Ruth always wants to try do things on her own. Once Brendon had the nail started she did a good job in hammering it in.
She is learning that she should not stand and she very quickly learnt how to get off.
Tuesday 24th saw Ruth start with Monarch - an on-line curriculum covering Language, Math, Bible, Science, History and Geography. I had been researching different curriculum options and after much discussion with Brendon we felt this was a good decision for her for now (and for our family). She has been wanting to be on the "same" curriculum as Rachel for a while - so she is thrilled and was so excited on Tuesday morning when it was all ready to get started on (final decision only made on Monday evening). At least now I can know that if by 11am she says she is done with all her school work - she has done enough.
Friday 27th I asked Rachel to go take a photo of Hezekiah. He spent ages outside today with his stick, his bike (named Bullseye - the horse from Toy Story) and his dogs. He doesn't care about the weather and gets out there for hours every day.
He is also always looking for opportunities to take on new jobs. He heard me ask Hannah to set the table and so he ran over and said he would do it.
Rachel is also very excited about some "school" work that she got started on Wednesday. It's a "One Year Adventure Novel" course that was ordered a number of weeks ago. (Postage from the States made her wait and got the excitement to grow.) She says it doesn't feel like "school" and it sure has motivated her to get her other work done quickly each day - as this is only done once the Monarch work is completed.
Hannah wet her hair in the bath tonight and got rewarded with all these wonderful curls. :-)
The dogs play so nicely with Hezekiah. The mountain of rocks is no longer "out of bounds" as there is just no ways you can keep this boy and his dogs off it.
Just after lunch on Saturday I went with Rachel for a walk as our "parent-child outing". I took so many photos that I will have to put them all in their own post.
Sunday 29th - This afternoon I took Hezekiah for his "parent-child outing". As we all expected - he asked to go to the Play Centre. This was the only selfie with him looking at the camera. He took me in his car and made sure we buckled up every time. :-)
On Sunday evening Asher had a very short seizure. It was a very strange one. She had gotten up and walked out the lounge - so I got up to take her to the potty. By the time I got to the room I heard the clicking noise in her mouth - the sound I have heard so often when she has a vacant seizure and is not breathing well.
She still managed to respond to Brendon by turning her head to him and she even said "hi" to me and gave me a hug - but it was clear seizure activity was happening and she went a little off colour. Thankfully it was really short and within a minute of me noticing it - it had stopped.
Thankfully she had a quiet night but on Monday at midday she had another one. She had been playing with me and I noticed that she started turning.
I realized she was having a seizure - with her eyes going to that side and her whole body just pulling around to that side. There was a little bit of twitching (something she has not had before - not full blown clonic tonic / grand mal). This twitching went on and off and she also had a time of not breathing well at all and going very blue. At this point I called the ambulance. It was really emotional to see it changing and not really knowing what was going on. It was good to know help would be on it's way if needed. Thankfully she pinked up quickly (the trouble breathing only lasted around 2 minutes) but it was about 8 minutes before I was sure it was totally over. The doctor phoned and we agreed that we didn't need the ambulance. The first response lady did arrive though and it was good to see that Asher's oxygen level was nice and high - so she had recovered quickly in that area.
She was postictal and sleeping soundly when I gave her the extra meds to stop a cluster. By the time I had gotten the 1ml all into her mouth - she woke up and had another 2 hours of being "drunk". This was very physically and emotionally draining for me.
I was rather emotional through the seizure and then even into the evening. I think it was a combination of it being such a different one - changing as it went - as well as the fact that it has only been 3 weeks since her last two seizures (and that I was physically exhausted).
I had already made contact with her homoeopath on Sunday evening to discuss looking at a new remedy for Asher. She had excellent success on the remedy she had last year - having 3 months seizure free. They have changed so much though - so it really is time to try something else. It helps that she is so much older now and has more of her own preferences and likes (or loves for her - she does clearly love so many specific things). So we are hopeful that this will help.
The homoeopath did feel that getting her onto a gluten free diet would be beneficial though - and even suggested I read up about "Grain Brain" which I now have and have started reading. So the plan for now is to get her off wheat - which is mainly a few of her breakfasts as she has never liked bread. I have also gone totally wheat free again (after slowly letting little amounts come back into my diet and then suffering because of it). Then in time I will see if I can get her off oats too. Thankfully she loves Quinoa (Ruth and her are the only children who do) - which is a lovely healthy seed carb (not a grain). And all the kids (but Rachel) enjoy their olives every day at lunch - so they are all getting love healthy fat in there too. Additionally Asher has been having Hemp oil for the last 6 months too.
So I have had to do a lot of reading and have had to work hard at not being overwhelmed by it all. It was good to eventually have a plan and just change things as we can, one step at a time.
The photos above were taken on Tuesday 1st July - Asher enjoying some "chocolate" made with coconut oil and xylitol (rather than sugar). It was lovely to see how much she enjoyed it (and it wasn't as messy as I expected it would be). It will be a nice way of her getting good amounts of that wonderful fat into her body.
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