New Idea

Sleep continues to be an issue and I can't wait for the weekend just because it carries with it the possible solution.  I am trying to not place too much hope in the new 'Spider Protector' because if it fails the worst that happens is we are just back where we are today.  Tonight Levi moved his bed to the door where he could be very close but still in bed.  I thought it was worth a try.  He still stayed awake long after he should have been asleep and just as I was mentioning to a friend that this new experiment had failed, he fell asleep!  The interesting thing for me is that he is incredibly afraid of 'snakes and spiders' but only at night as he tries to sleep.  During the day he is a little nervous of them but not the teary shaking fear that he has at night.  Again I wish that it all just made more sense and had a clear answer.  The sweet thing stays in his bed and he tries very hard to sleep, so he is not being bad.  He is just afraid and that makes me saddest of all.

Today was a good day for him.  He came home, did his homework (well) and we went to soccer.  There were no tears (until bedtime) and he was happy all afternoon.  He loves soccer with a passion and is getting pretty good at it.  He loves the friends that he plays with and they are a different group than he plays with at school, which I think is a really good thing too!  It gives him options and more chances for a wider circle of friends.  He is doing better with coping at school and life is looking pretty good for him now. 

Now if only we could get this sleep thing organized, life would be rosy!

More Spiders

We are still chasing spiders and snakes.  Levi is struggling to go to sleep by himself.  At times he is in tears because he is afraid of the spiders and snakes.  Why is still a mystery, but it doesn't really matter.  He is afraid and I am trying to work out ways around it.  Tonight we built a 'castle', impenetrable by any snakes or spiders.  It involved four pillows and him sleeping between them clutching Icy.  I have no idea why he is so afraid.  I wish I had something to go on, to work out where it all came from.  Maybe he just has too big an imagination in a country where the spiders and snakes really are something to fear. 

Finally he sleeps but it takes some work!  This weekend we will build a protector.  My wonderful social worker thought it up.  We are building, or buying a special protector.  I'm thinking it will be a stuffed lion or dragon or some strong fierce protective animal that can help Icy (his special stuffed Border Collie) protect him at night.  He can pick it himself.  Frankly it will be worth every cent if it works for the peace it will give him at night.  When he is tired, he does think logically and this may just override the fear a little.  We can both only hope!

Crystal Levi

The online shop that I bought the 3D crystal of Frankie was having a big sale again.  I was looking for a photo of Levi at about the same age.  I found this cheeky smile and hopefully it will be as beautiful in crystal as the one of his brother!

Teeth Problems

Today the creek went down but really, really slowly.  It wasn't down enough to actually go shopping or really to go out at all.  We made an attempt to go out but it was still way too fast and high to try it without a really urgent reason.  There is still plenty of debris but we have all worked at it and there is a little path down the side, so hopefully we will all get to work/school tomorrow.  It seems that all the rainfall did this time was to make the weekend really annoying and closed in.  We cooked but there was only the muffin mix in the cupboard.  Tip for next time - Even though it looks and feels like silicon, it might not be silicon.  One of the moulds that we used for the muffins, turned out to be an icecube tray and not an oven tray.  Yes, I did spend the next three hours cleaning melted plastic out of the oven.  I also discovered that neither of my two smoke detectors was actually working!  Actually in the scheme of things, I am happy that it only took a melted ice cube tray to give me that critical piece of information!

I think that Levi has more extrovert in him than I do.  He starts feeling the affects of cabin fever after about a day.  I think it takes much longer than that for me.  Last week at work, Kath and I were talking about the Outward Bound Program and how part of the program was the self discovery camping.  It involves pitching a tent and staying all by yourself for a period of time.  I think the longest was a week.  I think that there are different types of reactions in this situation and none of them are wrong they just give a clear window into the person:

1.  The people who love being by themselves and have to be dragged kicking and screaming from their tents at the end of the week,

2.  Those who enjoy the time but get lonely part way through and

3.  Those who are printing hand prints on rocks and calling them 'Wilson' after a few hours.

Now Kath and I are both firmly in the first category and although after some time I would start missing the interaction, I love silence and have no need to hear other people at all.  I love that I have time by myself.  Levi is in the second category and his time is about two days.  It may change as he gets older but he is also happy with silence and that makes it fairly quiet 'under the house' sometimes.

