It's been how long!!

Ok, it would seem I have been getting a little lax in my posting. In my defence, I have been taking this day by day with what has been happening with Freyja, and really that, in many ways, defines my life right now.

We have our diagnosis of ADHD, and each day we work around how she is behaving (or not) and figure out how best to do things.

We are still doing the usual stuff, and we have had some lovely (busy) days lately.

Freyja turned 7 years old in April and had a beach party. It was an indoor beach party, in our house, as her birthday is at the beginning of April, and usually that means snow in Calgary, though this year, it was actually quite sunny until the afternoon, with no snow on the ground.

I gave them a bit more free range this year, but maybe I should have kept it more structured, as I think they were wondering what to do for a bit. They had a kids inflatable pool filled with balls instead of water, played a game of marco polo round the living room, and invented their own version of beach volley ball with the beach ball, and later balloons. I got them all a craft to do, a suncatcher which they each painted, though half of them forgot it and I still have them at home, and of course there were the presents and cake.

I have some pictures, but as the girls were all dressed in swimsuits and bikinis, I won't be posting them on here, but there are some pictures of the food and the cake I made!

Not a bad cake considering that the morning of her party she changed her mind about how she wanted it decorated!

May brought us Rosie's second birthday, just a few family friends, but a lovely day nonetheless. It's amazing to see how much she has grown and what a little individual she is already. Freyja was a fab big sister and helped her open up all the presents, then handed out cake to everyone. It's great to see her developing as a big sister.

June was a month of many changes. School ended and summer began. It was also the end of Sparks and the end of routine. Freyja got a fantastic report, which was a boost for all of us. It's been a busy few months, and a hard few months but we are beginning to find our way now, at least I hope so.

I go into more detail about the day to day struggles in my other blog, but the short version is that in April and May we tried a medication and the side effects were awful. It was, bluntly, two months of Hell. We were all at breaking point. We decided to stop it, had two weeks meds free and realized that wasn't working either, so we started on new meds. Three weeks in and things are going pretty good. There are good days and not so good, but none of the extreme stuff. The late nights and lack of structure that summer brings probably doesn't help, but who doesn't struggle to get their 7 year old to bed when the nights are light and the neighborhood kids are still out playing.

For now we will take it day by day and look forward to our vacation and the new school year ahead and all it brings.

My name is Lisa and it has been 3 months since my last confession...

Well, pretty much three months and a blog and confession are so similar in my mind, cathartic ways of cleansing the mind and soul so you can continue on without necessarily forgetting, but without the excess baggage of guilt, worry, emotion dragging along with you daily.

It has been a busy three months in our household.  Christmas came and went with a great deal of screaming, squealing and throwing of wrapping paper.  And that was just me and Lee....  The kids enjoyed it too!

The new year rushed in where angels fear to tread (look at me mixing up my similies with nary a care! Or should that be metaphor?  Maybe a mixed one?)  New Years day was my beloved husband's 40th Birthday!!! We celebrated with a family dinner and a cake that looked like Boba Fett's helmet (and if I do say so myself, I didn't do too bad a job on it!)

Well anyway, we got into January and headed through it far to fast for my liking, though with not much snow, which in Calgary in winter is a blessing (though a curse for the farmers when spring and summer roll around).  Bizarely its been snowing up a storm in the UK and the rest of Europe with temperatures plummeting, while I have been waltzing around in a shirt and light jacket.  Mother Nature is having a bit of a lark this year I think.

February brought Valentine's day, hearts wherever you looked, which was a bit of an omen as it turned out as Lee got taken into hospital from work one day with a suspected Heart Attack. Yes, my only recently turned 40 valentine was given aspirin, nitro-spray and a referral to a cardiologist.  Happy Valentines!!

He had the cardiologist appointment yesterday.  Thankfully (after 2 weeks of near endless panicking and little sleep on my part - oh how much better he coped than me) he was given the all clear.  Heart good, Blood pressure good, cholesterol and blood sugar amazingly good.  But - told to stop smoking (again) and lose weight.  Apparently the tablets he takes for stress may be acting less effectively, hence allowing him to feel like he is having a heart attack when he is under stress.

Which brings us to the most recent thing.  Our eldest daughter, the fabulous tornado in a tutu, Freyja is having more and more issues with behaviour and anger, so I finally admitted that we were not coping so well by ourselves and we needed help - especially in light of Lee's stress issues.  I duly made an appointment with our family doctor to explain my concerns, her anger, her nightmares, her ADHD like tendencies and he refered us to the relevant department who in turn referred us to the Paediatric Behavioural Development Clininc yesterday telling us it would be a 10 week or so wait to hear.  Today I got a call from them and appointment on Monday (today is Thursday).  They actually wanted to give us an appointment tomorrow but our work couldn't do such short notice!  I don't know whether to be pleased or worried - do they think its so bad they need to rush her in?

So anyway, to keep my mind clear on that score, I have started another blog http://the-defiant-ones.blogspot.com/ to remind us where our journey began and find out where it takes us, and for Freyja to hopefully look back on it with pride in the future at what she overcame, and for us as parents to perhaps look back, make a sigh of relief and take pride in what we survived....

And last, but hopefully not least, in my ongoing effort to get fitter, lose weight and support Lee in his efforts to do so too, I have joined a gym and will be starting a blog on that too to track my progress and inspire me to keep going.  Happy March 1st - hopefully the beginning of good things to come - even if it is a bit overwhelming at the moment!