Week Nine - February 26 - March 4

A very busy social week this week!

~* We had our playgroup on and went swimming together. It was great - there was an older boy there (an 8 year old) which turned out to be really good for the boys. There are a lot of 4/5 year old boys in our group but they were getting a bit out of hand at times so it was nice to have an older boy added to the mix to even things out. We also went along to a new homeschooling group that is for all ages. Liam felt right at home and had a ball with everyone. Again it was really nice for us to be able to mix with children of all ages right up to teenagers.

~* Our visit to the nursing home this week was great. The boys were a lot more comfortable and really enjoyed chatting with the residents. I was a bit concerned about how they would go after last week. They have come a huge way though in the past week and I was really proud of their patience and friendly, caring ways while we were there on Wednesday.

~* We managed to fit in a bit of craft amongst all of our outings. We finally used the egg shells we dyed a week or so ago and made Humpty Dumpty men out of cardboard. I cut out egg shapes and the boys decorated them with the eggshells. We then added legs and arms and sang all about Humpty Dumpty. We also had friends visit on Friday and did some contact collage pictures (sticking collage bits and pieces on contact rather than using glue). The kids also did some crayon rubbings afterwards.

~* We went swimming a couple of times. The boys are really regaining their confidence in the water. Ewan has absolutely no fear and Liam is getting there in his own time. Liam is convinced he can swim - though he is actually touching the bottom of the pool with his feet, I'm sure it's good for him to feel confident about being in the water.

~* Unfortunately we had a trip to the ER at the hospital this week too. Ewan gets asthma (though this is his first attack in almost 12 months) and wasn't doing well on Saturday morning. So we took him up to the hospital and ended up spending 4 hours there. We always go together as a family. I asked people on a forum that I visit what they do and the majority said that they only take the sick child and leave the others at home. Some said that it wasn't a place they wanted to take their healthy children and that they were worried about it being traumatic. Ben and I both feel that we both need to be there, which means taking Liam. I also feel like it's ok for Liam to be there and to see what it's like. Thankfully, we haven't had anything too traumatic (though the first time we went for asthma when Ewan was 11 months old wasn't great), but even so I think he and Ewan are so close and it's really lovely to see Liam looking out for Ewan and comforting him. Liam has learnt a lot about what happens when people are sick and about hospitals, Drs and all that. He has never been to hospital as a patient so I don't really know if it has had an effect on him or if it has made him scared or concerned about going himself. I hope that by being there with us all it has made him feel comfortable about going there - only time will tell (and hopefully it's a very long time!).