As you can see from the photo above, Levi lost another tooth this afternoon.  He was very happy!  He will lose the one beside it fairly soon as well.  It leaves a sizeable hole in his flesh and it is amazing to see the tip of a new white tooth behind it.  He was so enthralled with the tooth, he needed to wash it with toothpaste over and over.  Of course, eventually, he lost his grip and the tooth fell down the sink.  To say he was devastated would be an understatement!  I assured him that if he wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy, she would understand!  Here is his letter. 

"I was going to wash off the toothpaste and it went down the singk (sink)"

I am sure the Tooth Fairy will still find the $3 coins for his tooth.  Besides, who could possibly resist these eyes?

Flooded Again

It was as expected this morning.  The creek had risen beyond any possibility to drive through it.  If you look at this photo of Levi, to the left behind his head and across the creek is the marker for the causeway.  If your eyesight (and my photography) is good enough, you might be able to just make out a one on the top.  it is telling us that the causeway is a little less than a metre underwater.  In front of Levi is the mass of debris that tomorrow will need to be moved.  I made a start at it today but it isn't really worth it while it is still raining.  If the creek comes up again, the eddy that forms will just deposit more debris that has to be moved again!  We walked down a couple of times and drove down a couple of times but the line hasn't shifted much.  We got 93mm or a little over three and a half inches of rain overnight, so it really isn't a surprise.  It would be more of a surprise if the creek wasn't roaring. 

Levi had fun throwing sticks out into the current and he is pretty safe with a whole landmass of debris between him and the current.  Even better he even got to ride on the roof rack on the way down in the rain.  He has had a very farm day and also an internal day.  Apart from the trips to the creek side, we stayed indoors and played, watched TV and otherwise  created things out of paper and cardboard.  There was a large amount of debris left in the house after that as well but it will require much less back breaking labor to remove it!  Tomorrow will be homework day and here's hoping that it will be a little less eventful than the last few!

Levi has been mostly making weapons and armor, the last few days.  Here is his helmet/mask and sword and shield.  I wish that he would put more dedication to his reading but I guess literacy is just harder for him and so he resists it.  Still, if he continues on his path of perfecting weaponry, he won't need writing.  Now if I can just stay sane in the next few days stuck in here! 

Friday Finally!

Tonight it is raining hard.  I am thinking we will be flooded in tomorrow and for once the weather has actually timed this quite well!  We got a few things done tonight and then we have little we have to do all weekend.  We will be able to have a quiet weekend.  I picked Levi up from school today and before I had even picked him up (all I was doing was watching through the window) there were tears involved.  The teacher got that all sorted out but I knew it was going to be an interesting night!  Friends came over for afternoon tea and then he and I sat down and did a bit of homework (with a few more tears).  Dinner tonight was Sizzlers with friends.  It was actually a night where we were all going to sit down and help me decide, well, everything really.  I just needed to be able to talk through some ideas and plans for the future with some smart and loving ears and minds.  Levi loves Sizzler, so it is an easy sell for him.

We made it home through the creek without any drama and then Levi had a shower.  Now most people reading will think he stepped into the bathroom, but no he stripped off and ran around outside in the pouring rain.  It did little to wash him at all but it was a fabulous way to run off a little energy and some of the sugar high that results from the free all-you-can-eat dessert bar at Sizzler.  He had an absolute blast and he danced around until he was super tired.  Then we went to play under the sheets with a set of finger lights.  He got little flashlights that are attached to rings that you can put on your fingertips.  There are five colors but the only ones that we had were the red and green ones.  It was such a cool affect I got the iphone and took a few photos of him.  They are very cool!

Reading and Raining

Levi's reading is improving.  I can't say he is anywhere near fluent yet but he is getting there.  If we could just stay away from the Long Word Freakout he would do a whole lot better.  He stresses if there is a word that he hasn't seen before and unless I can make him laugh with the 'freakout' routine, he will either cry or lose interest, depending on his fatigue level.  He is better though every day and it is heartening to watch him.  I am not sure at what point he morphs into an avid reader but I live in hope!  Tonight he was excited because he read 'celebrate' without a freakout.  I love the concept of the Long Word Freakout because:

A.  It is really Dr Ruth and find that hysterical, the idea that they would slide that  in there and

B.  It is a really good way of reminding them to stop and breakup words into smaller and more managable bits.

It is raining again.  It's raining steadily but not hard and although that will boost the creek's volume, it won't make the causeway impassable.  It has dropped the ambient temperature and that can only be a blessing.  I am chilling out too.  It is nice.  I am feeling less stretched at home and at work and finding that I am getting more done at both places because of it.  Some of it is my endless chest infection is starting to let up and I only cough hard in the mornings now.  The only downside of this sort of rain is that the grass loves it and yardwork on the weekend will be inevitable. 

