A new Year!

So I had such high expectations of today, both Nathan and Genevieve were really excited about today. 

I should have noticed something was not right when I actually had to wake Nathan up at 8:30 am this morning.  Genevieve I let sleep in because at 7 am when my alarm went off, I could hear her hacking away, and I thought it would be better for her to sleep later since she has a cold.  But Genevieve came bounding into my room at about 7:30 letting me know it was time to wake up, it is the first day of school, lets get going, I have lots to learn today.  So I begrudgedly got out of bed and went downstairs in search of tea to fend off my cold.  I started to make breakfast while Genevieve started her morning routine of emptying the dishwasher and setting the table.



see in this picture Nathan still looks okay...

Nathan woke up and joined us in time for breakfast, he was not too happy that he wasn't woken up earlier.  Nathan I noticed started doing his weird eye movement thing at the table, and he was in a terrible mood.  Nathan has been having a weird eye movement for about 6 months now, and it appears and goes away, I am finding that the weird eye movements are associated with behaviour changes.  he gets really grumpy, and sometimes downright mean.  This morning it took him about 40 minutes to read the directions of what he was supposed to do today in Moving Beyond the Page.  I then read to them the first two chapters of The View From Saturday, I read because I thought I only had 1 copy, but I found another copy in our bookshelves!  I buy way to many books and sometimes forget what we have.  So after they read they were supposed to complete their assignments.

todays assignments:
1) answer questions about chapters

2) write a thank-you note
            -genevieve wrote a note to her cousin Katrina and thanked her for coming to visit, of course she sealed the envelop before I took a picture
            - Nathan wrote a note to their friends anna and Kurtis, because they had delivered our papers for us while we were away - again he sealed the envelope.

3) worksheet on fact or opinion - both Nathan and Genevieve I think have a complete understanding of fact or opinion, as I was reading in the book, the character kept on saying FACT - the cake was beautiful, or other comments and both the kids were yeah that's kind of annoying its not facts at all, why does he keep doing that...

fact or opinion

4) worksheet on homonyms and homophones.  

homophones, homonyms

Nathan was trying his hardest while doing his work, but he was slow, and having a difficult time

We then moved onto math today we worked on magic squares, both Nathan and Genevieve really liked these, I think more so Genevieve.  Nathan again worked very slowly, and was just not with it.  He finally perked up and looked like himself right after we finished lunch.  Just before lunch I had to take Gigi upstairs as she was a little annoyed at her brother for being so annoying himself.  I had to discuss with her that Nathan is not himself, and that I think Nathan is scared he is having epileptic seizures and that Nathan was aware that he is not acting himself and I think that scares him as well.  She cried and was a little upset that she was so excited to learn today, and that we were moving so slowly that we were not going to get everything done.  She was much more understanding once I explained how Nathan was probably feeling.

magic square

After lunch we started our Canadian studies Donna ward Courage and Conquest.  I am thinking I may need to order a new copy of courage and conquest, because I think mine is outdated and does not match the books.  I had one of the suggested books in the package, and we read about the Vikings.  I found in the book about the Vikings, a section on building a Viking ship out of paper, so I copied and printed it on cardstock.  It was a little tricky making our ships but it was a lot of fun, and we learned that a lot of naval terminology comes from the Vikings.  

it was hard gluing these little pieces

this is sooooo fun Mommy :)

We then ran out of time as we had to go to the barn for horse riding, by the time we got to the barn, Nathan had such a headache that he was not able to ride, but Genevieve rode instead. 

We arrived home Nathan was doing good, and then again all of a sudden he was in a really bad mood and laying on the couch not doing so good, and his eyes started rolling in the back of his head again.  I have been trying to get a good video of him doing this, but he gets upset when I video him.  He also gets upset when I tell him his eyes are going weird.   He was like this for about 30 minutes, and then with the snap of your fingers he was back to normal again, cleaning his bedroom and sorting his bookshelf.  I had a talk with him about what just happened, and he said he had no idea, and that he said he just all of a sudden felt different, he did not know that his eyes were doing the weird thing and he was okay talking bout it.  Genevieve explained to him what it looks like.  I told him it was important that we talk to his pediatrician about it and that would he be okay with that and not get upset.  He was happy and okay with it.  Poor guy I have no idea what is really going on with him...  but more and more I am thinking that maybe he is having seizures.  His episode of going unconscious last month and stopping breathing to me seemed to detail an epileptic seizure exactly.  We have an apt I  think either next week or the week after and we will talk to the DR and get his opinion on what the heck are these things that look like seizures.

I am hoping tomorrow will be a better day.  Today was a hard one, even though I really truly think Nathan's behavior today was because of whatever was happening, it did not make it that much easier to parent.  I was drained and ordered pizza for dinner.