Phew!  What a week!!!  We went fruit picking at Farley Farms and it was awesome!  We picked grapes, peaches, and plums.  We also got to pet lots a piglet, goats, sheep, a donkey, a mini horse, and a tortoise!  We had the best time and we also got to play with the Farley kids on their swing set and in their sandbox.  I was great!

Then....Safi started school.  In spite of being really anxious, Safi was geared up for the first day.  She picked out her own outfit at the store and was up bright and early and ready to roll.  Heather, our BIA, went with her and it went really well for 2 and half hours.  Mom and dad kind of expected as much seeing as though that's about the amount of time Safi went to school last year so her endurance has to be built up.  She made 2 new friends, used the big girl potty, and answered questions from the teacher!  The classroom was crowded, the kids were loud, and recess was chaos..so we were super proud that she lasted as long as she did.  She was a rock star!  Mom made a deal with the school that when Safi is done, she can come home.  Safi isn't the kind of kid to take advantage of that, she'd much prefer to be able to do a full day of school.  That night she told mom that she wanted to eat lunch at school the next day, so mom knew she really wanted to stay all day.  Unfortunately, Safi woke up Friday morning with a cramp in her neck.  This is stress related and due to an overload in stress hormones.  These hormones are released in to the muscles to give you the burst of strength to fight for you life or flee...fight or flight.  Your muscles metabolize those hormones through working out to the point of exhaustion....think cave man fleeing from a saber tooth tiger!  If the muscles aren't worked out to that point they cant metabolize properly and they cramp.  So, a crampy neck made for one seriously crabby Safi.  Her brain wants to conquer school and enjoy it but her physiology is not on board.

When Safi is in pain she has a tendency to scream or yelp, and Friday was no exception.  So the day started rocky from the get go.  Safi and Heather headed to school and by 10:20 mom and I were on the way to pick them back up.  Unfortunately, Safi just couldn't power through the pain enough to stop yelping, the whole week crept up on her, and she dissolved.  She was really disappointed that she missed lunch, and that was sad.  We'll just keep plugging along at Safi's pace because this is not a race of speed but rather of endurance...and, while it may not always seem like it, we've got endurance for days, baby!

Its going to be rough.  Since we toured the classroom and met Safi's teacher on Monday she's been what mom calls "regressing".  Now, mom and dad expected that so it was no surprise, but there's always the hope that it wont happen and if it does that it doesn't happen to bad.  Well, its pretty bad.  Basically, Safi's back to using old coping skills from way back when she was 2...lining things up, hitting herself in the head, hitting and kicking mom, super rigid.  Basically, everything but banging her head and we're hoping that stays far away.  So, mom and dad are going to start looking for a psychiatrist to see if they can't get Safi on an anti depressant for anxiety.  Their only hold out has been her age.  The hope has been that they could put enough supports in place to get her through the next few years and then start meds but its becoming evident that that's just not fair to Safi.  Safi deserves to live a full life doing the things that she loves and she's just not able to do that right now.  If either of us had diabetes, they'd give us insulin so its time to give Safi's brain a little help so it can do a better job of controlling her physiology.  So, that's where we're at.

It was a pretty dicey weekend, culminating in a full scale Safi meltdown complete with her hurting mom and having to stay home.  I went to the park with dad and that was fun, but I just really hope my sister gets back on track soon.

Anyhow, I'm kinda done thinking about it so with that I say....
Peace
Nixi