686 + 582 Weeks

I don't have much kids news for this week.  We've had the same struggles as always, with a few wins.

I was gone from Thursday night through Saturday evening.  I went to Sydney for my uncle's memorial.  I flew down with Mum & Geoff.  It was a sad time, but also really lovely, getting to see my cousins, and spend some time with my sister and my brother Sting (and met his girlfriend!).  Plus meals out with Mum & Geoff, and I visited with my aunts as well.  Jeff and the kids got along well while I was gone, with only a few mishaps.

The weather has suddenly become incredibly hot!  It is supposed to cool down a bit next week, but right now we are in the 30's, which is very hot considering we are still in winter!  We have a very busy month ahead, getting Jeff's new guitar school location ready.  I also have a small but quite complicated painting to do over the next few weeks.  Once Jeff has moved locations, we are cracking down on the kids screens again, and it's going to be rough, but at least no students will be around to hear the screaming!

Please ignore my daughter's rudenesss!  Haha

 

684,685 + 580, 581 Weeks

I didn't write the blog last week, as there wasn't too much to say.  We haven't been having the easiest time of it.  Arley is getting a little bit more regulated, but it does seem like he has regressed in the past month.  I took the kids to get their hair cut on Saturday and Arley refused to get out of the car.  It was pretty awful, as I took away his phone, and told him he wasn't getting McDonald's afterwards when Carmie's hair was cut.  Carms got a great hair cut, but not Arley.  His head is like an overgrown fluffy helmet, but he is insisting that he grows his hair out, and he put up a very good fight.  When he didn't get his McDonalds, all hell broke loose, but I stuck to my guns.  Poor Carmie and I had to drive home with a very irate Arley in the car with us.

Clint sent Arley a video on Tuesday about how he was going out to dig worms so they could feed them to the bush turkeys on Wednesday, so that is how we got Arley to Clint and Chambers Island this week.  I have shortened his time with Sprinkle on Wednesdays too, but then I pick him up and take him out to lunch with Carmie and I, before dropping Carmie off at 2 for her groups.  Arley's world just seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

Some good(ish) news is that we have stopped Arley's dental treatment for now.  He has a stubborn molar on the bottom that is embedded into the gum, and it's refusing to move.  This tooth is making his bottom appliance not stay on, so we had the option of pulling the tooth and continuing treatment, or waiting a few years until the tooth falls out, and then doing stage 2 of the treatment.  We chose option 2, and we are so relieved to be finished with those mouthpieces!  He has an appointment next week to get the brackets removed and then we will be done until Arley is 14 or so.  Woot woot!

Carmie is the same as always - a total slug every morning and bright and chirpy every afternoon.  Basically a slug when she has to get out of bed and get something productive done, and then full of beans when she gets to go off to her social groups.  She is really thriving with her friend groups and becoming more independent all the time.  Her support workers have been taking her out to cafes and making her do all the ordering and paying etc, and she getting more and more confident.  She's also started drawing again, and I've been teaching her a little bit of printmaking, which she is really enjoying.  It's been a pleasure spending time with her.

Jeffrey and I have some news.  We are about to sign a lease on a commercial property to move his guitar school out of our home and into a property on the busiest road on the Sunshine Coast.  It is scary but exciting.  It is also time.  It means Jeff can take more students in each class and grow the school without extending his hours, and we won't have people coming into our home every day.  I am really looking forward to that aspect, but I will miss Jeff not being home.  It will be much easier to parent though, because right now we tread on eggshells not to have disruptions while students are here, and that makes it very difficult to discipline Arley and stick to our new rules and token system.  We are spending the month of September getting the space fitted.  We need to put in a wall to separate the front and the back, we need to paint and carpet and put in acoustic panels, get signage made and installed - so much work!  We need to buy more equipment and furniture, then advertise... We can do it!  We are hoping he is in the new location by October 1st.

Tonight I am getting on a plane with Mum and Geoff to go to my uncle's memorial in Sydney.  I'll be coming back home on Saturday evening.  I wish I was getting this break under better circumstances, but still, it's a break, and very good for the kids to have time alone with Jeff.  I just hope it all goes smoothly!

I have no photos from the past two weeks, except for this one of the last painting I finished.  It's oil on canvas, 85cm x 85cm.

683 + 579 Weeks

I'm a day late because I was busy painting yesterday.  I am working on a large still life, and it's all I want to do! Annoyingly I have these two scallywags to contend with...  

It's been a week of ups and downs.  Jeffrey and I took the kids to Maleny Bird World on Saturday, and it was great.  Arley almost cracked it, but he pulled through.  We went to the petting zoo first, and the kids loved it.  There were three miniature donkeys and a bunch of goats, as well as bunnies, guinea pigs, chooks and sheep.  The donkeys and the goats were crazy and brought a lot of laughs.  Afterwards we went up to join a tour of the aviaries, and that's when Arley started to get stressed.  We were in a fairly large group, and there was a bit of standing around until we could get inside.  A crowd plus a wait is not a good combination for Arley.  However, once we were in with the birds, he was much better.  Bird World was great - beautiful birds, although I did feel a bit sorry for them not being able to fly free in their natural habitats.  Carmie loved it and wants to go back.

