Penelope's birthday party....

Sebastian

Gideon

The birthday girl, Penelope!






Super RAD week! We got to go BACK TO SCHOOL!!! I love school so much! Nixi had fun when she went back, but she struggled with overstimulation and changing the routine we had established over break.

In the second picture you can see the train tracks my friends and I set up by ourselves. EVERYONE talked, everyone worked together, and the teachers didn't help. We were all very proud! It was just a neat week. Oh, and I told my class that mom and Nixi snore! There are NO secrets in Pre-K!

We hit the sand park a few times and that was super fun. I can swing really high...I love it...I get to fly! We also went to the goose park on Sunday...that's the last set of pictures. I was super brave and I tried every single piece of equipment. I may not have liked it all, but I tried everything. Nixi got up the courage to cross the suspension bridge and go down the slide. Other than that, she was kind of dysregulated and ready to go.

The funnest event of the week by far...our friend Penelope's birthday party. She turned 3 and we got to be a part of it. We got to hang out with her and her brothers Sebastian and Gideon and it was just so cool. We love hanging out with them and have missed them a lot, since it seems every time we've tried to hang out someone has been sick. When we were in the car on the way home Nixi said, "A great, great day!"...truer words were never spoken. It was great!

So, we have a three day weekend, no school for either of us Monday. I'm good with it but I think Nixi might be a little thrown. Its hard to try to get back to a normal schedule with these little holidays messing things up. High note, dad will be here to hang with us! So, new week...here we come!

xoxo
Safi

Swinging with our neighbor, Jeffrey...he's known me since before I was even born! Uh, Nixi, too!

Elephants, tiger, and a bear..oh, my!

We went to the ZOO!! This is a HUGE deal because its the first time we've ever gone....and it was AWESOME! We went with our friends from Safi's school, Kameron and his sister Jewel and it was so much fun. We were both a little anxious leading up to it. When mom first told us we were going, Safi was really nervous and kept telling me that the zoo and the animals were scary. After sleeping on it, as we had two days before actually going to prepare, she was super pumped. I was pretty excited until we got in the car to go. I was shaking and needed a lot of reassurance, and a Backyardigan's episode on the way up. When we got there Safi was abotu to explode she was so excited. I was cautious and a little more reserved. While there were some moments when I felt scared, and said so...all in all, it was pretty neat. Safi and I were a little more excited about BEING at the zoo than about the animals themselves. They don't do much! They just kind of hang out. We liked the reptile area the best because those snakes and lizards are a lively bunch. Everything else was just kind of, "Ok, I saw it...moving on.." Luckily, Kameron was about the same and Jewel was a good sport so everyone had fun. Afterwards we had lunch at a big park outside of the zoo. That was probably my very favorite part because of the HUGE squirells that were running all over the place. One even tried to steal our lunch! AWESEOME!!! It was a great day with no meltdowns, only minor "hiccups" here and there!

After the zoo when we got home things went to pot. We all kinda expected that so, while it wasn't fun, we all just plugged along and by night time peace was restored!

We also had a fun playdate at our house with Kameron and Jewel at the beginning of the week. Safi had a blast swinging for like an hour with Jewel. I got a little overwhelmed, but in the end I played with Kameron in our bounce house for 15 minutes! So fun!

All in all a really great week and a cool end to winter break. This week we start school and services back up. We're pretty excited. Safi really missed all of her friends. Also, we get to go to our friend Penelope's 3rd birthday party this Saturday!! We've really missed her and her crew so we're super excited. Great week behind us....hopes for an even greater week ahead!

Peace
Nixi

Hasta La Vista, 2011.....

2012 is here....2011 is another chapter closed in our book. We had some tremendous high's and some scary low's in 2011, but Nixi, mom, dad, and I are still here!

I think my favorite moments of 2011 were getting our kitten Bodhi, completing my first year of school, going to summer school, learning to write my name and lots of other words, dressing up like Woody for Halloween and going trick or treating for the first time, making real friends, getting my toy story big kid bed, and discovering the movie Toy Story!

Nixi told me her favorite moments of 2011 were becoming best friends with our dog Winston, learning how to pedal her tricycle, going to summer school and now to her own "school" at Early Intervention, learning that a post partum girdle can be a 24-7 calmer, dressing up like Buzz Lightyear for Halloween and going trick or treating, making friends in her class, and getting her big kid Dora bed.

