I don't mean to brag....

but, seriously, I'm feeling pretty cool...I CAN CRAWL!!! I started crawling on Monday and it is so awesome. I'm starting to pick up speed...a little. Watch out world, I'm coming! Also, my occupational therapists used me as the topic of a training she did for the county...again! This is the second time, 'cuz I'm unique, you know! I think they like showing my evaluation video because they think I'm so cute. I'm sure that's got to be part of it! As you can see, it's been an exciting week.

I had a great speech/occupational therapy session and an even better development session. The occupational therapist finished her evaluation on Monday. It was fun, lot's of neat things to touch and look at. Interesting, turns out I'm blind in the right superior (upper) quadrant of my right eye. Crazy! I crawled to my development teacher and pulled up on her. My teacher cried because usually I have a hard time being near other people than mom, dad, and Saf. She said she was over joyed to be there to witness my world getting a little bigger. It was neat. I had my 9 month check up and I didn't even have to get any shots! Talk about a great day! So, I'm having fun trying to catch Saf....she's really fast. Luckily, the dogs are much easier prey. Although, I think they stay put because they know I can give a mean deep tissue massage.

Saf had a pretty good week, some up's and down's...but all around good. This coming week she'll start going back to the therapy center for speech/occupational therapy. Tomorrow is her first time back up there in months, so we're really excited. They've been coming to the house twice a week, but the therapy center has so much neat stuff. We watched a dvd the therapists made for her a few times tonight. It shows the therapy center from the front door, walking back into the therapy room and its to a song Saf really likes. When there's a chance Saf might get overwhelmed by something new (it will be in a new room), mom, dad, and the therapists use visual supports to help get Saf ready. Sometimes its pictures put in a book, sometimes its a dvd movie. Once Saf watches/looks at it, she knows what to expect and usually has a great time. I think she's excited and it'll be great. It's been super rainy up here, so Saf has a bit of cabin fever. Luckily, the sun has been coming out more and more so we may hit a park day with our attachment parenting group on Tues. That'll be cool. I like seeing all the neat things the big kids can do.

Mom and dad are looking at RV's...I don't know what that is, but it sounds cool. They want to buy one pretty soon so we can start getting used to it before our big trip to Denver in the summer. Mom says we'll get to play in it and even have sleep overs in it to get us ready. Anytime I get to play with Saf I feel like my heart may well explode...so I can't wait! I love her soooooo much!

Mom and dad are finishing up our intake information for the STAR Center...all 20 pages of it, per kid! Once they send it back in they'll have a phone intake and we'll get to book our treatment! Very exciting!

We want to wish our Grandpa Seifert a VERY Happy Birthday! On the 5th he'll be a year older and it's hard to get any wiser...but we're sure if it's possible, he'll do it! We love you, Grandpa!

So, we've had a pretty awesome week. Hope yours was fabulous, and hope this week is even more fabulous!

Peace
Nixi


Everybody loves a good massage.........


Sometimes its just plain good to laugh....and then stop really fast...

The AGONY of defeat.......

Tonight, I'm writing the entry because Nixi is inconsolable. Really, Mr. Favre, an across field throw at the crucial point of the game?!?!?! What, are you too old to run 10 yards?! RETIRE! Forgive me, I don't like seeing my dad and my sister's hearts broken. As for me....football...schmootball! I like cookies!

It was a really good week. Mom had a great talk with the people at the Star Center in Denver. Looks like if we get all of the intake stuff taken care of by mid-Feb, we should be able to reserve our spaces for late summer without being wait-listed. Mom and dad decided that late summer was better than spring...so we can enjoy the Colorado weather and miss out on the hottest weeks up here.

Let's see, about my week. I loaded all of my sippy cups and some silverware into the dishwasher by myself, with mom's guidance! I had 3 great days of ABA in a row. Haven't had that in awhile. Mom has started instituting some things from the book, "Sensational Kids" written by Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, who founded the Star Center. For example, when I start getting anxious mom gives me a super tight hug. I mean TIGHT SQUEEZE!

