Swinging times!

Phew! What a week...a total blur!

Nixi had school on Monday and Tuesday. Heather, our BIA, has been slowly "fading" so we can see how she does on her own. Its been met with mixed success. While Nixi has been doing a great job of not melting down during school, she seems to be getting increasingly anxious and "checking out" a lot more. When we gets home she's pretty tearful and just wants mom to hold her so she can space out. This next week Heather will still be in the room but will start fading her support completely and asking the early intervention staff to do all interventions and interaction with her. Should be interesting...and Heather will be there if Nixi needs her so it'll be ok. Still, seems like Nixi is enjoying doing the art projects and she LOVES the bubbles at the end!

I had some great days at school, and a few anxious ones. Seems for 2 days there just wasn't enough time in the day for our routine schedule to be followed in earnest so by day 3 I was done. Told mom I didn't want to go to school, cried, and got there 15 minutes late. 3 of my friends had the same reaction, so mom talked to my teacher and she made sure we had time for everything in our schedule and we were all good to go! We had school pictures and I looked super cool and did great! This week we have a field trip to the pumpkin patch! Should be awesome.

Over the past 2 weeks some new symptoms have been emerging from Nixi, and its got mom and dad pretty sad. Her course in this disorder seems to be following mine much more closely than mom and dad had originally expected. I think they were thinking she'd be less effected or something just because she can speak clearly and doesn't have the motor planning problems I have. WRONG! [Interesting note - this has prompted mom to do some research and what she found was really interesting. Seems recent research is showing that language delay, or lack there of, is not a good predictor of autism severity. This is one of the reasons why the new DSM in 2012 will be collapsing Asperger's Syndrome into Autism Spectrum Disorder and getting rid of it as a separate disorder. These studies have found that a disproportionate number of kids with speech delay are actually less effected than the kids who had none. Remember, Nixi has Classic Autism just like me...but her verbal ability has always thrown everybody off a bit. Interesting.] Her rituals have expanded to just about every area...and she's pulling mom into a lot of them like I used to when I was her age. She needs mom to say things a certain way...if she doesn't, Nixi keeps repeating the her part over and over again until mom does her part. If mom gets her part wrong Nixi gets really upset and can't move on until mom gets it right. She's also starting to do more and more of the motor imitation and repetition. For example, Nixi like it when mom pushes her as she's standing in the bed. Its a deep pressure treat that she only gets a few times a day. Lately, mom pushes her down and Nixi laughs then gets really angry and says "mu push down", stands up, and puts her own hand on her chest and "pushes" herself down. There's more stuff but its just too much of a bummer so we'll get into more at a later date. And, NO, she is not copying me. She's doing stuff that I haven't down since she was an infant and her rituals have no overlap with my own.

Fun stuff....we had a fabulous playdate with Sebastian, Gideon, and Penelope on Friday. Check out the video below! They're such great friends and we're just really lucky to have them! We also got a SWING SET! Its our first swing set and we LOVE IT! Dad slaved away to put it together and it was worth every ounce of energy he put into it. Its just really cool. We have it out in the front yard so we can have lots of opportunities for play and interaction with our neurotypical neighborhood buddies, and they've been loving it as much as we have. The coolest news EVER...by watching the neighbor boys swing I finally figured out how to pump my legs and swing myself!!!! Mom and dad have been trying to me that forever, but I hated it when they "coached" me. Man, I can fly now...I'm free! Its the best feeling ever!!!

So, some rough patches and rough stuff....but what a great end to the week!! Check back next week to see how the pumpkin patch went and to see how little sister does on Tuesdays with Heather totally fading!

xoxo
Safi

"The New House: Scenes 17, 18, 19"...a movie directed by Sebastian Shook and produced by mom. Starring, all of us!


Swing set montage...make sure to pay special attention to the end...my leg pump debut!