What are our hopes for 2012? We've got a lot of them! We hope that mom and dad will continue to better understand us and the things that we do. We hope for better ways to self-calm and regulate our feelings so that our needs can be better met. We hope for lots of opportunities to try new things and go to new places...and that mom, dad, Nix, and I have the courage to actually do so! We hope for more peaceful days and more balance. We hope that people will start to see more of "us" and less of our diagnosis. We hope that people stop trying to find a cure for us, accept us as we are, and spend time and money finding better ways to help us live happier, more full and inclusive lives in our community just as we are....and we're hoping for a goat! Ok, the goat's a long shot, but hopefully our other wishes are waiting just around the corner!

So, we hope you all had a great New Year and are looking forward to 2012 as much as we are!

xoxo,
Safi
Oh, and Nixi's thumb is doing MUCH better!


Ms. Miagi and the grasshopper...........


Yeah, that Nixer sure is a stinker...but I love her, so!

A wonderful, painful, exciting, and scary Christmas...

Wow, what a Christmas! This entry is a day late because I couldn't type yesterday. While the morning was wonderfully magical, my afternoon was spent in the ER with mom. Safi got to stay home and play with dad, and I got to take one of my xmas toys with me...but it was a DRAG! See, I'm a prolific thumb sucker. Yeah, lots of kids do it...but I do it A LOT and vigorously. See, I know I look all bubbly and carefree on the outside but I'm actually very anxious and scared most of the time. As a matter of fact, I tell mom that I'm scared at least hourly most days. So, my thumb sucking is serious business, and constant, because it helps me regulate and feel better. Like all things, anything in moderation is ok...in excess, not so good. I ended up getting a massive infection in my thumb and the tissue down to my wrist called cellulitis. In the beginning if the week mom noticed a bump on my thumb but it looked like a callous. By Saturday it was a little red, but it looked like it was red from my teeth. By xmas morning it was broken and really red. By 10am in ulcerated and half of my hand turned red, purple, and blue. ER was no fun but I got antibiotics and today its looking a little better. Despite the pain, I really enjoyed my xmas...as you see in the awesome xmas video montage!

A little side note about how some kids with autism and/or sensory processing disorder experience of pain. It is theorized that kids like me and Safi are sort of constantly in pain to one extent or another. Whether it be pain from our pant legs rubbing against our ankles, seams in socks, loud noises, fluorescent lights...we're just really sensitive. Experiencing all of the many environmental assaults we're faced with daily is really too much to handle. So, we habituate to the sensation of pain or discomfort. The result is that it really takes a heck of an injury or pain to get us to take notice or complain. A blessing and a curse.

Ok, so the rest of the week was actually really good. We were cool with there being no school or programming. Heather still came and she even brought her niece, our Friend Liz, one day. We did some shopping, we bought gifts for daddy, and we did a lot of xmas crafts. A good week.

Wanting to send a special thank you to everyone for our amazing gifts and mula! Some highlights, not at all inclusive, but some of our FAV's: Aunt Becky made us all shawls (check out the pic!), Uncle Randy and Aunt Kathy sent us toys from their trip to Germany, Nana Cummings got us singing Chipmunks, Uncle Seth and Aunt Cory sent us a Barbie RV, Grandpa and Grandma Seifert sent us $$$, and so did Grandpa Cummings, Weishi, and Cate! We plan to use our mula for some Big Lots excursions, and to save for a rainy day! THANK YOU ALL! We love you very much and truly appreciate how very much you love us!

So, I'm off...a little disjointed, this post...I'm on a lot of med's, give me a break! Off to pass out and heal!

Peace out....see you NEXT YEAR!!!
Nixi

The Christmas montage.......

The family that games together....is very quiet. Merry Christmas to mommy!

A kiss for Winny so he can go night night....



Really exciting week. Nixi had a Christmas party in her class and she got to decorate cookies. I got to eat some goodies with mom in the family room, too! We had some great days with Heather, and I had my school Christmas party! Lot's of fun stuff to report.

Nix and I are both sick. I'm getting over bronchitis and Nixi has an upper respiratory infection...so I'm just going to give the highlights.

Nix did really well at school both days. She still struggles afterwards, but she did pretty well during class. She told mom on one day and dad on another that she loved them, totally unsolicited, for the first time ever!! Very cool.