Budget Blues

This morning, Levi came in and said;

"Mum, my underwear are getting tight. I know that it might not be in the budget, and I can hold out for a few more weeks, but can we put new ones on the list?"

OK I know they don't cost that much and I did go out and buy him some, but I am proud of him for paying attention to things like budget.  I am happy that he knows that sometimes you have to suck it up and wait for something.  Wait until it is time.  There are adults who have yet to learn that lesson.  The lesson that says, sometimes you have to wait for things you want, sometimes even things you need. 

Levi was very happy when he heard that I had bought him underwear but this was his comment after looking at them;

"Mum, the next time, can I help you pick them out?"

OK, there are sometimes that he has a little bit more of his father than he has of me.  The clothes gene is definitely one of them; that, and the eyebrow gene.  Levi cares if things match.  He loves colors and will spend much more time than I ever would making his outfit right.  I am a different story.  I remember coming out of my room one morning and Robert raised an eyebrow and said;

"How did you pick that shirt to go with those shorts?"

I looked myself up and down, laughed and replied truthfully;

"They were both on top."

Yep that is about the extent of my fashion gene.  The only gene that I have that is worse (I think), is the flirting gene.  Just to clear it up...the eyebrow gene is the ability to raise each eyebrow separately from each other.  When I raise an eyebrow, the other side follows, both Levi and Robert can raise either eyebrow completely in isolation.  I just have eyebrow envy.  Totally!

Other than that, soccer started again today.  We went to practice after school and Levi was very happy and excited for soccer to start.  He has been really looking forward to it!

Fears

It is forty days until Easter.  We don't celebrate Shrove Tuesday, although I will have to say the name 'Pancake Tuesday' holds a lot more appeal!  I am excited about the forty days though, because that means that it is forty days until school holidays.  Levi did his talk at school today.  I asked him if he was happy about it and he said;

"They all laughed in the right place, so they must have liked it"

I think that is a good judge.  He said he was happy and that he loved talking to all his friends. 

They say that the two greatest fears that people have are death and public speaking.  It seems he is afraid of neither and I think that is a good place to be.  Maybe he will grow into both of those, but I hope that he keeps the child's view of both.  That public speaking is about talking to your friends and dying is about going to play with your brother.  Perhaps some of that is just genetic.  I don't really fear either of those.  I have fears, I can assure you but they are not death or public speaking.  I used to be afraid of speaking in front of a large number of people but don't any more.  Some of it is just maturity.  I have something to offer, and they either will recieve it well or not, either way is not a reflection of 'me' but a reflection of the information or the way I presented it.  I can make mistakes with both the information and the presentation, but it won't be because I did it deliberately and won't therefore impact 'me'.

Death is a different ball game.  I have always seen death as the easier job.  The person who gets to die is then done.  They either go somewhere else or they don't.  They either return to the wheel or cease existance.  Either way, they no longer feel.  It is the people left behind that have to continue feeling in the same plane as before.  I hear people saying that they don't fear dying but fight ridiculous fights against it.  I hear those people in my family.  I see very religious people saying that they are excited about 'meeting Jesus' but watch their fear as they fight against the inevitability of death in relatives.  Really regardless of what's out there, what is there to fear?  I am sure that regardless of what's out there, once you are there you will no longer feel fear!

Don't get me wrong, while I thought that there was the possibility that we would beat Frank's illness, I was prepared to fight hard.  But once that delusion had passed, I was not prepared to fight death hard.  I know for sure that Frank didn't fear death at all.  I know for sure that on that dark day, we were both begging, praying for it.  I miss him desperately but I don't ever wish that he was still feeling that kind of pain.  I don't fear death.  I see it very much as Levi does.  It is about going to play with people who I love desperately and have missed; my son, my brother, my father and my beloved grandmother.

Maybe Levi does have fears though.  He did wake up this morning and say he had had a nightmare.  I asked what it was about and he said that it was a dream about someone taking his scooter.  Oh I hope that his nightmares stay as benign as they are at the moment.  If that is his fear (he has two scooters), then I think we can make the next few years quite sweet!

