping castle because he hates being barefoot.  They had a mini ferris wheel that the kids went on, and they gave them water pistols to shoot each other and bystanders with.  There was cotton candy, donuts, popcorn, slushies...the kids were in heaven.  I haven't seen Arley eat so much ever.  He told me he was trying to get in as much of the food as he could, and that is exactly what he did.  The kids had a blast, and Jeffrey and I learned about the centre, which is great, so we are signing the kids up for their social activities when they officially open.  This is what I mean about the great services here.  So thankful!

Carmie has had a quiet week.  She is weaned off her sleeping pills and is taking long-acting Clonidine.  She's not sleeping as much as she should, but she is doing much better than she was before, so we take that as a win.  She had a great session with Clint yesterday, and apparently she climbed incredibly high in the trees.  I'm glad I didn't see it!  Arley didn't have such a great session - he got stuck on a rather low branch and couldn't get down.  He got embarrassed and anxious, and kept telling Clint to go away.  I had to go find them and rescue him down.  He told me he was going to stay there for three hours, so I tricked him into holding my phone and got him down when his hands were busy.  He got really mad at me, but he was on the ground!  After Clint we stopped by the kids' friend Lexi's house to see their new puppy, who is gorgeous.  The kids want a little puppy like that so badly.  We've got old lady Bella, and we love her, but she's pretty sleepy these days.

Because it's school holidays there are some different activities on, and I booked the kids into one of them.  It's called Wildlings, and it's a forest school.  Basically a beautiful place in the woods with a large creek running through it, gorgeous nature, and very few rules.  They were booked into the 'Wizards, Wands and Potions' class on Tuesday and the 'Primitive Weapons' class today.  Tuesday didn't go so well.  I was supposed to drop the kids off and go home and actually spend a few hours in the house alone, which I haven't done since I moved here.  But Arley's anxiety got the better of him and he refused to stay without me.  I told the workers there what was going on, but they were very little help, which was very disappointing.  I had to stay and do the activities with Arley.  I have always wanted the kids to try forest school, but after this experience, I realised it just isn't for them.  They need a whole lot more structure than was offered, a lot more support and guidance, and more stimulation too.  So, we cancelled the session for today.  I think Carmie would be OK there, but not Arley.  He actually yelled at me about it to his psychologist this morning.  But we had to try!

This afternoon we had a playdate with potential new friends for the kids.  It was rather awkward at first - all the kids were too shy to speak to each other.  The new friends were a 12 year old girl and her 10 year old brother, both autistic, ADHD and with anxiety, like ours.  Things got a little easier when Arley and the boy realised they both love Roblox.  Carmie and the girl soon started chatting, and there is a potential for friendships there, so keep your fingers crossed.

The kids and I are heading to Ulladulla on Saturday.  We are very excited, but sad to leave Jeffrey.  We might not be able to see too many people because we can't risk the kids getting Covid before their assessments, so we'll play it by ear.  My good friend Mark has Covid right now, and I was supposed to have dinner with him on Tuesday.  Fingers crossed everyone is clear by the time we get there.

At the autism party

At Wildlings