I did a great job at school all week and did an amazing job at the doctor's. Mom and Nixi got to come to my school party with me and that was amazing. I tried to help Nixi keep up with the class by whispering tips to her on what to do. All in all, being a very good big sister.

This weekend we got more Santa surprises. We got doctor kits, angry bird stuffed toys, and Nabi tablets! Check out their link: http://www.nabitablet.com/ They are just the coolest tablets EVER! We love them and we're really good at them. So far, Nixi's favorite apps are the "read to me" books and angry birds and mine are angry birds and the camera/video function. So much fun! Really awesome weekend. We also got to go to Big Lots to spend our Christmas money from great grandma and grandpa Cummings! We both picked appropriately priced bath toys...Mickey Mouse and Dora...and paid by ourselves! To our delight, they were on SALE! We got our change and have money left over for a treat from the 99cent store the next time we go. Thanks great grandma and grandpa Cummings!

We'll be off the grid with school and programming for the next 3 weeks. Heather will still come, and mom has some cool things planned...but 3 weeks is a loooong time.

Make sure to check in next week to see if Santa, himself, came to our house! We want to wish everyone the merriest, bestest Christmas ever!

xoxo
Safi

My school xmas party.....


Nabi mania!!!

GREAT week! Started a little rocky, but ended super fantastic, extra special, glorious and stupendous!

The blip happened at my school Monday morning. Safi and I were in great spirits starting the morning. We found Oker the elf, did the stroller bike, and got ready in a semi-organized fashion. Class was good. The occupational therapist, teacher Jo, was there to hang out with me. Everything was going swimmingly until the end of snack time. I said I wanted more snack and instead of putting a limit on it, I was given another portion of snacks. The other kids had moved on to bubbles (my favorite part of class), and then to the goodbye song. I was still eating while bubbles happened so when I was finished teacher Jo let me blow bubbles as the kids sang the goodbye song. When I was done with bubbles they told me to sit and wait for mom. Uh, NO!! That's not how it supposed to go. I need to do ALL parts of class or I can't move on. Its not like they could call the kids back and ask them to sing again, so that was a bell that couldn't be un-rung. I started screaming and hitting my head. The class teacher told mom I was doing fine all class but didn't want class to end. Uh, NO #2! It had nothing to do with class ending, it was that I didn't get to complete the class routine. So, I had a hard time out at the car. I wanted to go back in and finish class the way it needed to be finished. Mom was able to get me in the car but I was messed up for the rest of the day. I was being ultra controlling and trying to re-establish order to make myself feel better. Unfortunate for mom, Safi, and dad 'cuz I was a bit of a tyrant. Mom called teacher Jo and asked her what happened and how could we make sure it didn't happen again. Teacher Jo agreed that it went horribly wrong, horribly quickly and said she'd touch bases with all the teachers from class to make sure everyone was on the same page when it came to helping me cope with boundaries and limits (i.e. I shouldn't have been allowed to have an endless snack time), and respecting my need to complete routines. Tuesday morning when we pulled up to the building I told mom that I was sad and when she asked why I said because I was scared. I was nervous that class would go the same way as the day before but I got my nerve up, went, and had fun! So there!

Safi had some great days at school. She was VERY relieved to find that, indeed, her class was starting to celebrate and decorate for Christmas. It was like mom thought, once school caught up to home in terms of transitioning to December/the holidays Safi was on cloud nine. She had a really great week. So great that on Thursday morning she told us and Heather that we were going to the grocery store! Yes, the same store that one week to the day Safi had her arguably worst meltdown EVER. I was anxious to go, because if you recall..I took a bit of a beating in the fray of things. Mom told us both that it was ok, we'd be fine, and we needed to go to get donuts. We went, we got donuts, we got a little anxious when it was time to check out and get ready for our treat from the quarter machine....but, WE DID IT! No tears, no screaming...just a little anxiety. WE ALL RULE!!!!

The weekend...well, dreamy. Santa left us surprises both Saturday and Sunday. We got remote control puppies, polar bear and lion cubs that blink and do stuff, and a whole new set up for band Seifert. We got a new keyboard, digital drums, a microphone, and a DJ turn table for mixing and scratching...'cuz Safi loves that! My favorite of all our stuff is the remote control puppy...Safi's favorite changes daily. Today her favorite is the keyboard! Oh, and our diaper room got a magical makeover. Mom made a reading nook for us, complete with bean bag chairs. She also hung butterflies and stars from the ceiling and even put 3d clouds up there. So cool. Diaper room no more....butterfly room, hello!