House Rules

Today we did lots of different but seemingly unrelated things!  It was about correcting our schedules again rather than anything deep and meaningful.  It was about slowing down and spending time rather than a frenetic rush of the rest of the world.  It was what I needed and I think it is what Levi needed.  He never once asked to have his friends over or to go to their place.  We played Lego Minotaur.  We played Go Fish and we played outside.  It was great.  We just chilled out and finished homework assignment calmly rather than frantically, as we usually do.  It was lovely and it was really necessary.  Some of that stretched feeling just melted away.  Not all of it, I will admit.  I still have big things that I need to do and big things to decide, but for the day I just decided to not decide anything, and that was the best decision of all!

Here is Levi doing his 'speaking assignment'.  He is a bit nervous about doing the talk but he does quite well when he relaxes.  The idea of the video and the practise is to let him relax.  The task was to talk about five house rules.  He came up with the rules that he wanted to talk about and they are quite funny. 

I hope that the two weeks we have between Outreach visits will be enough to get him back into the routine.  I hope that my computer makes it until I have the money to buy another.  I hope that I can think with clarity this next week.  I hope.  I hope.



Night Antics

Today I worked in the yard and worked inside.  The yard stuff was easier.  The grass grows faster than I can keep up at the moment and I struggle to keep it down enough to make the yards and the farm safe and level for Jo to work on the farm.  It is back breaking work but mind numbing and I can crank the ipod and lose myself in the work.  The inside work was helping Levi with his homework.  It is still a little like pulling teeth and Levi drags his feet and grumbles and complains about having to do it.  He doesn't have a lot of problem once he actually decides to put pencil to paper but getting him there is incredibly difficult.  The good news is that it wasn't as hard as the first time and I anticipate that homework will become easier and quicker as the fight goes out of him!

Tonight Levi decided that he wanted to sleep in the cubby by himself.  He (and I) cleaned it out and swept out the dust.  We carried up bedding and pillows and multiple flashlights.  We did his reading up there and then I went around the outside of my house rather than straight in.  I had toad killing spray and figured that I would knock a few off on my way into the house.  It took me, maybe three minutes to walk around.  When I got in through the front door, Levi met me inside.  He had come in through the back door.  Already!

"There are spiders out there!"

"Are they big ones?" I asked.

"They have big heads"

"Do you want me to go out and get rid of them?"

No there are other noises out there too"

Yep I think that whole idea was fraught but he had to work that out for himself!  Now he is in bed inside again and was asleep in about three seconds.  Poor little man!

Tired Much??

I am back in Brisbane after Outreach in Townsville.  We did it in four days this week rather than the usual five.  There were a couple of factors in that;

1.  My drive to get home so Levi doesn't have to spend too much time upstairs

2.  One child is visiting relatives out of the country reducing the trip by a home visit

and 3.  One child has died.

So it meant that there was the possibility to doing the trip in a shorter time frame.  We were wrong.  It meant that the days were all twelve hour days and we were all very tired and cranky by the end.  The last day started at 7.30am and ended when I arrived home at 11pm.  The other problem with a four day trip is that the fifth day then also gets booked, but here.

I know, I am tired and whining still.  It is hard at times.  I feel that there are lots of people who need my attention and I am not big enough to cover it all.  I feel as if I can't cover work, family, friends and home maintenance.  In there is Levi, who always seems to get the short straw.  I feel as if I get home and he needs attention but I am whipped.  I think that I am just tired tonight and it is always harder on those days. 

Today, Levi cried four times (that I know about!).  Being upstairs for a week is great but there are strict rules that he must follow and it stresses and tires him as well.  He coped poorly today at school and the short day that I am supposed to have was long and went until 5pm.  My friend picked him up from school and took him home to play until I got there.  He cried when he was picked up because his day had been hard.  His statement?

"My tooth made me lose all my friends today!"

His front teeth are very loose and today when he was eating lunch, they bled.  His friends laughed and it tore him apart.  He cried at the time (I imagine - it's not one of the four known) and when he was telling my friend who picked him up.

