Nixi and I got a new dog!!!!  We named her Twilight Sparkle (from My Little Pony), she's an Affenpinscher mix, and she's just dreamy.  We adopted her on Saturday from Central Valley Rescue Railroad.  Mom thinks she's funny looking but I say she's beautiful like a princess.  So far she likes all of our animals and all of them are ok with her.  Nixi and I take turns walking her and mom is going to sign her up for obedience training and I get to do the classes with her!  It makes me feel really proud of myself when I walk her and she follows my directions.  I can't wait to take her to my school to show her off to all of my friends!!!  There's the big news, no on to the weekly grind.

I had a great week at school ending it on Friday by asking my friends if I could play with them and asking them what they were playing.  Mom has been drilling me on that at the park for the past few weeks and its totally paying off!  My teacher was super proud and so was mom!

Nixi had a good week at school.  She had a field trip to the local college's farm school and got to pet an Arabian stallion and a baby sheep!  Mom also got to observe how she behaves with her classmates and was saddened to see that she was often times rough and no teachers corrected her behavior.  She was also very rude to the teachers on three separate occasions and they just let it slide.  Mom works really hard on these two things specifically because if Nixi doesn't curb these behaviors she will continue to do them indefinitely.  Its not something she's going to outgrow and mom doesn't want her to become a "management problem" at school.  Ironically, mom's observations where on the heels of an ambush of sorts by the school psychologist on Tuesday.  The school psychologist told mom that in Nixi's upcoming IEP they are going to terminate her speech therapy, stating that her pragmatic speech and social speech was close to age appropriate.  Mom asked her with how many people is being appropriate and the psych admitted its only with one other child in her class.  Then, the bombshell, the psych said they were going to suggest mainstream preschool for Nixi next year.  That's a classroom of 22-24 kids.  Uh, ok, she's in a classroom with 8 kids and only appropriately engages with one...and that's debatable.  Mom and dad had already decided that, after the two years of special services preschool, Nixi would not mainstream into a kindergarten class like mine.  Nixi is lively, fun, silly, fun to be around....and often times out of control, in her own world, and easily overwhelmed.  Not only do the chances of her having a massive psychotic break that she never comes back from increase in direct proportion to her stress levels, but it would be very easy for her to pegged as the difficult kid with behavior problems if she's put in a situation that she can't handle.  They seem to be basing this recommendation on her extremely limited social functioning but expansive verbal repertoire.  Bad mistake.  None the less, on April 5th mom has to go into another IEP ready for battle.  This time, its all out war.  These people think they've seen mom in warrior mode over me....they haven't seen anything yet.  Mom is protective of me, worries a lot, and is constantly afraid of my spirit getting squashed.  That said, she's game for trying new things even if its hard for her to even consider that I may fail and be hurt in the process.  This is a whole other ball of wax.  This time mom and dad are fighting for the rest of Nixi's life.  Many kids who experience psychosis, more commonly at the age of 7, end up going so far that they NEVER come back.  Meds help them keep one foot on the ground, but they are forever lost to severe mental illness.  Nixi is baseline right now.  She continues to hallucinate weekly, etc. but its manageable.  Push her over the edge and she very easily slips into an unmanageable place.  Mom is very conscious to not wave her degree around in IEP's.  She goes as a mom, first and foremost.  Autism is something we have all had to learn as we go..and we continue to do so every day.  Psychosis is what mom knows.  She created a training course for police and emergency responders on how to recognize active psychosis and work with it to keep both suspect and emergency personnel safe.  This is quite literally her area of expertise.  This is NOT an area of expertise, let alone competence, for anyone in the school district.  They just don't get it.  So, this IEP mom is vowing no tears, no uncertainty, no wiggle room...just warrior mom.  Her and dad will absolutely not risk losing Nixi, especially since Nixi has no desire to be in a mainstream class.  She is absolutely thrilled at the idea of getting to go to Teacher Mel's class next year just life Safi did.  She is a genius, the state says it is so.  That's wonderful....and many kids in special ed are geniuses, whether staff are skilled enough to recognize it or not. She is also extremely fragile.  Where I might be brittle, she is downright fragile.  A light wind on the wrong day can know her on her butt.  Challenge her....yes.  The challenge next year will be being in a less structured class (you all may remember Teacher Mel is pretty fly by the seat of her pants), and recess is with the mainstream classes so lots of kids for a short duration.  That's plenty challenge for a kid who went completely psychotic 8 months ago and remains to float in and out of our reality.  So, IEP team...I wish you luck.  You're going to need it!

We had a great St. Patrick's Day.  We set a Leprechaun trap the night before and in the morning the trap had gone off but was empty.  However, that Leprechaun lost his high top tennis shoe on his way out!!!  We also found his pot of gold!!!!  It was awesome!!!  Then, we got to do our bounce house clubhouse.  Emily, Daddy Josh, Logan, Zoey, Josh, and baby Addison came over too.  It was super fun!

So, great week!  We're having fun with the new addition to the family and can't wait for lots of exciting Easter activities at school!

xoxo
Safi

Leprechaun shoe....