428 + 324

Well, I definitely think Arley's meds are starting to work.  On Saturday we made a spontaneous trip to Huskisson because Jeffrey had found a secondhand camera for the kids to learn to shoot with.  It's the perfect camera for them - lightweight, mirrorless, great lens.  Carmie is totally psyched and now has a new hobby.  Anyway, we sprung the trip on Arley, went to two parks, had lunch at the Husky pub, then Arley decided he wanted to go on a boat (because he has never been on one before), so we booked tickets on the Husky Ferry.  Carmie got to drive the ferry, and we saw a couple of sting rays.  After the boat we had another play in the park where the kids happened to run into some old friends, and it wasn't until after that when Arley asked to go home.  Usually we would have to plan everything ahead, and then not be able to stay out very long.  And not a single meltdown :)

And then on Sunday, it was the most beautiful day, so we decided to find a new dog beach to go to.  We found Cormorant Beach at Bawley, 25 minutes from us.  Before we left, Arley took his shoes and socks off and put sandals on.  Then when we got to the beach, he was the first to take his shoes off.  The kids swam until they were ice cubes, and Bella got a good run.  Arley was barefoot the whole time, and then when we left, I packed his shoes up, and he walked up the beach barefoot, across the grass, and into the car.  When he asked where his shoes were, I told him they were in the bag, and he seemed satisfied.  Then when we got home, he walked from the car to the house, and then off into the shower, all barefoot, and not even talking about it.  I can't tell you how momentous this is.  We haven't been able to get him to go barefoot like this ever.  Not even going from his bedroom to the bathroom.  Last summer it took half the summer to transition him into going barefoot on the sand at the beach.  He has been fine barefoot at the swimming pool, as long as it is just me who takes him swimming.  Until Sunday!  It sounds so silly to be happy about this, but he has had such dreadful anxiety about taking his shoes and socks off, for his entire life, and you wouldn't know how much trouble it actually causes; swimming pools with friends, jumping castles, trampoline places, taking shoes off at friend's houses...it has always been a massive issue.  So the fact that he just did it all on his own, unasked and without fuss, is huge.  It's the medication, it has to be.

That's not to say he's been totally easy.  There has still been a lot of bickering between the kids.  Arley still is lashing out. But we are supposed to see the full effect of the meds at four weeks, and tomorrow we'll be at three weeks, so I'm very hopeful.

It has been horrible weather for the rest of this week.  Freezing cold, rain, wind, we've had it all.  On Tuesday the kids were driving me insane, as tennis was cancelled, and we didn't get outside at all.  By 3pm I had to get them out the door to social skills class, and then for a sleep over at Lolo's, and it couldn't come soon enough!

Carmie started her speech therapy this week.  At first it was like pulling teeth getting her to talk.  I was super frustrated, and ended up leaving her alone during the session, which is when she fully opened up and embraced the therapy.  I have to do homework with her every day.  We are tackling her speech rhythm first, getting her to practice phrases while tapping her fingers, and then she has to tell me what she sees in picture books while speaking in a good rhythm.  She doesn't love doing it,  so I have to reward her afterwards, but I think it is worth it.

The kids had a brilliant horse riding lesson this morning.  They are little cantering champions.  And then Wes their carer took them bowling and out to lunch.  Tonight we are going to Lolo and Dida's for Dida's birthday dinner.  It's a busy day, but busy is good, because then at least Arley won't get bored, which is when the problems start!

Our day in Huskisson

 Captain Carmie

 Captain Jeffrey

Carmie loving her new camera

 Casper, our overnight visitor

 Cormorant Beach

427 + 323 Weeks

It's been a good week.  A bit too wintery for my liking, given that spring is here, but we still made it out to Collers Beach.  It was absolutely beautiful there, and I'm really surprised that Carmie didn't strip down and go swimming.  We had a find the best fossil competition - Carmie won, for the second time in a row.  Her prize was for us all to get ice cream, so we all won :)

In an effort to be more independent, Carmie has decided she is going to try cooking for us on Saturday nights.  This past Saturday she made nachos (her fave) with the left over chilli.  She is definitely taking on more around the house, and has learnt to do laundry.  I wish I could say that her bedroom isn't a disaster on a daily basis, but I can't!  It's definitely a disaster.  I have almost given up on her.  It seems her organisational skills need some improvement, and being so organised myself, it kind of boggles my mind!

Carmie had another speech assessment yesterday, with a speech pathologist from Sydney.  We are doing it all online.  The speech pathologist confirmed the diagnosis of cluttering, which is a rare nueromotor speech disorder.  She has a few more fluency and articulation problems we have to deal with that go along with the cluttering. This is all hurting her social life, as it is making her quite shy around other kids.  It is definitely disheartening when both of your kids are nuerodiverse - it gets really exhausting.  Carmie is starting weekly speech therapy on Tuesday, and none of it is covered by medicare.  We also can't get her on NDIS for ADHD, as here in Australia ADHD is supposed to be dealt with in schools.  I'm not sure what us homeschoolers are supposed to do.  I guess we just push forward and pay out of pocket until we dry up!  The speech pathologist yesterday told me that Carmie is lucky she is not in school, as she would probably shut down.  Clutterers can have a very difficult time with writing, which has always been a huge problem for Carmie, despite her very vivid imagination.  I wish life were a little easier for my guys.  Their giftedness comes with some huge ups and downs, and it is exhausting.