Dave's (Father to four) answer to him was beautiful!  He said;

"Laughing doesn't mean that you lose friends, sometimes if you laugh with them, it makes you friends"

Levi wasn't convinced, but managed to dry his tears.  He played at their house until I got there and then again when he got stuck on top of the play structure, and again when he thought they were mad at him for pulling on the weight machine.  By the time we got home, he couldn't really hold it together for anything.  He just needed snuggle on the couch time, a long shower and bed.  He can sleep in tomorrow (I can dream!) and he can catch up over the weekend.  Then we have two weeks and I go on Outreach again; this time to Cairns.  I wish this was easier for him but I do think that in the long run he will grow by having his limits pushed.  If nothing else it will improve his resilience in a safe non-damaging way.  I hope that he sleeps in; Oh Yes; I hope!  There is nothing planned for the weekend and we are a few weeks shy of the start of the Soccer season.  I haven't even been organized to restart swimming training.  It will be a quiet one if at all possible.

Creek Videos

Here are the videos of Levi and the boys on the boat and in the rapids!

Creek Play Again

It was a beautiful day today, hot as you would expect this time of year to be but otherwise it was just pristine. Luke and Nate were coming over to play in the creek again and we had planned a fire and a picnic creek side. Pete, Cheryl and I took turns dragging kids in boats through rapids and playing guard down stream. Really with the causeway almost dry, the creek is pretty safe. In fact, at one point we were all sitting there talking about how in our childhoods, we would have been unsupervised down in that creek at that age and most of the time, that was just fine!

The kids played in the creek for about four hours and at no time did they require us to provide them with ideas.  We provided food, fluid and surreptitiously safety but they didn't require us to think of things to do.  They love running water.  They love fire.  They love each other and rarely fight.  Really in their little books of life, this was a really good chapter.

One of the games that they thought up was to ride their bikes full tilt across the shallow water, shrieking with laughter the whole time.  They were so excited!

Then about five this afternoon, it rained hard.  I didn't pay too much attention because it stopped after about 20 minutes.  By six tonight, the causeway was above the one meter measure.  It means that in 45 minutes, it became completely impassable!  If you look at the photo below which is Levi sometime this afternoon, he is riding past the marker.  So by tonight, the water level was about level with his head on the bike.  My chances of catching the flight to Townsville at the crack of dawn tomorrow are slim to none at this point!  I am thinking that I will likely get there but not before afternoon at this rate.

Yard work and snakes

Before

OK, they aren't great photos but I was trying to take some photos of the yard work before and after.  Levi went to Ty's today and I worked on the yard for about four hours.  It was hard because it has been so hot and humid but it was getting out of control again.  With Levi gone it is easier to just put my head down and 'git er done'!  It wasn't completely uneventful.  I frightened a little snake with all the noise and vibration.  I think it was a Dwyer's Snake or a Whip Snake but either way they are considered 'weakly venomous' but I was a bit disconcerted that the rest of that sentence was, "herpetologists do not include it among their list of eight snake species in the Brisbane area considered capable of inflicting potentially fatal bites."  OK, wait, eight!  In the Brisbane area!  When I went to get Levi tonight, Ty's parents and I were discussing that fact and were able to come up with six of the eight.  Now I am starting to understand why Levi is afraid of snakes at night! 



After

After dinner, Levi and I stayed.  He played with the kids and I chatted with Ty's parents.  We stayed up for a bit and played Bingo with all the kids.  Levi got to read out the numbers.  He didn't understand why I kept adding things to his numbers like "Legs Eleven".  He didn't get why we (adults) thought it was funny!  He did love the Bingo though!  He crashed when he got home because he had swum twice and for long periods.  I am going to crash too, I think!

Coffee?

How do you know you go to coffee too often?

When the coffee shop writes your name on the top of the cappuccino! 

Today was a busy day getting ready for Outreach at work.  It is hot and muggy at the moment in Brisbane.  I can't even imagine how bad it is going to be in Townsville!  It will be nasty and humid.  Oh well, the things you do for work!

Homework

Nights are getting better.  Levi is sleeping faster and by himself.  He is still tired and fragile but really he is just getting used to school.  Tonight was no exception.  He had homework from school.  He had to write out some spelling words and had to do a math worksheet and read his home reader.  He was not happy!  His comment;

"I would prefer to do an hour of Mathletics than do this homework!"

