629 + 525 Weeks

It has been an unusual week for us.  We think Carmie got glutened this week.  We were at Taekwon Do on Monday afternoon and halfway through she got shaky and thought she was going to faint.  She's been on and off like that all week.  I have to take her to her endocrinologist next week, and she's just had her bloods drawn, so I'm hoping we get some answers.

On Saturday Mum and Geoff came over and looked after the kdis while Jeffrey and I went to an education fair at the university.  We had a booth there for Jeff's guitar school.  It was a LONG day, but worth it.  I'm glad we won't be doing it for another year.

I took Arley to the dentist again on Monday morning and he had his new dental appliance checked, and we were told we didn't have to come back for a month!  We are down to monthly dental appointments now - from weekly to fortnightly to monthly.  Celebrating!  Still weekly chiro though :(

Arley is doing quite well on his new med that we started last Thursday.  He seems calmer and happier, and the good news is that it makes him sleepy, so he takes it at night time, and he is able to sleep with his appliance in because the med knocks him out.  Win win!

Arley was a pain in the butt at horse riding again.  It was cold and had been raining, so he was just supposed to groom his horse and do a few groundwork things.  He was being quite antagonistic and refusing everything.  Finally Lisa got him to go with her to the paddock to visit the horses, and it totally brought him out of the grumps.  The horses love him, as you can see in the video below of Dexter following him around.

We have been home a lot lately, but I'm enjoying it.  Carmie and I made gluten free apple turnovers one day, and Arley and I have played a few games.  Not terribly exciting stuff, but mellow which is what I need!

Arley and Dexter

At the dentist

At the education fair.

628 + 524 Weeks

What a week it has been.  I'm eternally exhausted now because Bella has been waking us up every night.  She does so by nuzzling Jeff with her face, and then coming over to my side when I'm in a deep sleep, and pouncing with her front paws on the bed right next to my head/face.  I wake up screaming, it's like a giant possum has leapt onto my pillow.  She never really wants anything either, just my company while she goes outside and has a drink of water.  She has a doggy door, but no, apparently in the middle of the night she needs me to accompany her.  It is driving me crazy, because it takes me hours to fall asleep again after the huge rush of adrenaline.  She is turning 14 in a few months.  I think she is getting confused!

Arley has had a bit of a tough week.  On Monday he had back to back dental and chiro appointments.  The dentist fitted him with his palate expander appliance.  Arley hates it and is yet to sleep with it in even though he is supposed to.  He is supposed to wear it all the time except for eating and teeth cleaning.  He says it hurts,which I bet it does.  Over the next 16 weeks, his palate is going to widen by 8mm.  I'm so excited to see what he will look like after his teeth are in the right spot, but I wish he didn't have to go through all the pain to get there.  Poor bugger.

We had back to back paediatrician appointments this morning.  We were there for SO long.  Arley is starting a new med tonight.  It is supposed to help with anger and aggression, as well as impulsiveness.  I hope it works; he has been a tough cookie lately.  It is near impossible to get him off his computer.  Clint is starting to take him fishing again as of tomorrow, so hopefully that will help.  Arley did Taekwon Do on Tuesday morning but was rather wilful.  At horse riding we have given up trying to get him to ride at the moment.  He instead grooms and visits with the horses.  He complains so much, which is such a shame because he has a real affinity with the horses.  You can see in the photos below that they follow him around and connect with him.  I don't think he realises how lucky he is!

Carmie is doing well enough.  Lots of time in her room, just like a teenager.  She had psychology on Monday, and she went to her girl's wolfpack again yesterday.  She loves it.  I have to get Carmie's blood drawn in the next few weeks because she has to go back to her endocrinologist for a checkup for her coeliac disease.  She's not happy about that!  But she's doing OK, just trying to get through Arley's bad moods unscathed!  She has been playing Roblox with him at night after dinner, which really helps.  He loves to play with her, but it often isn't reciprocated! :(

Arley being grumpy about his dental appliance

Horsey love

Carmie on Chilly

627 + 523 Weeks

It has been one hell of an exhausting week!  Arley has been very challenging to be around.  Poor bugger.  On Friday of last week he asked if he and Carmie could have a sleepover at Lolo and Dida’s that night.  Jeff and I were stoked, of course.  Sadly Arley and I got into it - I don’t even remember what it was about - and he ended up in a meltdown.  I eventually got him calm and thought he was fine, so I still took the kids up to their grandparents’.  All was fine until that night when Arley wanted to have a shower but he realised that he had left his clothes in the car and I had brought them home.  Cue huge meltdown, and I wasn’t there to calm him down.  Jeffrey and I had gone out to dinner, and I had a margarita, and couldn’t drive to go get him.  I was on FaceTime with him, and it was awful.  Lolo and Dida aren’t really trained in what to do, so it was a bit stressful to say the least!  