Carmie has had an ordinary week, going to her groups as usual, and not causing too much fuss.  She had behaviour therapy yesterday.  Carmie's behaviour therapist is very quirky and very good, and Carmie really likes her.  She has been doing assessments on Carmie, and one thing she told me yesterday is that Carmie's 'personal space bubble' is larger than most people's.  Carmie starts to feel physically uncomfortable when people are closer than one meter, and when she is stressed, it goes to almost two meters.  All these little pieces of information help us relate better to Carmie and help to keep her anxiety low.  Carms is learning a lot about her own anxiety and sensory preferences, and we are teaching her to become outspoken in her own needs.  She can be quite blunt, so I guess the next step is teaching her how to spare people's feelings when she is telling them she needs space.

Arley has had a bit of a crap week since then.  He didn't leave the house all week.  On Wednesday he had a massive meltdown before our support worker Savannah came to take the kids to see Clint. He just could not go.  Of course I didn't accept that, and we clashed and it turned really emotional, and in the end he didn't go anyway.  He just couldn't.  He actually put himself to bed and went to sleep instead.  He has been napping each day this week, so perhaps he is just getting over his cold still, or perhaps he was burnt out from our outing on Saturday.  I don't know, but he has been resting all week.  We are trying to teach him to stop creating so much drama and histrionics when things don't go his way...we have a LONG way to go!

682 + 578 Weeks

What a week it has been.  Arley was sick for all of last week.  He just has not been able to kick this cold of his, and he has this awful hacking cough, and a nasty mood to boot.  He had a complete break from his token reward system and spent most of the week on screens of one sort or another.  This has made him really dysregulated and really challenging.  I came down with the cold too, however not as badly, but I have had a headache for the better part of a week now.  

On Saturday Jeff and I went to Brisbane for a night away, while Mum and Geoff looked after the kids.  I wasn't feeling great, but it beat staying at home!  Haha.  We went to a concert - a Rolling Stones review - which was good but not great.  We had dinner out, and it was great to get away.  We were out at night in Brisbane, in an entertainment district, and we realised how old and settled we really are, because seeing all the clubs and bars and people partying did nothing but make us want to be in bed.  Haha.  On Sunday morning Jeff and I split up - he went to ride around the Brisbane River on his unicycle, and I went to the Queensland Art Gallery.  Loved it!  It was exactly what I needed.  The day didn't end so great though.  When it was time to go, Jeff met me out the front of the gallery, and I decided to pop back in to get a bottle of water from the cafe for the ride home.  I tripped on the stairs on the way up to the entrance, because of course I did.  I broke my fall with my hands and took a chunk off the top of my middle finger on my left hand by grazing it along the concrete.  The pain!  OMG, I got faint.  It was a small chunk, but quite deep, with lots of blood that ran down my hand as I made my way through the gallery to the bathroom.  Ugh, I'm just so clumsy.  So now my finger is healing but very tender!

Carmie is all better.  She has had a good week.  She had OT on Monday, and Sarah, the OT, oversaw Carmie making a cake (of course Carms chose her favourite cake, but it is difficult to make).  The cake was the epitome of Carmie.  If she were a cake, this cake would be her.  It was an absolute beautiful mess, disastrous but delicious.  So Carmie.  She ate the whole thing herself, barring one slice.

Sarah the OT has removed herself as Arley's OT to replace herself with a male OT, a guy called Clayton.  So now Arley has Clayton and Jordan (an OT assistant) to help him every other Monday.  I think they will be great for him.  Their goal is to toughen him up a bit and to get him able to touch things in the kitchen so he can help prep snacks and meals.  Arley has huge sensory aversions and can't touch anything that is damp or moist or smells of anything at all.  It is challenging, but I hope they can help.  My fingers are crossed!

Arley had to go back to the dentist to get scans done of his teeth to get him refitted for his Invisalign.  He has one bottom molar that is embedded into the gum and won't move, and the adult molar underneath it is turned sideways.  The teeth around it have moved, but this one tooth seems stuck.  If it won't move with the new Invisalign, the dentist will leave it, fix all the other teeth, then pull that molar when he is 14 and then see what we have to do to get the adult molar up and facing the right way.  This is just one more complication.  The dentist says Arley's case is the most complicated case he has done, and Invisalign will be showcasing before and after photos of Arley's teeth to show what is possible.  Because of course, this has to be our child with the manky teeth!  Can nothing be easy?!

The kids and I went up to Lolo and Dida's on Tuesday, and Lolo and I managed to drag the kids to a nearby park. It was very stressful and not much fun for anyone, but I am determined to do it more often to get them moving.  Arley did ride his bike this week though, and Carmie has started using a rebounder (a mini trampoline) that we bought.  Small steps!

I am painting again and loving it, although I wish I had more time.  One of these days!

Arley back in his seat in the dentist's waiting room

Carmie and her cake

 

Park 'play'