584 + 480 Weeks

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

Arley grooming Dakota.  These two love each other.

Cleaning Dakota's hooves

Carmie taking Chilly through his exercises.

583 + 479 Weeks

It has been a really good week, except for the fact that we had to say goodbye to Lolo & Dida this afternoon.  They are leaving tomorrow morning to go back to Ulladulla.  They didn't manage to find a house they liked to buy.  The search isn't over - I will be looking for them, and then Mum will fly up when necessary.  It's a two day drive, so it's not so easy a move.  It seems that house prices are dropping too, so waiting a little while is probably a smart thing to do.

The kids have loved having their grandparents around.  We had them over for dinner, and we had a couple of lunches out.  We all went out for Father's Day which was on Sunday.  Jeffrey got taken care of pretty well that day, so he was happy.

Carmie has been doing well this week, with only one night of insomnia.  We have been to afternoon sessions of Taekwon Do together, and she has been busy finishing a short story that she has been writing for a few weeks.  She was unable to come to our private Taekwon Do lesson on Tuesday, but Arley did, and he did great.  He even learned a few new things, which is a really big deal because he usually gets very stressed and angry.  Today I was able to show him some more moves, so this is very encouraging!  His session with Holly was only an hour long this week, and that went much better.  This morning he had OT at home.  He and his OT are making a sensory garden out of pallets, and he was hammering away like a champ this morning.  It is the most engaged he has been.  He also did a page of maths with me, and baked some muffins, which is a big win!

On Wednesday I took the kids back to the park play with the homeschool kids.  Carmie was a bit awkward but trying hard, and Arley was lured in by the two puppies that were there.  Arley and I ended up going back to the house where the puppies came from to look at the whole litter, along with some guinea pigs, two parrots and a snake.  He was very happy - he just loves animals.  Carmie stayed at the park with the other kids.  I'm hoping that next week we will have more success, and both kids will actually play with the other children at the park.  Small steps!

Every morning I have to contend with trying to get Carmie out of bed, dressed, eating breakfast, and tidying her room.  It is a very long and frustrating process, because she is very slow and unmotivated in the mornings.  Today I decided to not prompt her at all - no reminders except for brushing her teeth.  I learned a good lesson.  She did everything in her own time, just like she does when I prompt her a hundred times over.  I discovered it makes no difference at all whether or not I remind her to do her morning routine - she takes just as long either way.  So from now on I am taking it easy and leaving her to it.

The kids had a great horse riding lesson on Tuesday.  Arley just groomed his horse again, and Carmie was very tired so she rode on the lunge.  They were so calm and happy afterwards, I really think equine therapy is brilliant.

Anyway, it's been a great week.  Here's to more!

Arley and a guinea pig

Father's Day

This afternoon at Taekwon Do :)

582 + 478 Weeks

Mum & Geoff came up this week to look for an apartment to buy, as they finally sold their Vegas condo and are going to move here.  As usual we surprised the kids - we had Lolo and Dida sitting on our outside sofa, and I asked the kids if they could help us with the grocery delivery.  They walked outside and saw their grandparents, and were so excited.  Carmie was annoyed that we got her again.  Haha.

So, Lolo and Dida had dinner with us that first night, and then we have only seen them here and there because they are so busy looking at units and townhouses.  They've found one they like and made an offer today, so our fingers are crossed. 

On Friday of last week we had Arley's friend Chayse over, in the hopes they would connect again.  Arley was hesitant to come out of his room at first, but then he started playing Xbox with Chayse and Carmie.  It was going pretty well until I heard Arley saying, "Stop it Chayse.  Stop it Chayse!"  That went on for a few minutes, and then he took himself off to his room.  I was actually really happy that he did that instead of causing drama.  He needed to regulate himself, and we have been told to let him do that as much as necessary.  He came out again and played VR with them for 10 minutes, and that was it.  Carmie and Chayse had a good time though :)

We went to the park play again on Wednesday.  Arley gave it a go for ten minutes, which was much better than last week.  He wasn't grumpy at the kids or anything, he just watched.  Carmie had a bit of a play too.  

On Monday Arley wasn't able to do his session with Holly.  I ended up sending her home after 15 minutes, because there's just no point sometimes.  Then on Tuesday morning I took Arley to his private Taekwon Do lesson (Carmie had insomnia again and was unable to join us).  Arley lasted 10 minutes, and during that time he was very angry and uncooperative.  He ended up storming off to sit in the car.  Mr Kelly was very sympathetic and understanding.  Later that day at horse riding we took the pressure off and asked Arley what he wanted to do.  He only wanted to groom his horse and clean the hooves, so that's all he did.  We are learning that when we take the pressure off him, things go more smoothly.  Carmie had a great horse riding lesson though, trotting on the lunge.  She just loves it.

