We had a pretty fun week this week! Saf did great both day in summer school, I did pretty good also. We did some shape treasure hunts and read a cool book about a chameleon with an identity crisis, because he's always changing colors and such. He finds a friend chameleon to hang out with who changes just as much as he does and he's real happy he found a friend that's just like him...different and always changing! Neat book! I danced my tail feather off during singing time and sang at the top of my longs...it was so coooool! Mom's gonna try to get some video of summer school sometime here pretty soon.

I had a really fun visit with my OT, Miss Jo. She brought over some playdough and a song about making pizza and her, Saf, and I had a blast. Check out the video...I even tried to get Heather, our BIA, into groove...she rocked out until mom turned the camera on her! It was really fun, Saf an dI really like Miss Jo...and Heather, well, we love her. So that was an total blast!

On friday mom thought she'd push the envelope with us and try taking us to a pet supply store we very rarely frequent to pick up food for our kitties and to challenge us. Challenge it was. Before we went mom explained to us where we were going and drew it for us. Fair enough. As we started to pull into the unfamiliar parking lot Saf started to get nervous and I just said "no." Mom said we needed kitty food so we needed to go. she got Saf's vest on and Saf climbed out of the car. Remember, Saf is totally freaked out by cars that are idling or moving...unless its ours. So, a car drove by and Saf started screaming and refused to hold mom's hand...she refused to get back in the car...it was a mess. She broke free from mom and bolted for the sidewalk...right into the path of a SUV. Mom grabbed her arm just in time and yanked her back. Some lady came out from a jewelry store offering to give Saf a balloon?!?! Nice and well meaning but NOT THE TIME! So, mom politely said, "my daughter has autism, please leave us, she'll be ok."..because the woman coming over made Saf even more upset. Mom held onto Saf with a death grip and got me out of the car. I was good to go....until we got into the store. I wanted to pull all of the bags of food off of the shelves and mom just wanted us to get our food and get outta dodge. Saf got to carry kitten food and I got to carry Oliver's food...but not without lots of ear piercing screams. Again, well meaning but not the right time moment as the checker cut us off and tried to take the bag of food from Saf. We were both screaming. Mom said, "both of my daughters have autism and they are fine, they're going to carry the food to you so please just move." We checked out, but not before a patron had to ask mom a ton of questions about where Saf goes to school, etc...really, she wanted to talk about her daughter who teaches at a school an hour away for moderate to severe kids. Everyone involved in the autism community knows each other, don't you know. Truly? Anyhow, we got the heck outta here and Saf pulled it together...I screamed all the way to the car. It was pretty hardcore.

Mom used to take us someplace new every other Friday. That stopped when I started getting really uncomfortable in my own skin. It isn't always safe for mom to do that with the two of us anymore. We have a tendency to run when we're scared or uncomfortable. So, new goal...with Heather's help we'll start going to unfamiliar places more regularly. I think it'll be rough, but good.

I'm still having at least one HUGE meltdown a day and number of smaller ones throughout. I'm hitting/kicking 50+ times a day and just generally still struggling. It stinks. Its a real drain on all of us. I'm a really lovable kind of kid, I just ain't all that easy to love on.

With that I bid you adu and remind you to check in next week to see what crazy stuff we've been up to!

Peace
Nixi

Playdough fun with Miss Jo...listen very carefully and you can hear me coax Heather ("dance Heather, dance")into getting her boogie on!