697 + 593 Weeks

I have not a single photo to show for this week. We have had a fairly good week though. Although, Arley is down at a D&D group with Carmie right now and he is very angrily texting me to come pick him up because he is hungry. He is so demanding!

I finally went to the doctor to get antibiotics because my cough had turned into a chest infection. The antibiotics are nasty and leave the most awful metallic taste in my mouth, but I’m feeling much better, even though I’m still coughing a bit. At least Jeff is no longer sleeping on the couch!

Carmie has had a good week. She is getting back into the swing of her groups. She returns home very animated and happy, and it is so nice to see. She has added two more groups onto her schedule, so now she is going out every day. It’s awesome. 

Arley finally had his sleepover with Luca. They had a great time! It was a school night though, so they had to go to bed a little early (if you call 9:30/10pm early!) and Arley kicked up quite a fuss.  We had a big talk the next day, so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen again. 

It was mine and Jeff’s 16 year anniversary yesterday!  We both forgot. I remembered mid afternoon and when Jeff walked in at 7pm I told him I had something to say. His face showed full-blown panic. LOL. Then I told him happy anniversary :). Mum and Geoff are coming over tonight to be with the kids so Jeffrey and I can go out to dinner and to a show. The kids are excited to see their grandparents and I am excited to go out, so win win!

696 + 592 Weeks

Something kinda huge happened this week.  Arley got the courage up to make some neighbourhood friends!  These two brothers, Luca who is 11 and Kai who is 8, have been stopping by asking for kids to play with, and for a while I've been trying to get Arley to meet them.  A few weeks ago I invited them into the house to meet him, and I took them straight into his bedroom - he was too nervous to come out.  Then last week I convinced him to get a hair cut so he looked cooler, then over the weekend we walked twice to their house (only about 6 houses away on our street) to see if they were around to play.  They were not, but on Monday afternoon when they got out of school, they came over for a play.  The boys hit it off so well!  Arley and Luca have clicked - they started out playing Xbox, then moved on to playing in his room.  It went so well.  The boys came over again the next day and stayed for hours.  It's so much better with Jeff's guitar school out of the house - the kids can make noise now!  They swam in the pool for ages, played Xbox, played outside.  This is EXACTLY what Arley needs!!  He and Luca are so excited to have found each other, they organised a sleepover at our place for tonight....It's not all roses though.  The sleepover is postponed because...wait for it...Arley gave Luca one of his 'realistic' toy guns.  Luca was thrilled, he loves it.  So, he took it to school.  Some kids saw it sticking out of his bag, and he's been suspended.  OMG.  They've only known each other for four days!  The mother thankfully is being very kind and not holding us accountable.  Luca has had to go to his grandmother's house while he is suspended.  How bad did I feel when I found out though?!!

Carmie came home from a D&D session last week letting us know that there was room for Arley to join.  So yesterday, Arley joined in for the session.  It didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped - apparently Arley unexpectedly changed the direction of the game and no one was really happy about it.  I have to tread lightly telling him about it, because if he thinks they are all annoyed at him, he will never go back.  I am so happy he has joined the group, and Carmie is handling it very well.

Carmie is doing great.  She has fully recovered from the flu, but Arley and I are still coughing.  It's rough.  She has started psychology and behaviour therapy again this week - both sessions went really well.  She is working on her anxiety, as well as trying to be more responsible in the house, wake up early, exercise etc.  Carmie is such a sweet girl, but she is quite hopeless with being motivated to do things.  Her ADHD makes her very forgetful, so we are trying to figure out a system where she can schedule her day and not need reminding from me so much.  It's not easy growing these kids into adults!

I've been painting more this week, which has been lovely, and Jeff's school is going well too.  It feels like we are getting on track a little, thank goodness!