Counting to 1 ..

I'm just listening to my blog music - lol while I write up the week so far.. Eagles - a New York Minute is on ..

I don't know what it is about this song, but I really really like it ... Maybe it's the truth that in a minute, anywhere, not just New York, too that your view of life can be changed, be it a comment from someone to lift your spirits, a backlash from something you've said, or someone without thinking saying something that stops you in your tracks and leave you wondering .... mmm ..seriously ...

Things can change .. and make you stop and think ..."What the head makes cloudy - the heart makes very clear" ...

So after all that .. here's my week

Sat - Did Sadie the cleaning lady stuff and some baking - Muffins of course - Choc Chip and Chocolate Choc Chip ..and making DH's birthday cake. A2 was not impressed with the calves, cried most of the time ...

Sun - DH's birthday, cooked yummy birthday cake and the boys and A2 decorated, well more A2 ate the lollies and would stuff the occasional one on the cake, bacon and egg pie for lunch (by request), then roast beef for dinner with all the trimmings ...

I got a text from Mum saying nana was sent to hospital in an ambulance as was having trouble breathing. It seems she has a chest infection so has been put on antibiotics and is on oxygen also.

Mon - Visited Nana in hospital, she was still having trouble breathing, and her sats would drop down to 82 without the mask, and then slowly come up with the mask on. She's finding it all frustrating, but 'enjoying" the rest I think, but you can tell she was still feeling unwell, we had a nice chat, and she said that I didn't need to come up and not too worry about the not being able to come up and see them,  I said that I really wanted to and I found it terribly hard not being able to. She said she thought she would only be in for a couple of days, but mum told me today the doctors aren't happy with her breathing and are keeping her in until after the weekend. Sis3 came down from Tauranga last nite. Talked to Sis2 that night, hopefully she can understand my views, just as I can agree to disagree with hers.

Tues - Last day with R - gave her a card, with a photo of us in it. She is going to the stroke and rehab ward in NP. DH came up with an idea to help the situation with A2's fear of mud, calves and anything rural. We cleaned out room next to the shed, and put in "kids stuff" like paper, crayons and so on and it works a dream. Wahoo!

Wed - new psychologist - Dr D, we had a "sussing out" session, and I think it will be good.I think he gets the me not liking the "naughty" school kid thing, and rote things, and really I'm an open book, and ready to sponge techniques to help me out. Did the calves all on my own, so hopefully this means DH thinks I can do the job :-0)

Thurs - calves, cleaning cleaning ..Spent a lot of time with M5 learning the letter e, and doing some homework reading and keyrings.

Fri - He remembered the 'e' !!!! WAHOO !!!

We visited the Adolescent MH team and met two Social Workers, we did introductions and so on, then I went to another room and did the history and background stuff .. meanwhile in the other room the kids were "playing" - they said they made " people" with playdoh - and M5 said he couldn't do it by himself, but asked for help, they did a drawing of a dog, and M5's was very 3d .. it had 2 eyes one on each side of the piece of the paper ... C5's was an interesting drawing ... also they apparently made funny faces out of "potato head" type of toys.

Getting all the background, was kinda scary, but yanno, it's all for the good. Anyhoo, we've got a few forms to fill out and send back - an ASEBA Child Behavior Checklist, an Attwood Behavioral Checklist, and a Connors' Parenting Scale.

It was mentioned in passing that a couple of "mildly autistic" bells ringing for M5 which kinda freaked me out, and I'm not sure what to think about that just yet, but not going to fret too much as they are also going to do cognitive assessments to gather and assess the boys strengths and weaknesses.

So I feel kind of a bit over the top with these referrals, but I'd rather pre-empt issues, rather than things turn to custard then try to get a plan in place. Funny you know they were referred for their anxiety issues, and to learn coping skills and it will also be helping M5 with his schooling as the schools often contact some of the behavioural psychologists for testing and we would have already done a lot of the testing ...

Still all kind of weird trying to suss your children out, but hopefully it highlights not too many issues, and we have a plan to help out "iron out " the rough spots.

After that I "shouted" the boys a treat at the Nickel and Dime place, M5 wanted a shooting gun thing, Cam of course wanted dinosaurs, so we got a triceratops, and anklyosaurus, T Rex, Stegosaurus and a Brachiosaurus .. is it weird I know the names of them when before the boys started school I didn't!!

Then we went for lunch at a cafe .. and the boys seemed to enjoy the fact we had "lunch together" in fact tonite in our "what did you like best about today" thing we do when I put them to bed , C5 said the dinosaurs, and M5 said the Spiderman drink bottle he got at lunch, then C5 changed his to his Batman drink bottle ...

Then we went and picked A2 up from daycare, and I made some muffins and Sis3 visited with her husband. It was a nice visit. They came down and saw the calves than were heading off to a friends place.

Sat

I heard all the kids in A2's bedroom and went in to find this ..

The boys were all excited about going to the Special Kids "party" and had a great time ... they watched the stage show with their cousin P9, and eagerly chomped in to the free food giveaway ...

M5 loved the hot rod car .. and also went on the Merry-go-round. A2 decided she wanted to stay in the car and started to get a bit huffy.

Then it was time to go through the toy cave and the kids got some great gifts .. then it was time for home .. after 3 hours of catching up with a  few people and trying to wrangle all the kids, while carrying A2 around as she was quite frightened by all of the people.

     

When we got home I rushed around like a blue-assed fly getting some dinner ready yo take to the District Hall, where we went to a "Mid-Winter Christmas" ..with Santa .. to boot. The boys loved it and ran around with the other kids .. esp J and B, and the H kids, A2 fell asleep just after dinner, so we both had turns of holding her until our arms dropped off, then someone had a spare buggy, so we put her in it for a while which lasted for about an hour as everyone kept going up to check  on her and eventually she woke up ...

Sun - After crawling out of bed, we drove up to NP to T's birthday party. Firstly at McD's then on to Banana's ..

At Banana's was able to catch up with M and have a coffee, and relax a bit which was good, then home again to do calves. Didn't get time to go and see Nana, which was disappointing but the kids were pretty tired and it would have been a nightmare in the end thinking about it ..