Break for a quick neurobiology lesson. When you're anxious or under stress the sympathetic nervous system is activated. The main function of the sympathetic nervous system is to mobilize the body's resources under stress by inducing the fight-or-flight response. See a bear, run like lightening or fight like heck. People with autism have an over active sympathetic nervous system in general. People with SPD have an uber over active sympathetic nervous system. People with autism and SPD, forget about it! There doesn't have to be any identifiable stressor for me...being under constant sensory assault from the moment I wake up initiates my sympathetic nervous system and it just stays activated throughout the day. If you can confuse the fight or flight message to the brain you can alleviate the stress response. Mom hugging me really hard interrupts the stress message. It's like when the you get a shot and the nurse pinches your skin really hard. Yeah, it helps the needle to go into the skin quickly....but it also helps to make the shot less painful by confusing the brain. Your brain can't decide what to focus on, needle prick or pressure? End of lesson! =)

So, the tight squeeze gives me deep pressure input that activates a different area of my brain. My brain gets a calming message. It really works great. She showed my ABA teacher how to do it, too. Mom also has me doing heavy work throughout the day, like playing with weighted balls and stuffed animals, pulling laundry in and out of the basket, etc. This work activates my muscles and at the same time compresses my joints, again sending calming messages to my brain. I can tell the difference since the first day we started doing the new stuff. I feel a lot better, more at ease. When I'm less anxious I can get so much more done with my various therapies and school stuff with mom. Its awesome! Also, so why we need to go to Star Center. Mom and dad have been having to learn a lot of things out by trial and error. They've been going on gut, mom's internet research, and her transient memory of biological basis of behavior classes from grad school. They know that when Nixi or I are in a full-scale meltdown that holding us freakishly tight has always calmed us. They knew it was because of the deep pressure, but they never thought to do it throughout the day...even when we don't look anxious or when we very first start to show the early signs that we may be getting anxious. The Star Center will help take the guessing out of all this.

Nixi had great occupational therapy, speech therapy, and early development sessions. She started babbling again on Thursday. So, this time she only stopped for a week and a half. Looks like as she gets more used to doing all this stuff, she's bouncing back quicker! Also, she hasn't stopped babbling since her sessions on Thurs and Friday...great signs that she's getting less overwhelmed! She has her 9 month well-baby check-up, complete with shots, this week. She doesn't do too well with shots, usually gets a nasty fever for a day or two after. We'll see.

Hope you had a great week and can't wait to see what new adventures this week brings!

xoxo
Saf

What goes up, must come down!

Busy week here, ending in an ER visit for mom and a HUGE Vikings win for Dad and me! GO VIKES! Betcha didn't know my night light is a neon Vikings sign! See, dad had high hope for Saf.....but she just doesn't bleed purple like he and I do. Anyhow, on to mom....she decided to take the dogs roller blading without us and the stroller. Turns out mom can't roller blade without the stability of the stroller...who knew? So, she's got a major sprain and hyper-extension of the wrist. Bummer.

On to our week. Saf did all of her usual stuff...struggled through ABA, but shined in speech and OT. She sat on the OT's lap and watched her blow bubbles...a BIG first. In well over a year, this was the first time that Saf touched and had physical contact with the OT....EVER. Needless to say, the OT was over the moon! A challenging but great week for my big sis!

I had my first speech and OT session and I rocked it! I copied their hand movements while I was on my platform swing and tried to copy when they said, "up" by making an "uh" sound. Kinda funny, though, I haven't babbled since their session. Same thing happened when they did their evaluation before x-mas. During the eval I babbled for the first time...then nothing until Jan. 4th. They say this is typical because I'm taking it all in and processing everything. Like, on Monday they engaged my motor skills, immitation play, and verbal areas...that's a lot all at once for me. So, I take my time to digest it all and then I'll babble again. So far, they say I have solid skills at a 4 month old level, with some scattered skills up to 6 months. They say my areas for focus are:
1)Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) = difficulty processing touch (tactile defensiveness, I'm super sensitive), temperature, visual (not acuity, I get visually overwhelmed and then scared), and difficulty making sense of situations that call on multiple senses at once. Hey, what can I say...I', a sensitive girl!
2)Limited facial expressions.
3) Difficulty calming with extreme emotional dysregulation. Basically, I lose it. Most of the time my response to situations doesn't match the situation itself. Weather its a bump from Saf, a gust of wind in the face taht I wasn't expecting, or mom rubbing lotion on me after a bath, or rolling on to a part of the sheets that's cold.........my response is a 10 and I panic. It sucks.
4)Motor delays....like not crawling or rolling from one place to another, no banging things like blocks together, and about 90% of the time I keep my hands fisted. But, I can pull to stand...so my development is considered uneven.

