Monday, January 12, 2015

Letter to Richard - 12 January 2015

Dear Richard

Life is starting to get back to normal a bit now… Hannah and Caleb went back to school on Tuesday last week, although Josh is still at home with me until next week. Hannah and Caleb have for the most part been very happy to be at school again. Caleb is in the same class, but now he’s the most experienced in the class, so he’s taken on a leadership role. Hannah is in a new class, and she’s really enjoying the experience so far :)

Josh and I have been pretty busy. He’s had to come with me to do all of the usual business stuff, like the groceries, going to gym and going to the chiropractor. But we’ve also been able to do some fun things like playing games, going to the park, and tomorrow we’re having 2 of his friends over for the day. And there’s also the last bit of getting ready for school to start! We’ve marked all of his stationery, but we still need to mark all of his uniform items and make sure they’re washed and ironed. The school sent us a count-down calendar, with activities to do every day leading up to school starting, including things like getting your uniform ready, learning mom or dad’s phone number, doing a puzzle, practicing Humpty Dumpty etc. But for a few things I’ve had to speak to Josh about how it’s not necessary to be perfect, he’s allowed to make mistakes, but he needs to keep trying… He seems to be hearing the message better when I speak to him, but he forgets in between :( But as long as he is being told often, hopefully he’ll eventually internalise it! It was also interesting though when I tried to teach him my phone number. At first I tried teaching him a little jingle with my number, but he just wasn’t interested really. But when I eventually got him to look at the pattern that the numbers make on the phone when you’re dialling, and got him to dial it himself then he remembered it, and now he can give it to me with hardly thinking! It was very interesting to see the different learning styles coming out. And now that we know that about Josh we can try and use that to our advantage a bit more :)

One of Joshua’s favourite things still is playing with Lego though. And one of the days we had the kids tidying up before bed, and he had to do the last pile of Lego on his own. So he decides to put all of the pieces together so he could pick them up together. And he ended up building a really cool rocket. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are some things that he can build with almost any combination of pieces! But he really loves being creative and building all sorts of interesting things :)

Cindy and Dom left during the week, but first they looked after the kids for us, so that we could go for some time alone. We spent part of the time choosing a new couch! It still has to be made, so we’ll probably only get it shortly before you get home, but we also then bought a single chair and a lady at Andrew’s work is making a slip-cover for us. So our lounge will be quite different :)

Saturday was the start of the hectic party scene for us again! I took Josh to a cool tobogganing party in the morning, and then Caleb to a party in the afternoon. And Hannah was invited to the ballet with one of her good friends as well! I’m just SO glad that it worked out that each child had something special to do! Josh was a bit nervous about going down fast in the toboggan, but he really got into it, wanting to control the speed himself and go faster for our last 2 rides, and he’s very keen to go to Ratanga Junction now! I’ve created an adrenaline junkie! And Hannah enjoyed her ballet, and she was acting like such a little madam when she got home, she obviously enjoyed the girlie outing ;) But apparently the parents of her friend like having Hannah around, because she’s a calming influence on Caitlin. Our daughter, Hannah…?!? ;) But it’s good to know!

Busy, busy, busy… But that’s life, isn’t it ;) And at least it’s busy in a good way!

Love you lots!

Shelly

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