Turkey Day...........


Sugarplumb Fairy....

You know your kid has autism when they use the Christmas tree as another opportunity to line things up.....! :)




A week off...and it was good! We did great with the break from school/services. Yeah, there we had our moments...but nothing related to being on break. Super cool!

We did some art projects, went to the park with Heather and her niece Liz, hit Lowe's, and even went to Big Lot's and spent Thanksgiving money that grandpa and grandma Seifert and our Omi sent us! We celebrated Thanksgiving, dad was home for 4 days straight, and we ended the week with putting up our new Christmas tree! Such a neat week.

Ok, so the park and hanging out with Liz was AWESOME! We met her first when she started coming to our summer school to help out. She's almost 9 and she's the coolest big kid EVER! When we were at the park she played lots of games with me and tried her darnedest to help Safi conquer her fear of the pitfall slide. She took me down it bunch of times and each time Safi got less and less upset...mom calls it habituation...whatever that is. Then it came time for us to leave and Safi asked to go down the slide, just like she had last time. She got up there and started to freak out...just like last time. Liz just sat next to her and offered silent support. Well, I decided that I needed to replay the last time we went to the park and freaked out getting into the car. We left Safi up there to work it out on her own. While everyone was focused on my meltdown, nobody noticed that Safi had quietly gotten off the play structure by herself and come to the car. She was so proud of herself...I was a screaming mess. So, a tremendous success for Safi...now we have to work on getting me out of my loop. I do that, I get into loops where I have to do things the same way every time...even if it means melting down.

Thanksgiving was ok...I love turkey. Safi had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We both had our moments of freaking out but all in all an ok day.

We went to Bog Lot's with our money, save for the dollar we each took to the bank...check out the video. It was cool...lots of stuff, also lots of people. Turns out I kinda get freaked out by new stores now. I was doing pretty well until I realized where I was then I started screaming and wanting to imitate what people around me where doing. We got outta dodge fast...but not before buying out treats with our money. We gave it to the cashier ourselves and everything. Even got some change! So cool.

The icing on the cake...putting up our Christmas tree. You know how we feel about Christmas...L-O-V-E!!!!

So, great week...now back to the grind!

Peace
Nixi

When mom asked Safi what she was going to do with her Turkey Day money she said, "I takin' it to the bank" without skipping a beat...mom wasn't able to get that on video but she was able to bait us into a half-hearted replay on our way there!


We made up this tree decorating song as we decorated...what can we say, Christmas moves us!

Hat season is upon us.....Woohoo!

It was a long week, not a bad week, but it seemed to drag on forever! Was an even longer weekend and we're all a little drained.

Nixi had school on Monday and Tuesday, culminating in a pre-Thanksgiving feast! Mom and the other grown-ups did a potluck thing, so I got to eat a cookie! Nixi's teachers set up a holiday table with fake candles and everything. They had cheese and crackers, apples slices, and pumpkin pie. Nix wasn't into anything but the crackers...asking for seconds and thirds! She did pretty good in class both days (Heather was there), but the fallout later at home was pretty epic.

I had a short week and I'm off until the 28th. Bummer!! We made cool turkey hats, though...and I used the school toilet at least once each day. Teacher Mel asked us all what we were thankful for and I said, "mommy kisses and daddy hugs." Mom had my first parent-teacher conference and Teacher Mel had nothing but great things to say. I'm meeting all of my goals from my IEP (individualized education plan). Pretty exciting.

I think Nixi told you about our weird visit with the OT last week. So, mom cancelled her for awhile, asking that she check in on Nixi when she's in class instead of coming to the house. Mom's instincts were dead on for this one...when Thursday rolled around and teacher Lorene showed up both Nixi and I said "No teacher Jo today, all done teacher Jo." Mom hadn't mentioned anything to us about not seeing her at the house for awhile, nor had she talked about it to anyone else in front of us. So, that was just our way of saying that we weren't wanting a home visit.

We hit Lowe's a few times during the week...as well as the park. Turned out I didn't get sick, but Nixi got a nasty cold. So, we hung out around the house until she didn't have a fever again. Saturday we had a pretty hairy day, from start to finish.

In the morning dad took us to get fancy donuts from the donut shop. We left a little late and when we got there it was crowded. I kinda lost it and started hitting Nix and screaming...of course, she started screaming and we were off and running for the rest of the day. We went to the park, it was fun at first. Some older kids were helping the little kids play hide and seek. The big girl, in particular, was carrying Nixi around and hiding her and I wanted her to do it with me too. So, I started getting a little screechy and upset with Nixi. Mom helped facilitate play between us all and it was ok. I rode my trike and Nixi road her scoot and zoom around. Then I went to swing before we left, and the park quickly filled up...I mean really packed. I thought I saw Nixi on a particular slide that I really want to go down, but am afraid to go down and I flipped. I asked to go on the slide, mom said ok. I got up there and began to scream that I was scared...I mean really scream. Everyone stopped and stared and the other kids were scared. Mom had to climb up there and get me. Nixi freaked out because dad was holding her and carried her to the car...she needs to walk. Basically, we both totally lost it. We had to be forcibly put in our car seats, and I ended up giving mom a pretty intense pounding. It was awful. Mom says we're going back to the park Monday and either a)conquering the slide or b) at least going to leave on our own two feet!

