Happy Father's Day!

So, its Sunday and its Father's Day. How to thank dad for all he does and all he puts up with? There's no words....so we gave him some pictures that we made of him and a Topsy Turvy tomato planter! Yep, nothing says you make our world a better place than construction paper and tomatoes...and I'm not being fasicious! I know my dad...and he LOVED it!

We spent the day hanging out front in the RV, 'cuz dad worked really hard over the past couple of weekends converting a fence into a gate so we could get the RV out! It was super fun, we watched some shows and had lunch out there. All in all, I think dad had a great Father's Day!

Last week was pretty good. We had to awesome days at summer school. We did an obstacle course one day and made a ladybug shaker/noise maker the other day. My friend Kameron's mom read us The Grouchy Ladybug and she did this really cool voice for all of the ladybug's parts. I liked it so much that I told dad it was my favorite part of school and even did the ladybug voice! I really like hanging out with all of my friends and, even though its hot, its a lot of fun! Nixi did much better wearing her abdominal binder. Can't even remember her getting very upset for no reason...a couple of times I may have upset her...but she was in a much better space!

Thursday mom decided to try taking us to a local library summer reading program. They do storytime and arts and crafts, etc. It was almost a half an hour away, but we were game. We got there and it was a whole lot of kids packed into one tiny room. I did fine...within the first 5 minutes Nixi went ballistic, I mean the kid lost it completely. Mom had to take her out of the room and try to help her calm down. I did an awesome job of staying in the room by myself and listening to the story. Mom got Nixi sort of calmed down enough so we could stay and do the art project. We made a fish. It was kind of stressful because they just dumped all of the supplies on the table and we had to fend for ourselves. I'm used to a pretty structured process when doing crafts like this and I was starting to fade. I REALLY needed them to give me the googly eye...the one item they didn't dump out at the beginning. See, I need to try to get my craft as close as possible to the example or it bugs the heck outta me. So, I started getting exceptionally anxious about the googly eye. Mom got me one, I slapped it on there, and we out! We may or may not go back...next time we'll try to have Heather there so someone can be with me if Nixi needs to bail.

Bummer to report, while Nixi is doing much better than she was a few weeks ago...she's still just not feeling right. Maybe its a mix of the terrible two's and autism...I know I sure had a rough time with the combo. See, we don't get to skip any of those stages just because we have autism. We still go through the terrible two's, independent tween's, puberty...the whole ball of wax. The only different for us is that its amplified by the autism and all that brings to the table. So, while some of Nixi's meltdowns may be perfectly normal two year old business, the fallout from it is not. Did you know that the average "temper tantrum" only lasts approximately 3 minutes? Sounds quick, but 3 minutes is a long time. Our meltdowns typically last anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes...sometimes less, sometimes a whole lot longer. That's just an example of how, while things may start out very neurotypical, they usually end very autistic! Total drag. The good news, she'll get past it just like I did. A year ago nobody would have thought I could have gone to the library and sat in a teeny room with a bunch of kids, let alone by myself for a few minutes....but I did, and Nixi will, too. And if she doesn't, that's ok, we'll take it as it comes.

Another little bummer, I'm withholding my bowels again...held it in completely for 5 days. Yesterday I finally had to let it go because mom loaded me up with so much Miralax I had no choice. A constant battle this whole bowel movement issue is for me!

However, happy to report that our dog Winston and the kitten..Bodhi...are slowly becoming friends! Good thing 'cuz we really have fun with the kitty and love him very much!

So, there's the week in a nutshell! Hope all the dad's and grandpa's out there had great days...we love you all and think you're all the best! Check back in next week to see where we're at and how we're doing!

xoxo
Saf

Here's a little video of me playing with two of my kitties...Kit and Bodhi..