It's been a bit of an eventful few days - not quite the traditional Tower (hence my selection from the Victorian Romantic Tarot). DD has been suffering with intermittent stomach-aches for a while; after the stomach bug of the New Year. I thought it was all over. But no, the stomach-aches continued. Always before school (the alarm did actually go off in my head eventually). So after a trip to the doctor just to check and rule out any physical causes, we had a chat with DD's teacher.We worked out that DD is suffering from 'school refusal', which is the early stages of 'school phobia', and that for DD the causes are mainly social - worrying about being left out of games, friends not playing with her etc.etc. There are only 8 other girls in her class of 30 or so, so that means that if there are any ripples in the circle, the pool of other girls to play with is very limited. We have spent quite a lot of time talking with her and reassuring her - particularly over her fears that I will die before school finishes for the day - and bought a dreamcatcher, which is working very well in filtering out the bad dreams; I also scanned her favorite cards from her own Hanson-Roberts deck, framed them and hung them in her room where she can see them to cheer herself up when she's going to sleep, if necessary.
A visit from the Tooth Fairy certainly seemed to help, and completion of her latest sweater made her happy through breakfast. So hopefully, we have tackled what we can, and just have to wait and see if she needs further help. I'm not known for my sensitivity, but I am trying to understand my DD's imaginative and emotional outlook.
MIL's lacy scarf
in Sirdar Snuggly
4ply;DD's cowl sweater
in Stylecraft
Brushstrokes
detail of lace
And I managed to complete the lacy scarf for my MIL's birthday next month; I'm very pleased with it. It's only a 4 row repeat, so you can knit easily once you've got the hang of it, and all I did else was to add 5 rows of garter stitch at top and bottom, and a fringe. However, knitting scarves is boring, I found out from this; so for my next project I'll be doing a lacy cardigan for DD's best friend's birthday.
The other main event was the unpleasant discovery of huges patches of wet and mold behind one of our bookcases; everything has been pulled out, and I am waiting the contractor's visit as I write. I have a 'thing'about mold, and can't wait til I can wash it all off with bleach. Fortunately, although the mold had come through the back of the bookcase, it had not yet affected any of the books.
All I can tell you is ...........YUK !
Wow! You've already had quite an eventful month!
ReplyDeleteI hope you daughter is getting better with the school anxiety. You're a really intuitive mom, to pick up on that as you did.
Mold, wow. I think I'll move some of my furniture around and make sure that I don't have any! You're lucky that it hasn't made you ill.
Yes, Debbie - that's what I was worried about, the kids getting ill from it :-(
ReplyDeleteouch, that looks awful. Glad the books have been safe though. I hate mold with a vengeance, living in England really doesn't help...My OH thinks I am crazy for opening windows every day, even when it's -7 out there.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear about your daughter. That must be awful to go through. Must be making you feel helpless. I hope she gets over it soon, would maybe a party of some kind where she can invite some people help?
Madpiano, how good to see you ! DD seems to have settled down somewhat, all those measures worked (cross fingers)
ReplyDelete