Carmie has had two more nights of insomnia this week, despite her medication.  I hate it.  I feel so bad for her, and it means that we can't do the planned activities.  She is always very hyped up at night time, and very difficult to get out of bed and motivate in the mornings.  She was able to do some good tree climbing with Clint on Wednesday, and she had a good session with Holly on Monday.  Being tired makes her very emotional, and she gets upset at the slightest thing.  And then late afternoon hits, and she gets a burst of giddy energy that lasts several hours and then she can't sleep again.

I have only a few photos for this week, and none with Lolo and Dida.  Lolo and Dida are coming over for dinner tonight, and hopefully this time tomorrow they will know if they got this townhouse and we will all be celebrating.

581 + 477 Weeks

It has been a quiet week with a lot of home time.  We couldn't get to Taekwon Do all week, and I've barely hit the gym either, so I'm feeling rather sluggish.  I'm starting up again tomorrow though.  Carmie had severe insomnia on Monday night because she forgot to take her meds.  She ended up falling to sleep at 5:45am, and was a mess all of Tuesday.  We cancelled horse riding because she was barely a shadow of herself.

Arley is on a new ADHD med to try to get him eating more.  He is actually eating less and has lost half a kg.  We are hoping this is just a side effect that will go away, because as far as keeping his ADHD symptoms at bay, this med is great.  He is so focused on it - he sat with me and coloured in for two hours straight one morning.  I haven't been able to get him doing anything at our craft table for more than five minutes in SO long.  So, I'm really hoping the loss of appetite is a fast-passing side effect.

On Wednesday I took the kids to Clint at Chambers Island, then home for a rest.  I then took them to a park in Buderim where I knew a small group of homeschoolers was meeting up for an hour.  The kids weren't super keen, so I told them we'd go out to lunch afterwards.  The park play went great for Carmie.  There were six girls there, four were 11 and two were 12.  And to our surprise, Arley's friend Chayse was there.  I was so happy to see Chayse, thinking maybe Arley would be able to have fun and play, but Arley was way too stressed.  He was angry the whole time, and boldly announced that the park sucked.  He was stopping Carmie from using the park equipment, and being very challenging, which means his anxiety was skyrocketing.  I had him join in with a group game, and he didn't understand it and stormed off, embarrassed.  Carmie, however, had a good time.  Some of the girls approached her to play, and now she wants to go back next week.  I have gotten a promise out of Arley that next week he will at least try to smile and be polite.  We are having Chayse over tomorrow morning to play Xbox with Arley, so hopefully they will reconnect.

Today Arley had OT at home.  He and Toni his OT are building a sensory garden out of palettes.  Afterwards I rustled up the kids and took them to Point Cartwright beach, which was beautiful.  The weather is getting warmer and it was such a lovely day.  We found some awesome shells and collected some driftwood for our hermit crabs.

I'm hoping to get back on track next week: gym sessions, Taekwon Do, horse riding, and hoping Carmie sleeps and Arley eats!

580 + 476 Weeks

I’m sitting in a cafe in Caloundra, with the most beautiful view.  I’ve got an hour and a half to kill while Arley is at his support worker Rob’s house.  This is my treat to myself this week.  Carmie is at home with Jeffrey who has the day off work.  Poor Carms woke up with a tummy ache - damn that Coeliac disease.  We’ve had a pretty good week though.  Arley had an appointment with his new paediatrician.  She seems very nice as well as thorough.  She has switched his meds from Concerta to Vyvanse in the hopes that his appetite increases.  Yesterday was day one on the new med, and he was a little irritable and sleepy, but he said he felt more focused.  I’m really hoping it helps with his appetite, as he’s very hard to feed.

I met with Arley’s psychologist yesterday and she has given me some more techniques that might help getting him out of the house. She also told me that she has a real soft spot for Arley.  Jeff and I met with Arley’s behaviour specialist which is great, as he’s getting Jeff and me on the same page.  He said Arley’s PDA (pathological demand avoidance) is off the charts, which means we have a lot of work ahead of us.  We are trying to let a lot of things go and remove demands from Arley - we can only push him so far.

On Monday, Holly, the kids’ support worker, and I took the kids to a gem fossicking place.  This was the highlight of our week.  They have large areas full of rocks with polished tiger eye and agate and other ‘gems’ scattered through them.  It was really fun, and the kids loved it.  We are hoping that Holly will eventually be able to take Arley out places on his own, because he’s getting bored of the activities she does with him at home.

Carmie is continuing with her Sunday creative writing class, and now she has also joined a literature class on Sundays as well.  She is writing a novella for the writing class (and it’s amazing!) and she has started writing a short story for a writing competition as well.  It’s so good to see her choosing to do these activities and really enjoying them.  It’s what homeschooling is all about!

