See spot run. Run spot Run....PLEASE?!

Seriously?!?!? I can't catch a break! Now I'm covered in spots?!?!? They don't itch, so mom and dad think its probably Roseola again. Its rare for kids to get it more than once, but its not impossible and its actually more common in kids with eczema...like me. I don't have a fever, and other than the spots I'm feeling groovy so no doctor unless something changes. I look pretty scary, the pictures don't show the half of it!

Turkey Day......interesting. Nana Cummings was here, dad was off work, and we were still a little confused about the no school thing. Dinner was a little crazy...it all kinda hit us at once and Saf and I crumbled. Alot of crying, some screaming, not much eating. But it sure smelled good! :)

Saf went to the doctor on Monday and did a TERRIFIC job! She stood on the scale, got her whole exam without mom holding her...good stuff. The doc said she probably had some virus, but all in all looked pretty good. He checked me over just for the heck of it and I was looking pretty good.....was, being the operative term.

We had a lot of great park days. When Nana was here we watched movies on our projector and did some good haning out! I gave Nana two high-fives and Saf gave her a kiss and a hug. All in all, a great visit.

This week Saf is back in school and I finally get to go and see that really neat OT. Should be a good week......now if I could just get rid of my spots!

Peace
Nixi

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble...........

Ok, so we're still dragging. Poor Nixi came down with a fever of 103 on Thursday night, and her fever stayed between 103 and 101 for 2 days. She's feeling a little better today, but not much. I'm holding strong.......but mom's thinking of taking me to the doc because I've still got a congested chest and its been two weeks.
When I get sick he only way mom and dad know is if I have a fever. Otherwise, I'm active as ever and my mood is about the same as usual. 2 weeks for a cough is a bit much, though...we'll see.

We had a great week last week!

I put my own socks on by myself, thank you very much! That's hard! I also walked into class all three days and mom and Nixi were able to leave on the spot! The only drag, now that I'm back in the swing of things with school....this whole week is off for Thanksgiving!!! That's always how it works, just when I get the hang of something or get into something, the game changes! Luckily, mom has started a visual schedule for us in preparation for situations like this, to teach us the days of the week, and to help us see what the day has in store for us. It seemed to help me with going to school, so hopefully it'll help this week with understanding that I don't have school. Its cool, its a laminated week long calendar with several squares under each day. Mom writes in all the steps we take throughout the day with a dry erase marker. Stuff like "brush teeth and comb hair" followed by "shoes" and "school"....or park, or whatever. Its cool because at any point in the day we can check the schedule to see what's coming next...and giggle at mom's stick figure drawings! Nixi likes it a lot, too. Her favorite is at nap and bedtime, mom tells us to the check the schedule and she's loves when it gets to the picture of the bed. She yells "nigh nigh!!!!" and thinks she super cool. Its kinda cute.

We had a really fun time up at Nixi's therapy appointment. She'll finally get to see the really neat OT December 1st. She hasn't seen her since the day she came to evaluate her. Its hard because our schedule is pretty full, and the OT is only down here part time. In any case, looking forward to the kid sister getting seen and coming home with lots of cool things we both can do!

Friday we got to see my BIA, Heather, and we had lots of fun. Nixi thought she was magic...'cuz she was making this little ribber frog do amazing things. I thought it was pretty cool, too.

We also got some new winter hats.....as you can see, I LOVE my panda hat and mittens. So much so, that I wore them for three hours straight and even went to bed with them on!

So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all........check back in next week to hear how I did with the major adjustment in my schedule (darn holidays) and too see some cool holiday pictures and video!

xoxo
Saf

Never too sick to mess with the kitten.......

Draggin' butt.............

So, this week will be brief and to the point! Highlights only 'cuz I'm TIRED! We were sick at the beginning of the week, so canceled some appointments and just tried to get better.

Dad survived 4 days full time with us (he had a few extra days off), and we had a blast! He's so funny and works so hard to make us happy! We love you, daddy!