I thought that I would bust with laughter but if you do that then he would be very cranky!  I did explain to him that perhaps that was why he had to do the homework, because it was hard.  It was not an easy sell.  He grumped and cried about his homework.  He got cranky and broke his pencil.  When all of that failed to get a rise from me, he did his homework.  It took us a long time, much, much longer than it should have.  Hopefully he will 'break' earlier tomorrow and faster again the next day.  I have to go to Townsville on Outreach next week and I want him to be happy with the whole routine when he has to go upstairs for a few nights! 

He is a sweet thing but does get a little high strung with changes.  He will get into a routine with his work and it won't be a problem.  It just might take me a little while to get him there!

Sleep and Rapids

Ok, the glow stick sleep thing is still not working.  Levi is now finally going to sleep all by himself but it is taking a while.  He is sleeping in a little in the morning to compensate so that is helping with his fatigue, but not much.  Really I would like to know how to fix the fear rather than solve the sleeping problem, but if Janet is right (and she always is) he will just grow out of it.  Sometimes it is really handy to have a Child Psychologist working with you!

Tonight a storm came through and as always it is quite an impressive sight in summer!  These are iPhone photos taken on the drive home (I pulled over) so they aren't as good as they could be but they are good enough.

The sky behind me was clear blue.  The sky in front looked like this. 

And just because I was downloading from my iPhone, here is some video of Levi in the creek last weekend.  Pete would wait downstream and be the brake and the safety net, and the kids would start upstream and get washed down by the rapids!  So much fun and plans for next weekend as well!

Glowstick Success? Not!

Levi is sound asleep in the other room.  Yea!!  The glow stick experiment worked, and worked well!  Giving him a glow stick before going to bed has reduced the fears and isn't bright enough to keep him awake.  Hopefully he will be able to sleep without help before having to buy a glow stick a night breaks me financially.  I am not sure if just finding the right lighting was enough to fix whatever it is that is disturbing him, but at least it is the first step. 

Levi has started chess.  At our After School Care we have an enrichment program.  There is Chess on Mondays and a PE Teacher that teaches them games and sports on Thursday.  I love that he gets those classes for free and he loves them.  All you have to do is sign him up.  Now he wants to play chess all the time.  I am thinking I will have to go and buy a cheap chess set and play with him on the weekend.  I can see how chess is a game he'd love; lots of structure, lots of rules!  He is a follow the rules sort of boy. 

OK just now, Levi came out and 'can't sleep'.  I guess the glow sticks weren't as good as I thought.  Perhaps yesterday had more to do with fatigue than solving the problems.  Ah parenting, what do you do with them?  I have no idea at times.  My mother would just scream at him and smack him and he would cry (as I did) and either cry himself to sleep (which I pretended to do so I wasn't yelled at again) or lie awake and wonder what he had done to make me so mad at him (which I also did).  So I don't yell at him because I don't want any of those things to happen.  So what option do I have?  I am not going to smack him.  Really I am going to let him lie there and he will eventually sleep.  Hopefully he will grow out of this soon.  I am really wanting him to sleep better.

Playing in the Creek

The creek is perfect at the moment, esp if you are a five to seven year old boy!  It is running over the causeway but only about ankle deep on me.  In fact, it shouldn't be running over at all.  The four big pipes that run under the causeway are mostly blocked, making the causeway into a dam of sorts, rather than a causeway.  The two right hand pipes are completely blocked and only one of the left ones is clear.  It means that the kids can run around in the water, splash each other, mostly) and throw rocks and wood into the water.  With an adult per child and water that you can stand in, it is incredibly safe with enough of an excitement edge to keep the boys happy!

We inflated the boat that Levi got from Jo for Christmas and the boys all took turns trying to row it to the corner and back.  Their co-ordination together left a little to be desired and generally the boat went round and round in circles until they started to paddle in a modified way, using the paddle straight on rather than to the side. 

Today when I went to the grocery store, I bought Levi a couple of glow sticks.  I am hoping that having a glow stick as he goes to bed will reduce his fear a little.  I am banking on his extreme fatigue being my best ally in all that as well.  Now as I go in to check him, it seems that for tonight at least, it has worked.  I hope that I can get him to sleep in the next week because I have to go on Outreach the week after and would prefer to have a strategy before sending him upstairs for a few days. 

Sleep? Please??

