Interesting week....not bad, interesting.  Both girls struggled with not seeing their dad over the weekend as he was on a trip.  So, they didn't see him for four days.  It was confusing for Nixi who has been becoming more disorganized again, perhaps due to the decrease in meds and perhaps due to the planetary alignment because at this point it seems that unpredictable and certain.  She talked about dad incessantly....."when are we going to dad's."..."are we sleeping over?"...."when did we go to dad's last time?"  While not mentioning it, the change in routine threw Safi as well because she was full of attitude all week.  While both girls have become exceptionally more flexible when it comes to routines and schedules, it still really puts them out of whack when a big change happens.

Nonetheless, Safi had a tremendous showing in her school Christmas pageant and Nixi was a tremendous audience member!  The headphones worked like a charm and she sang her little heart out.  They both did great and had a wonderful evening.  We paid for it the next day but it was totally worth it.

This weekend Mike took the girls to their dance class dress rehearsal.  It went great and despite the big stage and theater they were totally into it.  Hopefully when there's an audience on Monday night and Tuesday night it wont throw them.  Clearly, the change in schedule will, as they'll be going to bed later.  But, man.  My kids are doing a dance recital in a theater with an audience.  Take a moment to really take that in.  Such a small thing to many, but such a ridiculously huge accomplishment for us.  I'm unbelievably excited for show time.

I will be calling Davis this week to make an appointment for Nixi in January.  I'm going to ask that we do a med wash out...take her off of everything and see what that looks like.  I feel that, at this point, that's the only way will truly be able to make an informed decision about what the next move is.  She needs to be on meds, of that I have no doubt.  So, we need to see what the Risperdal was doing and the only way to do that is to take her off of it.  Perhaps its doing much more than I'm seeing.  But all I see is a kid who's meds keep getting increased because she's struggling...always trying to get her back to "stable enough" and then once she's there we lose it again.  Is it because of the illness, maturation and growth in both her brain and her body, stress levels, sleep or lack thereof?  I just can't tell at this point so I think its worth doing something radical to perhaps answer some of those questions.  We shall see.

This is the last week of school before the whopping three week winter break.  Its grueling, for parents of both typical and neurodiverse kiddos.  The first week is the honeymoon stage, everyone sleeps in, goofs off, good times.  Second week us parents throw a ton of activities at the kids to keep them engaged and somewhat structured.  The third week the kids are asking when they go back and the parents are counting down days, then hours.  Its a magical time of year, I tell you.  Make sure to come back next week to catch video of the girls' dance recital and to see how it did, or did not, effect our week!

Sarah