We have had a lot on this week, and sadly Carmie has been sick for a lot of it, and now I am sick. I think Arley was sick too, but he isn't very aware of his internal feelings, so I don't think he noticed that much. On Tuesday he was very very spaced out. Holly came over on Monday for her sessions with the kids, and she was getting over a cold - I guess she wasn't truly over her cold, because she gave it to us. We've had some bad news regarding Holly - she has resigned from the company who sends her to us, so after Monday she will no longer be the kids' support worker. We are gutted. Carmie cried and cried when she found out.
We had a quiet weekend. We played Finska together in the backyard. Much to Arley's dismay, Jeffrey and Carmie won again. Arley and I have only won once. Jeffrey and I have date day every Saturday afternoon, so we did that. We usually just have some drinks and play some games together. I went house hunting for Mum and Geoff but had no luck.
On Tuesday morning we had Arley's private Taekwon Do lesson, and it went well. He got through 20 minutes of it, and then Carmie and I finished off the hour with our own lesson. Arley is doing really well at some things, but he just cannot coordinate himself to do certain things, like blocks. He has trouble doing something called 'crossing the midline' and it makes some things a real struggle for him. We have a break from Taekwon Do over the next few weeks because of school holidays, so I'll work with him at home on it a little if he'll let me.
The kids also had horse riding on Tuesday, and Carmie had a really long lesson. She is learning how to do exercises with the horse before she rides, and it is tougher than it looks. Arley actually rode this week, but he was very zoned out so he just sat in the saddle and was lead around.
On Wednesday morning Jeff took the kids to Chambers Island to see Clint, and I had a full two hours alone in the house! That's only the second time I've had alone in 14 months. The house was so quiet!! Afterwards I had to take Arley to his follow-up appointment with his new paediatrician. It has been four weeks on his new med, which has been amazing for his ADHD, but not so good for his eating. He lost 1.5kg on it :( We tried so hard too. So, the paed put him back on his old med, and she is slowly raising the dose in the hopes that he will eat more and it will be effective on his ADHD as well. The good news is that since he lost so much weight he is very aware of how skinny he is and he doesn't like it, and for the last few days he is trying to eat as much as he can, and he has even tried a few new foods. He had some fried potato today (mild success), and the big win is that we discovered that he likes McDonald's strawberry thickshakes!
Arley's anxiety has been getting the better of him lately. He woke up from a nightmare one night this week and kept me up for a couple of hours. He is scared to use the kids' bathroom, and also scared to go into a dark room alone, even if he knows where the light switch is.
Carmie had her first appointment with the paediatrician today. We really like her; she is very thorough. The paed is putting Carmie on a low-dose of an anxiety meds as well to see if that helps her insomnia. Carmie goes back to her in four weeks, and if her sleep isn't better, the paed is booking her into a sleep clinic. We are getting real help! The paed is also doing basic genetic testing on the kids, getting Carmie's back x rayed to look into her poor posture, and has booked Arley in to the hospital to get his blood drawn by a specialist crew who will give him gas to help calm him. I'm so grateful for good doctors - we had awful ones for so long!
Bella turned 13 this week! She is such a sweet old girl. She is still in good shape, but we are getting a little sad and worried, because the average age of a wolfhound is 6-8 years, and the average age of a staffy is 12-14 years. We're trying not to think about it, but we can't imagine life without her :(
I think that is all for this week. I'm hoping Carmie gets better tonight because tomorrow she has a young writers creative writing workshop. Fingers crossed!
Bella with her new haircut on her 13th birthday
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