So, that was the week....this coming week will be interesting between rainy weather and no school for us both. I guess Thursday is Thanksgiving...boy am I gonna miffed if the day doesn't end with me snuggled up next to a fluffy, feathery turkey!!!

xoxo
Safi

Safi's drawing of Tom and Jerry...note she even wrote "cat"!

Someone left this supportive sticky note on mom's rear windshield when she was out shopping...


I apologize in advance...this blog entry is gonna be a short one. We're getting sick...AGAIN! Safi woke up with a fever Sunday morning and I started to get one later in the day. Good grief! We plan on getting flu shots at some point, but seems we keep getting random viruses.

Either way, mom has a bunch of crafts for us to do, 'cuz Safi's gonna be super bummed about missing school. Should be fun!

I had an ok couple of days at school. Teacher Shannon was back and Lorene and others were there to give me support. I did some fun art projects and got to eat cheerios! Good enough for me!

Safi had some great days at school...even getting to call home and tell mom when she went on the school potty 3 times!! So cool!

We had a weird home visit with my OT, teacher Jo and Lorene. Turns out teacher Jo is afraid of dogs due to a past experience. In the year she's been coming here she hasn't said a word, but she kind a freaked on Thurs. Winny licked her ear and she said she couldn't do this anymore and wouldn't come out to the house again if he wasn't kenneled. Mom, of course, put Winny in the kennel immediately...but also reminded teacher Jo that had she EVER said previously that she wasn't comfortable with him milling around she would have always had him in there. Weird. Mom's wondering is maybe she wasn't annoyed with something else. Specifically, she kinda seems bugged by Safi's presence during our sessions sometimes. Mom's gonna address this with her next week. Teacher Lorene also made some comments that she thought I was leery of Safi. Mom couldn't take it and kind of unloaded on her. See, mom and dad are frustrated because the early intervention folks still don't seem to know Nixi. Of course this is due to the time constraints placed on them by the way the services are set up. Never the less, it still doesn't help us any if they don't know me...and they don't. I could go on about it, but we're just all drained. So, look forward to future rants! :)

This week should be interesting, sickies and all. Check back in next week to see how we all pulled through it!

Peace
Nixi

Sisterly love!!! I just think its hysterical when Safi blinks!

Let the good time flow..............

Ok, its just too exciting to save for last....so I'm gonna go backwards this week. I USED THE TOILET!!!! Sunday morning mom outfitted our toilet with this cool attachable seat me and Nixi's size. So rad. She downloaded some potty time apps on the iphone, got a cool book, and we were off to the races! The whole deal started off pretty dicey. We were intrigued, but anxious because it was a big a change to the bathroom. Also, the potty seat was really wobbly and just didn't feel very secure. So, both Nix and I had a few bouts of screaming and such...but after we chilled out at nap time, and mom went our and got a different and better potty seat it was on like donkey kong! Turns out Nixi really can't pull her pants down on her own and she's having a hard time getting on the potty and feeling secure. She likes to get up there, hang out in a very tense manner for a second, then say "I did it" and hop right off. I, however, am determined to pee in the toilet. In my quest to go pee, I went poop....three separate times!! And I was totally cool with it! Didn't bother me one bit, only I really want to pee. Oh well. Mom has this cool thing, if we go to the toilet and do something we get to pick a color of food dye which is then dropped into the toilet when we flush so we get to make cool colors in the water! So much better than a sticker!! Ok, stickers rule....but we really like this, too. Its unique and special and we only get to do it in the toilet! So, we're heading towards a really cool milestone....potty learning! WooHooo!

It got pretty cold this week, and we even had some rain. Mom, Heather, Nixi and me went to Lowe's to check out the Christmas decorations...AWESOME...and to get a big box. Why a box? Rainy day playhouse! We made a super awesome house...I even figured out how to make it a mobile home! We colored on it with markers and decorated it with stickers and it was just so much fun!

I had a great week at school. I was bummed that I didn't have school Monday...but Halloween made up for that! Halloween was great! We had a mini pumpkin treasure hunt (think Easter egg hunt, but with little plastic pumpkins with goodies inside)played Monster Mash musical chairs, ghost bean bag "no hands", and we went trick or treating for the very first time! It was so coooool! We went to two houses, our next door neighbors...then we politely asked to go home. We had a really great Halloween.

Nixi had a rough two days at school. Heather was sick, and so was the normal teacher for her class...so two MAJOR changes in the normal routine. Nixi didn't handle it very well. By the middle of class on Monday mom had to go into the class because Nixi was in a full blown meltdown. She asked that they call Nixi's home visit teacher Lorene to come and offer Nixi some support and she was able to pull it back together for the rest of class. On Tuesday Nix barely made it through the front gate to the classroom before looking around and seeing her teacher was still absent and dropping to the floor screaming, kicking, etc. Her OT, teacher Jo came the rescue and her and Lorene helped her get through class. She got to make a really cool picture of an owl, complete with real feathers! Pretty neat. Hopefully this week is easier for her. Heather wont be there Monday, but she'll be there Tues. We shall see.

So, for the most part, that was our week. Some awesome greats, and some sad lows...but we're all still here! So, take a peek next week to see if we remain! :)

xoxo
Safi

Check out our rainy day play house/mobile home!


Lowe's fun day............