I also had my physical therapy (PT) eval. Luckily, mom videotaped me doing stuff becuase once I got up there I FREAKED OUT! So, they only got to see me do a few things live. But they say I'm solid at a 6 month old level with scattered skills up to 9 months becuase I can pull to stand and the way I sit is really good. I only use 3 of my fingers when I play, making it really hard to move stuff around and to let go of stuff when I have it. Turns out that this is part of my sensory issue. I guess that even when they put big stuff in my hands, I sitll used the tips of my fingers to kind of keep anything from touching my palms....boy, if I could have balled my hands up into fists I would have! They want to see me every week but we'll start out every other week and build up to it. I'm just not that comfortable with all of this yet.

You see, my sensory issues are pretty extreme. My sister's sensory stuff didn't really start to show until she was a year and a half. I've been what they call "defensive" and "hypervigilant" pretty much since I arrived on the scene. Everyone working with me thinks that I'm cognitively (my smarts) all there, but unable to let go of the fear I have to really explore stuff. I'm so busy scanning the environment for threats....its hard for me to get a moment to relax and just play. Sure, I'm all smiles a lot, but I still hold my body like a new baby......tight fists, arms and legs bent up towards my body. When I'm really comfortable and feeling super safe, that's when I can show everyone all of the cool and even surprising things I can do. Its no fun being on high alert all the time, but mom, dad, and everyone else is going to help me with that......if I can just relax enough to let them. We'll see...it's gonna be a heck of a road ahead.

So......for a kid who doesn't babble much, I sure type like a bandit! See, already surprising ya!

Have a great week!

Peace Out
Nixi
Oh, and check out our band. We're still working out the kinks, like Saf calling me frog...but its gonna be huge!

I LOVE VEGGIE CHIPS!

So, today was a really exciting day. I went to World Market with dad and he bought me shrimp chips AND veggie chips! Oooooooh, so yummy! Our outing, and an outing to Walmart and K-mart with mom in the middle of the week, are a sign that things are on an up-swing for me. See, starting in the beginning of November I was having trouble going into buildings except for my house. I just got really overwhelmed and upset. When we'd try to run an errand, I'd start crying and get really scared when we parked the car. So, it was a huge milestone to go out and enjoy cruising around a public place.

Services started up again and so far its going ok. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. When my BIA (ABA teacher) first arrives at the house, I'm anxious for about the first half. The second hour has been going pretty well, though. This next week I start up speech and occupational therapy, too. I think it'll be ok. Nixi's a little nervous because she has her first speech and occupational therapy session this week. She also has her physical therapy evaluation and early development therapy. I told her the teachers are really nice and she'll have fun. She kinda bought it...sucker!

Nixi has started for real babbling...like, every day! Before last week she had only babbled 6 times. Not six days, seriously 6 times. Its pretty funny and she seems to think she's the coolest kitty in the city. We both have oral motor apraxia. What the heck is that? Read about Childhood Apraxia of Speech here:
http://www.brighttots.com/Speech_and_Language_disorders/Dyspraxia_Apraxia.html

Anways, it's gonna be a packed week! Mom and dad are really anxious for the Nixi's physical therapy eval. She can do alot of stuff, but always seems to be missing a part along the way. Like, she can pull herself to stand...but when she's on her tummy she has a hard time getting on her hands and knees. Instead of bending her knees...she straightens them out and tries to stand. Result = a push up grown men would be jealous of. Problem is, sometimes she gets stuck there and has to hold it. I'd go over and help her out by pushing her over but mom said that really wasn't all that helpful. Whatever! =) The therapist will give them fun stuff to do with her to help her learn those missing parts.

