Dear Richard
Life is very different now to what it was a week ago! Josh
has now started school, and he’s busy settling in, and life is pretty much back
to normal, or our new normal anyway.
So Josh was having that tooth filled last week. When they
finished they said that Josh was very active during the procedure while he was
sedated. When his subconscious kicks in he apparently gets very restless, which
is probably also linked to how he is an active learner and his body learns from
doing things. Very interesting… But that is over, although the dentist had to
go deeper than she had expected, and the nerve is still alive at this stage,
but we need to watch it, and he might have to have the tooth removed if the
nerve dies :(
And then on to the first day of school! We managed to get
away really nice and early and we dropped Hannah and Caleb first and then
walked Josh down. Josh was pretty excited to be in his uniform, and he enjoyed
clumping his shoes all over the wooden floor and making a noise ;) We got to go
into his classroom for a bit first and take photos etc, but it was actually too
long for Josh, and his anxiety just got worse. It would have been better for
him if he had just got straight into things. But one day we’ll learn that and
prepare for it. For some reason I keep on forgetting that! :( So when it was
time to leave he started crying. And it was just too much for me, and I was
emotional too. And I had a terrible morning, after leaving him like that. But
when I fetched him he had had a good day. And the rest of the week there were
similar tears each morning. It didn’t help that he got sick as well, but I
think that’s linked to how stressed he was feeling. On Friday when I fetch him
he said that I need to go quickly to the gate when I leave him at the class
because he stops crying when I get to the gate, so I should go quickly so that
he can stop crying quicker. I asked him if that means I must leave him sooner,
and he never really answered that question, but at least he’s identifying that
he can do this :)
And today, Monday, was quite a bit better! He still needed
me to stay and give him over to his teacher, but I didn’t have to hug him in
the line, and instead of bawling, he just had a few tears to wipe away. A huge
improvement! And aftercare has also been a bit of an adjustment for him. But I
think he’s getting into it. And the great thing is to hear that he is starting
to confidently be able to tell me how things work. And I know that once he
knows the system he can start feeling comfortable being in a place, because he
won’t feel unsure of how to do things. So we’re getting there!
I haven’t been able to get down to working on my research
yet properly, because of having Josh with me the whole time, and then Caleb has
come down with German measles so I’m having to keep him at home. This week I
really need to get going! I did meet with my supervisor though and I’m feeling
happy with where I go for the next bit. Now I just need to actually get some
work done!
One highlight of last week was that the one evening we
forgot to put a nappy on Caleb at bed time, and when he woke up his bed was
still dry :) He is dry most nights, but we haven’t been brave enough to take
his nappy off completely. But we’re nearly there! And then that is the end of
our nappy journey, after nearly 7 years solid!
Because of Caleb’s German measles, and Joshua’s sinuses
being a problem Andrew kept them both home. And in fact, Jesse also has the
German measles and Rohan stayed with him. So the back pew was a girls-only club
this week :) And Hannah and Amy really enjoyed having no boys around, I think
;) Caleb and Jesse are the two that are most disruptive, so I must be honest
that it was a pleasure to be able to be far more attentive that usual :)
My class went really nicely this week. The class has been
growing recently, although there are a number of people leaving for various
reasons :( And we’ve been having really nice discussions. This lesson was on
John the Baptist, his mission, and the baptism of Jesus Christ, and then also
on the temptations of Jesus Christ. And we had an interesting discussion on why
Jesus needed to have the experience of fasting for 40 days, and then being
tempted like He was, before He started His ministry. So it came out that after
that level of being weakened and then facing temptation He could probably
handle most of the hardships of His ministry, other than the actual atonement,
and then also the fact that He would actually be able to relate to the people,
and they could relate to Him, if He had gone through the same temptations that
they had. And if He could resist them, then it is possible for us to resist
them. This was the first discussion that Jean-Jacq voluntarily contributed to
;) So there’s progress!
And for home evening I used the talk by Pres Uchtdorf from
the April 2014 conference, Grateful in any Circumstance, to try and help Josh
especially to focus on the positives in his life, despite the hard things he’s
needing to do right now. I think I made some impact, but we’ll have to really
see how it goes.
So that’s pretty much our week. We’re definitely into a
different age and stage now, with going to big school. Even the traffic in the morning
is a different experience now… But it’s all part of growing up, and it’s
exciting to be a part of!
Love you lots!
Shelly
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