He has been out of sorts all week.  It’s like he turned 10 and his ADHD is off the charts.  Every morning he is full of energy and determined to antagonise Carmie.  Or so it seems.  And then it continues on and off all day.  Then at night time, he is a jumping bean, all energised again.  We are all losing our minds.  I can’t even imagine how he is feeling.  Carmie is over it.  :(

This morning I had to get the kids to the paediatrician at 9:15.  It was raining torrentially, and I was stuck in so much traffic.  I had to get off the highway and navigate my way there while hydroplaning.  We were 20 minutes late, and I was calling the paed the whole time from the car phone to tell them.  But the phone just kept ringing and ringing, then going to answer phone.  We finally got there and ran through the downpour, into the reception where I saw the receptionists sitting and chatting together, the waiting room completely empty.  I told them I had been trying to call them the whole way there, and they looked at me dismissively and told me my appointment wasn’t until next week.  Oh my God, I was ready to kill them.  I was so frazzled, and I’ve been ever since!

We started back at Taekwon Do and horse riding again this week.  Arley refused to ride again, but he groomed Lisa’s new horse.  Carmie is learning how to slow down smoothly from a trot, and she is doing really well.  And it was great to be back at Taekwon Do. I haven’t been exercising as much since we moved, and I really feel the change.  Carmie went back to her girl’s Wolfpack group too, and both kids saw Clint as well.  I’m so glad the kids’ activities have started back up. Perhaps that’s why Arley has been dysregulated.  Changes of routine are never good.

Hoping next week is better!

I found Bella sleeping like this one day.  That is the lid of Arley's garbage bin around her neck!

Arley cleaning Dakota's hooves

Carmie, about half an hour ago when I realised I have no photos of her from this week!

626 + 522 Weeks

This week has been full on!  So much so that I cancelled the kids going to horse riding on Tuesday because we were all so exhausted.  It was the kids' birthday on Sunday!  12 and 10.  I can't quite believe it.  They were so excited for it.  Arley was talking about it for days, and Carmie was trying not to because she didn't want to give herself insomnia.

On their birthday we did presents before breakfast.  The kids are very happy with their gifts, which is great, because I'm finding it harder and harder to buy presents for them.  Then we got ready for our guests.  Lolo and Dida came over around 11am, and then my cousin Sammie, who I haven't seen since I was about 9 years old (!!), drove up from Brisbane with her son Colt.  He is 13, so not much older than Carmie.  It was great to have family here for the kids' day!  They spent the day on and off their screens, doing exactly what they wanted to do, which was fine as it allowed us adults to catch up.  It was really great to see my cousin again.  I think she was around 12 the last time I saw her, in New Zealand.  And her son Colt is lovely, and joined in with the kids really well.  At the end of the day Carmie thanked me for a great birthday, saying it was a very chill day and that she 'doesn't do social'.

On Monday we had friends over.  I have a Russian friend who I met in Coffs Harbour, and our kids got along quite well.  They were up in Brisbane, so they came to visit us for a few hours.  They brought their beautiful dog, a groodle, with them.  The dog is still young, but quite large, so it was a little hectic!  We took the dogs and the kids to the park, hung out and chatted, and then had lunch together.  Carmie and my friend's oldest daughter really clicked, and it was nice to see them together again.

The build-up to the birthday and the few days after have me absolutely shattered!  We have had home days for the rest of the week, which suits me fine.  Today Arley's friend Liam came over for some Roblox play, and I hung out with his mum Kim.  I like her, we get along well, and Liam and Arley are two peas in a pod.  So great Arley has a little mate!

Park play with Katya