Tomorrow is going to be a run around from the beginning to the end!  One of my very lovely, very thoughtful friends called and said that she knew my weekend would look like a heap of heavy yard work after all the rain.  She said she would take Levi to play with her kids in the morning to give me the free time!  Have I said that I was blown away by that little act of kindness?  Then she is dropping him home after lunch because her kids need to have a nap after lunch.  Then I am going to Pam's baby shower and Levi is going to Ty's to play.  Then after dinner, I think we are both coming home to collapse!

Levi is going to be really tired!  We went to Sizzler tonight and came home right on bedtime.  He has been going through a 'scared at bedtime' phase.  First he was afraid of snakes and spiders under the bed.  Now that might be a little fanciful in other countries but it is a fairly legitimate fear here.  With Huntsman Spiders and the Eastern Brown snakes, it is a real part of life here, but he has had no real fear before this and nothing untoward has happened to him.  So I got the nightlight and shone it under the bed, to 'scare away' the critters. 

Then he was afraid of the 'bad dreams' that he was anticipating having after he went to sleep.  He worried that he was going to have a nightmare, so he couldn't go to sleep just in case that came true.  I am afraid he has seen me have nightmares at times but he hasn't really reported any.  In fact in the mornings he's fine, it is getting to sleep that is the problem!

Then he got 'hungry' before bed and couldn't sleep because he was too hungry, but I struggle to believe that after Sizzler, so I let him have a water bottle beside the bed.  Still he can't sleep.  So I gave him a smooth stone to stroke while he goes to sleep.  He put his fears and his hunger into the stone and sleep.

  

So here he is finally asleep!  He has the light on (which is why I can take the photo at all) and the turtle that shines stars on the roof.  He has Icy (his stuffed Border Collie) and the stone!  Here he is with the flash.  Frankly I have no idea what is the correct path.  I talked to the Child Psychologist at work and she said it was very normal to have a period to be afraid and that unfortunately, the more imaginative the child, the more numerous and varied the fears will be.  Great!  And I thought that having a good imagination was a good thing!  Ah well.  This too shall pass!

Needless to say, as it is in fact, my bed, as soon as he goes to sleep properly I remove all the accouterments and he snuggles in without difficulty.  Ah I hope this is a quick phase.

Home Alone

I am starting to realise why I have been dragging the last few days. I am sick now, coughing and my body I think, has been fighting it for the last few days. I went to work this morning, not to see any kids (who don't have the immune system to cope) but to work on the computer and get some stuff done that way. When I got there the computer also failed. I think someone was trying to tell me something! Anyway I came home again, but at least Levi had gone to school already. Levi has this thought that is impossible to shift; he believes that if I am home, he should be allowed to be as well! Think I'd get a rest then? No, I didn't think so either!

The causeway is still flowing over. It isn't dangerous by any stretches of the imagination now and depending on how well I am feeling, I might take Levi down to play in it tomorrow. 

Yesterday I got my painting.  I chose this picture:

So this is the painting:

I really like the painting.  Ross is slightly off and I can't quite put my finger on it.  Other than that though, I really love it!  Actually the one they really caught was Evan I think!

More Busy Days

The last few days have been really busy.  Levi has gone back to school happily and is now relaxed that he hasn't missed too much by missing the first week.  The creek is creeping downward but definitely creeping!  We are at about 0.35m, dropping only five centimetres since two days ago.  I think the ground is sodden and any rain is now runoff, swelling the creek.  Today was the first mostly dry, mostly sunny day for a very long time.  It was also my early day, the day to get Levi from school.  He was in a 'Go Slow' mode and wanted to walk among the graves and read them before getting in the car to go home.  He tidied a few up and picked up fallen vases and plastic flowers.  So these were his questions;

"Mum, Why are so many people called RIP?"

I tried not to laugh at that one, because he was being very serious and he hates it if you laugh at him when he is being serious, he gets very cranky.

He also asked;

"Where are we going to put our bones?"

Actually, I don't really know and I told him that.  I said that I thought that we wouldn't put our bones anywhere but that I thought that we would burn up the bones until there wasn't much left.  I asked what he wanted and he said;

"It doesn't really matter, because the bones aren't the bit that is really important," but he followed it up to remind me that he still wanted a place that he could go to that he could 'remember' Frankie. I had forgotten that I had promised him that and I should really make that promise come true at some point.  I do like the idea of having a spot that you are driven to remember someone, and time to do just that! 

Then I came home and because he was tired, he watched Scooby Doo and because it wasn't raining, I went outside and started the long task of yard work.