All Kinds Of Stuff

Well first off.
To report on the coffee trial.
It didn't work for us. I had given him two cups. One in the am and one at 4pm. He din't want to go to sleep that night. Not that he was jumping or flappy or anything. He just lay in his bed and talked. Fairly relevant stuff for him or he read a book out loud.
He finally went to sleep an hour and a half after his usual sleep time so I don't think I will be doing that again as I feel it is important that he gets his sleep.
Sarah and Eric are feeling better. They still have an occasional cough but not to the degree that it was.
I really appreciated the comment from Rosalyn. I have known her since I was about wow, I think 6 or 7.
That is a long time to keep a friend and although we haven't seen each other for years, we keep in contact.
Kathleen has started a new habit, she insists on pulling down the curtains in the bedroom at night then coming out to get me to put her to sleep.
She waits until everyone else has gone to sleep then initiates this little pattern.
I have to get under the covers with her and she covers up our heads, good thing I am not claustrophobic.
She has a little chat to me in her own language and I tell her several times that I love her and how wonderful she is and go over all the highlights of her day, all the great accomplishments she has done and I repeat all the words that she has said that day that I know of and tell her how proud of her I am that she is trying to talk then she arranges my arms and legs in the position that she wants me, sometimes I can rub her back, sometimes I can stroke her hair, then she smiles at me and rolls over and peacefully goes off to sleep.
This little ritual can take up to or over an hour depending on how tired she is but, that is okay, it is her time.
Every day, I try to make a little time that is solely for one child.
I think it is important for each of them to know they are loved for themselves and even when things are hectic, it helps them know that even if I can't look at a picture or read a book at that time, when I say that I will come and find them when I have finished doing what I am doing that I do.
This way when they see that I am busy, they know they are still important to me and they accept the fact that they may have to wait a little bit.
It has helped a lot with the "NOW" attitude attached to Nathan,Kathleen and John's condition.
So often they have wanted the instant gratification and would throw the biggest tantrum you could imagine if they couldn't have what they wanted straight away.
Now even John who was the biggest offender is content to wait a bit although he may come back and remind me every once in a while, I don't have him hitting his head or throwing things anymore which is a great relief and John trusts that if I can't help him right away, that I will.
I think it also helps to make them a little more self reliant, apart from Eric, there is not one of my children who is unable to get themselves a drink or something to eat independently in the event they needed to.
The boys are able to use the toaster but they are all aware that they are not to touch the stove.
And apart from one incident when I think the stove was accidently turned on by John and a fire was started in the kitchen, there have been no other incidents.
That was when he was only 4-5 and it looked like he had turned on the element trying to get into a cupboard above the stove then he knocked a box onto the element and it caught fire.
Luckily we missed him after a couple of minutes and went looking for him to discover this and we had a fire extinguisher in the home so it was quickly put out.
Really recommend having an extinguisher, no matter what the mental state of your children is.
Well there you are a little bit of everything.
Later