Thursday, March 12, 2009 by Amy
Just a warning, this will be long...
Fun things first: The dollhouse is coming along well. The shingling is done on the front and I'm just waiting for the stain to dry. That part sucked, mostly because shingling the roof was an adult thing. No way the children could help with that. Too much lining up and I wasn't using kid-friendly glue, you know? The paint on the front is done and some of the windows are in. I still have to put another coat of paint on the sides, but I'm avoiding that right now. We should get working on the front porch pretty soon. Update: I just noticed that the adhesive I used for the wallpaper is not sufficient. Now I have to re-paper. Yay. Shouldn't be too tough, but I don't know where to find the paste I need. Humph.
On to the not-fun stuff: Riley has been have a tummy ache for weeks now. I have an appointment today with a doctor for her. Not her normal doctor because he's out this week, but one in the same practice. Hope it goes well. My gut says that her stomach aches are related to her anxiety, but I wanted to rule out anything physical first. Tomorrow she has an appointment with a child psychologist to see about her anxiety and her general behavior.
Update: nothing physically wrong with Riley. Can't say that I'm surprised. I liked the doctor, she was really affable and comfortable and likeable. She's new to the practice so her schedule is not too full, which is why she could get us in. Her name is Dr. Mulder, which I thought was cool because I'm a nerd.
Okay, it's taken me a long time to write this blog. We've now gone to the psychologist. I really liked him. He was younger (but not too young) and informative. One thing he wants me to do is get Riley a blood test for thyroid. He said that mood swings and behavioral problems can be symptomatic of a thyroid problem, and with thyroid problems running rampant in our family...I'm sure nothing is wrong with her thyroid, but I'll check it out anyway. Just ruling things out. He wants to observe us as a family next time we go in, etc. It's going to be a pain in the butt to do all this stuff, but it is what we really need. Riley is not a normal child and I need a new way of parenting her. I'm willing to go outside of my comfort zone (such as more structured rules and a rewards system) if I'm asked to. I don't normally like those things, but Riley is not everychild. I have to accept that. That is, stuff that is not accepted on mothering.com may be just what Riley needs. I'm willing to accept that things that work for most children (time-outs, talking about it, listening, etc) just don't work for her. Meh, who knows...We're going back as a family on the 16th. The guy is only there Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are the only not-good days in our week, so I had to hold out for the 4pm appointment, which is a popular time.
Riley has an appointment today with her play therapist. She really likes Ms. Barb and has been asking to go back. That's at 11. Hopefully we won't be having 8 million appointments every single week. It's exhausting.
Avery had developed into quite the little artist. And makes a nice mess in the process!
I'm letting this one go so I can start fresh...someday.
