So, everyone in the States changed their clocks this past weekend...and my husband, being American, thought we changed ours too. On Saturday night we had what we thought was our last beach dinner for the summer, and that night we set all the clocks back and looked forward to our extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. It took us a few hours to realise that we were still on daylight savings time. Ha ha, silly Jeffrey. But our 'last' beach dinner was lovely, and the kids were sandy monsters.
On Sunday we went to little Jemma's birthday party. All of the kids were surprised with two ponies (well, one was dressed up as a unicorn) for pony rides. Carmie was really excited, Arley not so much. His anxiety ramped up, and he started behaving horribly. I kept him separated, but he was being really awful, because he was scared they were going to make him 'ride a horse'. And you should have seen the size of these ponies, one wasn't much bigger than him! His bad behaviour lasted a good 45 minutes, and I just spent the time trying to calm him down and convincing him that he didn't have to ride. He got adventurous and gave the littlest pony a pat, and then all of a sudden he told me that he wanted to ride. So he faced his fears and got on the tiny unicorn pony! Jeff and I were so proud, and the kids were so cute being led around. And after Arley's pony ride, all of his anxiety was gone, and he was brilliant, no bad behaviour it all. Such proof to me that so much of what we deal with is anxiety-based.
We spent a lot of the week inside, only going to things that we have previously signed up for, like gym and swimming. It was a good balance and nice not to be totally busy. The kids have been a little frenetic this week - Carmie a little emotional, and Arley stimming and with too much energy. Annoyingly his stim is grabbing my butt and squeezing and pinching it. Funny for others, yes, but really really annoying for me!! Yesterday we had a bigger day - Carmie decided not to go to radio because her friend wasn't going, so instead we took Bella for a run at Collers beach. The kids were fully clothed, as it wasn't a very hot day. Carmie ended up stripping down bit by bit until she was skinny dipping :) I should know better than not to put her in her swimmers! After our beach play, Carmie had Japanese class, while Arley scooted on the track. They also have garden beds available for groups at the Dunn Lewis Centre, so our little homeschool group got some of the beds, and we planted them with beets and lettuce, kale and cauliflower yesterday.
To keep the kids occupied a bit this week, I set up our 6-man tent in the back yard. While it is killing our grass, the kids think it is the coolest thing. They tried to sleep out there one night, and they made it to 10pm. Then we saw them with their little flashlights coming inside. But last night, Carmie decided she was sleeping out there alone, so after Arley went to bed, she gathered her stuff and out she went. Jeff and I thought there was no way she would last, but she wondered in at 8:30 this morning with a big smile on her face. And it was windy and rainy last night too! I joined her for a couple of hours, but even I didn't make it through the night! Brave little miss.
Arley is reading brilliantly, but he won't read for Jeff, so I videoed it for him. When Arley was younger, I was worried about how to teach him to read, as Carmie taught herself so young, I felt inept. But it appears Arley has the reading-early gene too, as he has taught himself and I haven't had to do a thing!
Here is a video of my smart little guy:
Two little readers in their tent.