And once again we had horse riding and Taekwon Do.  Yesterday we had a home day and it was a little rough with some meanness and quite a few tears.  It was just one of those days.

Some other good news is that Mum and Geoff sold their condo in Las Vegas this week - done and dusted! So they will soon start looking at buying a home up here and moving.  We are looking forward to having family around, and the kids are beside themselves :)

Fossicking

Carmie cleaning her horse's hooves before riding :)

579 + 475 Weeks

It's been quite a busy week, and I am very happy that tomorrow is Saturday.  Last Saturday Carmie and I met up with her friend Lexi and mother Nicky at the mall and we went clothes shopping.  Carmie has been really difficult to buy clothes for, because she is very skinny but has legs up to her armpits!  Any pants that are the right length have been way too big in the waist, so she has been dressing rather badly this past year.  However, we found a store that somehow has clothes that fit her, and we went on a bit of a spree.  She was so happy, because she really needs that confidence boost.  Afterwards we all went and got sushi and bubble tea, and Lexi and Carmie had a good catch up while Nicky and I got to chat.  Meanwhile, Jeffrey had taken Arley to the game arcade, and they were having their own fun time.  It was a perfect Saturday morning!

The kids had all their therapies this week.  Arley was a champ at his private Taekwon Do lesson.  Mr Kelly gave him boxing gloves, and Arley was stoked.  He has made so much progress in four lessons, Mr Kelly and I can't stop talking about it!  I almost get teary.  Carmie and I have also done our lessons, and Mr Kelly is teaching me more patterns above my grade level, because I should be higher but Carmie wants me to stay at her level.  Loving it!

When Alrey was with Clint at Chambers Island on Wednesday, they went searching for hermit crabs.  They found one, and Alrey was enamoured.  Clint told us that we could buy hermit crabs as pets, so the kids of course started begging right away.  After the session I went out to lunch with some friends (like real grown ups!), and then I tracked down a pet store with hermit crabs and bought the kids two, along with a crabitat.  They were very excited when I got home!  So now we are the proud owners of two hermit crabs, Hermy and Kermit.  Oh, and they live for ten to fifteen years!  OMG.

We received Arley's report and specialised behaviour plan from his behaviour therapist.  It is the most thorough report we've had, and has ideas of how to help him at challenging times.  It confirms the PDA diagnosis and gives a lot of understanding to his behaviours.  I'm hoping it helps us going forward.  One thing we have to do is remove all 'demands' when Arley is getting stressed.  We've also been told to let him have his iPad whenever he needs it, because his brain needs it for stimulation.  This takes the guilt away, at least!

578 + 474 Weeks

We have had a good week, barring Arley having one massive and quite traumatic meltdown when I left the house to take a walk - I wasn't there to calm him, so it escalated fast and was pretty awful for both him and Jeffrey.  Arley's behaviour specialist came over on Wednesday and has given us some techniques to use going forward, so hopefully these will help.

On Friday Arley's support worker Rob was ill, so I took the opportunity to take the kids to the beach at Kawana.  We found a park we hadn't been to, so the kids had a good play there first.  We then went and played on the beach - the kids made me do running races with them.  I am the tallest and easily the slowest, and Arley is the shortest and easily the fastest.  Plus my legs were aching for two days afterwards!  It was a lovely morning though.

On Saturday we had 'family sports day' at the neighbourhood park.  We are going to try to do this more often, because it gets us all moving, and it is just around the corner so Arley doesn't get too stressed out.  We took a soccer ball and goals, a basketball, a handball, and a baseball and bat, so we had plenty of choice.  Jeffrey started teaching Carmie how to play soccer.  Arley played baseball with me, with lots of breaks in between.  We are not pushing him, and letting him sit out as much as he wants, because I've realised this is the only way to do anything with him - very slowly!

Carmie and I went to Taekwon Do on Monday and Wednesday evenings, and we also had our private lesson on Tuesday with Arley.  The great news is that Arley earned his yellow stripe, so now he is the same rank as Carmie and me.  I can tell he is proud, but he doesn't want me to tell anyone, and he was really down-playing it.  Our instructor, Mr Kelly, is basically devising a program just for Arley, and we are both really excited about it.  The improvement in Arley's attitude and confidence in the lessons is amazing.  I really think this could be one of the best things for him.

On Tuesday afternoon I took the kids back to horse riding, and Arley rode again, which is great.  Carmie rode her horse Chilli for ages, and was all smiles.  The lessons are quite drawn out because they include a lot of grooming and horse care, so we spend quite a bit of time there.  Arley can only take so much, so he goes on his iPad for a bit, but Carmie loves it.

Today we were supposed to go to the homeschool meet at Bokarina, but none of us felt like it, so we flaked out.  Sometimes it's just got to be a home day, you know?