As for Arley, he has had a fairly good week.  He has had his ups and downs, but for the most part, I think he is calmer?  This morning after horse riding, he tripped and fell on the stairs.  Normally he would have exploded in anger, but he totally held it together, which doesn't happen often.  And yesterday he decided to go to after school care on his own, which is a bloomin' miracle!  The kids didn't spend Tuesday night and Wednesday at Lolo and Dida's, so Arley decided it was a day for Peak, and insisted I take him.  I absolutely 100% did not believe he would stay there without Carmie, but he just waved goodbye to me and off he went!  This would never ever have happened before!

At Peak on Friday last week, poor Carmie got hurt.  A girl kicked her shoe off and it hit Carmie right in the mouth.  I had to go pick them up early, and Carmie was sitting there crying with a fat bloody lip.  She was so shocked and upset, as the girl didn't even apologise to her :(

This afternoon I took the kids to the park to play with their friends after school.  It was actually a great success.  I had prepped the kids on the way there, and they had both taken activities to do in case they felt like they needed alone time.  But that didn't happen, and they played with their three friends like old times, which was great to see.  Arley hurt himself pretty badly falling out of a tree, and then lashed out at Carmie, but other than that, it was a success.

Today is Bella's 10th birthday.  She's an old lady now, but she still has tons of energy, when she is not sleeping.  We've still got a few good years of her yet :)

Carmie making her favourite dinner for the family :)

 And dishes too?!

Out for ice cream as Carmie's prize for winning the fossil competition

Happy birthday to Bellsie

426 + 322 Weeks

It was Father's Day this past weekend, so we tried to spoil Jeffrey rotten.  He was able to have a hands-off day with lots of down-time (a rarity around here), and then we had Lolo and Dida over for afternoon tea.  I had made chocolate brownies for Jeff, as well as scones, and we had afternoon tea outside on the patio, because spring is also finally here.  The kids were in good form, and it was a pretty chill day.

I took the kids back up to Nowra to see the doctor on Friday.  Beforehand I took the kids to Flip Out, the trampoline place, to get some of that energy out.  It was a good move, because the doctor's appointment was an hour long.  He gave us Arley's prescription for anxiety meds, and warned me that he might be more aggressive for the first two weeks.  Well, of course that freaked me out, but he has surprised us.  The first two days he was extremely calm.  And then for these past four days he has been typical Arley.  We're not supposed to notice any difference in his anger/anxiety for 2-3 weeks.  But so far so good.

On Monday we went to horse riding, and then out to lunch before going to a homeschool meet up at Mollymook.  Only one other family showed up, but the kids made three new friends, so it turned out well.  The kids have been on fire at horse riding.  I asked them if they ever get scared up on a horse, and they both said no.  They must feel completely natural now.  I took some good videos this week, so I'll add one below (after all, it's been two weeks since I showed a gratuitous horse riding video!)

The kids had tennis and social skills class on Tuesday, before going to Lolo and Dida's for a sleep over.  I got straight to work, and then I was back at work at 8:30 on Wednesday morning, pretty much working through to 11pm.  I had to get this large painting finished - not only was it doing my head in, but I was using 11 different colours along the bottom, and it was taking me so long that my paints were getting gummy.  While I was working, the kids were with Lolo, having a reading morning, then lunch, ice cream and a walk on the beach.  I had asked the kids to collect nature things like bird feathers, so Arley came back with a massive bag of fish bones, and one giant bone from some unknown animal.  I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with all these bones!

Today we had a park play with the kids' friends who used to homeschool but don't anymore.  We have been trying to meet every Thursday, but it's been cancelled for a month due to bad weather.  I don't know if it's because it had been so long, but Carmie was having a hard time this afternoon.  She was super mopy and sad because she thought no one wanted to play with her.  It was so hard to snap her out of it, I had to go organise games for the kids to play and then play with them all.  She eventually got over herself, but she's a tough cookie sometimes.

Anyway, it's late, and I'm so not ready to post this.  I'll add photos tomorrow and then post.

Here is that horse riding video I promised:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrobM34D4ik

425 + 321 Weeks

This week has flown by.  Arley had a couple of bad days - Sunday was particularly difficult.  He is so impulsive, and he gets so stressed and angry, poor guy.   On Friday I took him up to see the new doctor I found, and I am so glad I did.  This doctor is great, really understanding and full of knowledge.  He's getting Arley on some anxiety meds, because he says the anger is just a manifestation of anxiety, that's all it is.  He was hesitant at first, but at the end of our hour-long consult, he determined it's the best thing.  I'm heading back up tomorrow with both kids, so I can get the script for Arley and let him meet Carmie too, to see if he can figure out what's going on in that big brain of hers.

Again we went to Collers Beach, and to all of the usual activities.  I am so looking forward to spring coming next week, I am over this cold weather.  We have suddenly had a cold snap today, and it is supposed to start raining heavily soon.  Our carer Wes just look the kids out to the skate park and to lunch, which gave me two hours of peace (if you call housework peaceful!).

The kids and I got our hair cut this week.  I always go to my friend who is a hair dresser, because she understands Arley.  He hates any clips being put in his hair, and he gets really angry because he doesn't like to look different, and he thinks shorter hair makes him look like a baby.  I think it's because we used to buzz his head when he was young.  So he gets pretty rude to the hair dresser.  Carmie looks super cute, even if people think she is a boy!  There have been some very confused kids in their social skills class, finding out half way through the course that the boy they have been hanging out with is a girl :/  It doesn't seem to bother her a bit though, as long as she doesn't have to deal with knots in her hair.

I am exhausted - I had a rotten night's sleep last night, between the palm tree outside dropping things on our roof, and Bella making weird noises as she dreams all night.  I can't wait to crawl into bed tonight.  At 11pm.  After three hours of work.  Poor me.

Siblings on horses :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhqYdK2mJ5Q