So, for the most part a really great week. We needed one, and we got it! Hope you all had a great week! Sending a BIG birthday shout-out to Nana Cummings. We wish you a magical birthday filled with fairy dust, lots of glitter, tons of gifts, and a boat load of cup cakes! We love you very much!

Peace
Nixi

Singin' Jingle Bells...


I am the little drummer girl...........


Safi with her lion cub, Lindess...

Ok, so we had a pretty hectic week with back to school and such. Both Nix and I had some great days at school. Nixi tried going to school without her weighted vest and she did ok, but was really wired. Afterwards she was really easily agitated and tearful. I had a dicey day on Tuesday because there as a fire drill we weren't prepared for. It took me about 15 minutes to get "ok", but I did and then I thought the drill was really funny. There's the brief overview of school.

Now, the more in depth report on my worst meltdown to date. Mom's been expanding our repertoire of stores lately and we've added a supermarket back into the rotation. We decided to go shopping Thursday after school. In hindsight, everything is 20/20...or 30/30 for me 'cuz that's my vision! But I digress. In hindsight, I was struggling all week because we put up some Christmas stuff at home but not at school. I use school and the "all done" format there as my calendar, so while I love all our Christmas stuff at home...it was confusing to me. Also, stores during the holidays are really overstimulating and confusing for lots of kids with autism. We typically know where everything in a room is, etc. and holiday displays and items just aren't "supposed" to be there. Back to Thursday. Mom, Nix, and I went to the supermarket and it was going great. We get to push the cart and load it with lots of stuff. At the end of most outings we get a small treat as a reward for doing awesome. The last time we went to this supermarket we got to pick a treat before we checked out. This time mom thought it would be fun for us to get a treat after checking out from the quarter machines by the exit door. That made me anxious. We picked which machine we wanted and got to it. I really wanted Nixi to pick something different than she did and that, on top of everything else started the meltdown machine in motion. Within seconds I was on the ground screaming at the top of my lungs. Some lady leaving the store told me Santa wasn't going to come to my house, luckily I didn't hear her and mom told her how deeply offensive her comment was. Mom tried to help me self-talk my way through the situation but I was too far gone. She ended up having to carry me out of the store. I was banging my head against her, the shopping cart...and eventually, in a moment when mom had her back turned, even Nixi's head. Mom had to grab her out of the car and shut me in so she could tend to Nix. Mom was able to get Nix in her seat but when she tried to get me in mine I kick her, head butted her, pulled her hair...I really hurt her. She wasn't able to get me all the way buckled in to my 5 point harness but got me secured enough that I wouldn't be able to hurt anyone on the 2 minute drive home. People were staring and gathering to talk about what was going on and mom was afraid they'd call the police. (Sidenote: there have been a number of kids with autism that have been temporarily taken into protective custody while police sort things out because people witnessing a meltdown thought the parents were abusing the child. Imagine how much worse the situation could have become if Nix and I were taken by strangers, even for an hour..let alone a night, as is customary.) It was really bad. Probably about as bad as my worst point when I was in 2's...only I'm bigger, stronger, and I went after Nix. It was scary for everyone.

The next day we all recouped and even sang Christmas caroles at the top of our lungs throughout the town from our stroller bike. Mom took us to Lowe's for a quick outing just to make us all "get back on the horse", we did great and we ended it with chicken mcnuggets and a movie before nap.

That night we got to meet our very own elf and adopt him. I named him Oker (pronounced Ah-ker). He's our direct line to the big man in the north! Check out his website:
http://elfontheshelf.com/
He brought us a letter from Santa himself saying that every Saturday and Sunday in the month of December we'll be getting a Santa surprise. That will help us to not get overwhelmed by all the Christmas gifts and goodies. So, we get a week to love up our new stuff and adjust before we get more new stuff...so awesome! So far we got dollies (my fav), snow globes (Nix's fav), xylophones, and a couple other cool little trinkets. The Seifert's Christmukkah has officially begun!

We hit Bravo Farms on Saturday and had a great time...as you can see from the pictures!

So, that's the long and short of the week. I'm tired and I wanna hit the hay...so I'm outta here.

xoxo
Safi

Pool at Bravo Farms.......


Nixi and the pygmy goat....aa love story.