Saf found her first ladybug...crawled right on her hand! It was yellow and when mom asked her to bring it over for us to see, she did! It didn't even fly away! My big sister is the critter whisperer, I tell you.

I've started sitting in a big person chair at the table and working on eating with a spoon. Turns out I LOVE creamy chicken and wild rice soup. It tastes great and sticks to a spoon like nobody's business!

We had a park playdate with our friends Flyn, Arlo, and Greer and it was super fun!

So there you go...about as nutshell as you can get! Check back in next week for a more in-depth report from Saf!

Peace
Nixi

Progress............and road blocks.

Pretty cool week. We played outside every evening waiting for dad to get home and we met a really neat girl, Addison, from 2 houses down. She's 4, and she really likes Winston. When we first met her I was pretty nervous. Lately I've been having a really hard time being around kids I don't know. When we go to the park, or like when we met Addison, if a kid approaches me I scream and run to mom asking for a hug. This is the second time for me, going through a stage where kids freak me out. I'm still comfortable with my classmates, so that's good. I'm sure it will pass...it did last time. Still, it's not very fun for anyone. But once I saw Addison playing with Winston, I started to get comfortable and saw that she was pretty fun. I'm looking forward to hanging out with her again real soon.

So, I got my very first school progress report. I had 5 goals....
#1 Pragmatics/Joint Attention: "Saf exceeded our expectations for this benchmark."
#2 Transition to new school: "Saf has more than exceeded this benchmark. She participates in all class activities, and she is an excellent role model for her peers."
#3 Articulation: "Saf is using targeted sounds in 3/4 opportunities...benchmark met."
#4 New motor actions: "Saf has already met this goal. She is still hesitant with changes in surfaces and stairs, but is no longer crawling to navigate these."
#5 Emotional Self-regulation: "Saf has made great gains in this area. We are so proud of you Saf."

So, I still have some fine tuning, but not bad for a first report! Mom and dad were so proud that I'm a role model to my peers. Pretty neat stuff!

As far as my OT and speech evaluations at the rehab center....not so good. They told mom that they didn't have the "equipment, knowledge, or skill base" to work with me. They said, "We're sorry, but we can't help you." They were really nice, and honest. They said that my sensory integration issues needed more than they could offer. They referred us to an OT in Fresno that works on sensory integration. Mom's heard of him before, but because he's in Fresno we tried to go local first. Also, remember the jerk that made mom cry at Regional Center....he told us to go to the rehab center. Anyways, it was a HUGE let down and just another situation in which a person sees that I need the help but has no idea how to provide it. Like I said, though, they were really nice and really sensitive to my needs and we appreciated their candor and heart felt apologies. Mom will contact the guy in Fresno. The chances of me tolerating an hour drive to Fresno and still being "available" when we get to the session is slim to none. The OT that's working with Nixi works for him...so maybe she could even work with me. Insurance won't cover sensory integration for sure. That's a guarantee. Mom's gonna try to compel Regional Center to help, as the place they referred us to said they can't help us. We'll see. Sort of a snowball's chance in you know where. Parting words from the rehab center, "Just because we can't help you doesn't mean you don't need to get help somewhere where they can. You've got a small window here for a number of life skills, and its closing fast." Yeah.............we know. To be continued......

Mom made the kitchen bar into a HUGE felt board for us and we've been having tons of fun with it. We're using to learn about holidays, emotions, social interaction, colors, shapes, etc. If there's something we need to work on, all mom has to do is figure out a way to cut it out in felt and we're off! It's a fun way for us to learn and just enjoy lots of fun with mom and dad. We like it a lot.

Oh, and THANK YOU everyone for the Halloween cards...and $! Mom used our Halloween money to buy the stuff to make the felt board!

With that, I'm signing off. Hope you all are doing great and check back in next week for Nixi's post!

xoxo
Saf