Ok, so its not like I'm bragging or anything........but I RULE! Santa got me a ABC's puzzle for Christmas. I've been using the letters from the puzzle to spell things I see in my favorite shows. I'm only 2yrs & 9mos old!!! I can spell rocket, castle, fly, bug, pie, water, hat, cap, shoe, cake, and a few more. Can't spell ball....there aren't two "l"s....bugs the crap outta me. Mom's gonna try to find me a thing of letters so I have more than one of each. I love letters and words. Mom and dad are super excited because if I can spell stuff it'll make up for all the stuff I say that nobody can understand. That'll be awesome. I hate when nobody knows what I'm saying. It makes me really sad. I'm on the right track! Full speed ahead!

So, a pretty exciting week. Hope yours was just as exciting and can't wait to update you again next week!

Also, if you are having trouble watching the youtube stuff...let mom know. She's new to this stuff and she's learning as she goes!


xoxo
Saf

All good things must come to an end....

We've been on winter break from services for the past 2 weeks and its been awesome! I get to sleep in a little if I want and there hasn't been anyone to pester me...except for Nixi and mom =) I just get to be a kid. Tomorrow, its back to the grind. My ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) starts back up bright and early at 9:15 in the morning and will go for 2 hours. I do this 5 days a week and its a pain in the butt! Mom and dad have decided that we need to take a new approach to the ABA, because the way its been going, I've actually been doing worse than without it! Mom talked to the supervisor and she agrees so I'm hoping tomorrow will be the first day of a new program. Speech and Occupational therapy don't start back up until next week....so I guess I'll get to ease back into things a bit.

This morning we got to use our new jogging stroller for the first time. It was SO COOL! That sucker is fast! Nixi never even had a chance to get bored of the walk and cry...we were zooming!

Mom + rollerblades + dog power + new stroller = a wild ride! It was super fun!

The greatest New Year news yet is that mom found a really neat place in Denver, CO that she and dad are hoping to take me and Nixi to this spring. It's called the Star Center and it looks like a lot of fun! The Dr. that runs the center has been the main driving force in getting Sensory Processing Disorder included in the 2012 DSM. Her research and treatment protocols are cutting edge and kids who go there get a lot better and that makes them happy. I'm excited. This could be just what me and my kid sister are looking for! You can check it out at http://www.starcenter.us/

Nixi has her 2 bottom middle teeth and she's drooling like a rabid dog...ok, she's kind of cute...but it's pretty gross. Anyways, I guess that means she's getting another tooth. She also is pulling herself up to stand...just one step closer to being able to come and grab my stuff. The thought makes me shudder. Its not that I don't like her playing with my stuff. I don't really mind. I just don't like her touching me...that really bothers me. Of course, that seems to be all she wants to do. It'll be interesting.

So, hope you all had a great weekend and have a super great week! Check back in a week to see how the transition back to services went...UGGHHH!

Oh, and if you click on my youtube video and think I look a little goofy...I was watching myself on the video camera monitor while it was taping. Vain, I suppose!


xoxo
Saf

Happy New Year!!!

Welcome family & friends and happy 2010! For the New Year, mom is going to help us do a weekly blog so that we can share our lives with you all! Every Sunday mom will help us update the blog so you can check in every Monday to see how our week was! You can see pictures and video, too! Let the blog begin!

xoxo,
Saf & Nixi

So, our Christmas was pretty cool. We do Christmukka....which means we get gifts starting the first week of December and continue until New Year. Mom and dad found this works best because sometimes its a little too overwhelming for there to be a bunch of new stuff in the house all at once. It's AWESOME! You never get a chance to get bored of anything. By the time your toy starts dragging...there's a new one to play with! Absolutely the BEST! We are super spoiled! We got TONS of fun stuff from all of our family and we've been having the best time ever exploring everything with each other and with mom and dad. Whenever Nixi drops a toy, I stop what I'm doing and get it for her so she doesn't cry. Also, when I notice her really staring at something of mine I almost always end up giving it to her. Mom and dad don't even have to ask....I just think my little sister is cool.
Our New Year's was pretty quiet. We like sleep our sleep and mom and dad like our sleep too, so we were in bed well before the new year. Dad got us donuts this morning and we just hung out and had a great day. We're looking forward to a really amazing 2010. The is gonna be a great year and I'm so glad we get to share it with you! Sooooo, mom will do her first Sunday update this Sunday the 3rd to start getting into the swing of things. Check back next week to see how our weekend went!

xoxo,
Saf
P.S. Nixi says "hi"....I think, I can't understand a darn thing that baby says!