99 cent store expedition....we like to sit on the rides but don't dare put a quarter in 'em! We are NOT down with them moving!! But their good fun to sit on!






I am pleased to report that we had a pretty great week! Monday was a holiday so we got to hang out with dad...always fun!

We went back to the purple slide park but this time we took Heather. It was really fun. She's been sick so we hadn't gotten to see her in days. I missed her and made sure to tell mom just that every day that she wasn't here! Safi missed her, too...but had a rough time getting back into the swing of things when she came back and went to the park with us Friday. After a while she found her groove and made sure to show off and show Heather all of the things she can do at the park!

Earlier in the week we went to the sand park. There were to mommies there with their kids and I thought they were awesome...the moms, that is! I went over and mom thought I was going to parallel play with the kids. Then one of the older kids actually asked me to play! Mom was so excited...but I wanted nothing to do with the kids. I watched what their kids did to get attention and praise then copied that to get them to talk to me. They were Spanish speaking and I managed to WOW them with my perfect inflection and pronunciation, courtesy of echolalia, as I copied their conversation. This was all fine and dandy...ok, well, maybe not so fine. I had a hard time realizing that they were wanting to play with their own kids and talk to each other. I also struggled with giving them space, hanging off a ladder next to their head so I could get my face right up in theirs. These are all pretty typical challenges for some kids with autism, me for sure. Mom tried her best to distract me and redirect me...to varying degrees of success. Luckily, the mommies were really nice and thought I was super cute. At the end of the day when mom asked me what my favorite part of the day was, I said "two mommies". Mom and Heather are going to start working on appropriate boundaries with me. Before I didn't interact with people all too much...so this is a little new. Really good, because it means I'm getting something out of social situations...but its not gonna be very cute a few years from now!

Safi has been interacting with the kindergarten class at her school. On Tuesday they were all out playing "duck duck goose" and Safi went right over and played with them...all 20 of them!! A few days later, the class invited Safi's class to come in and dance with them. At first, Safi told teacher Mel "no, no thank you"...she thought about it for a minute...and darted into the room, straight into the middle of their dance circle and boogied down! My sister is so RAD! The kindergarten class has invited Safi's class to come and do an activity every Wed., from here on out..so Safi will have lots of time with her new friends! She's was struggling a little after she got home on days where she made new friends, but all in all she had a great week at school!

We got to go to the arcade this weekend and that was super fun. There was a party there so more kids than Im used to seeing there. Made me a little nervous...I kept walking around and saying "lots of people", and shaking. I still had fun, though! Mom played a game where you bonk alligators on the head with me and dad played Jurassic park with Safi. We had a great time! Some rain up here, but like I said...a pretty good week! Hoping this week will be just a good for us and all of you, too!

Peace
Nixi