Yo Gabba Gabba fun!


Arcade mania!



Surveying each other's rewards from hard work earning tickets at the arcade...ring pops!


She had a fair week at school, but was kind of "off" for most of the week. She's just really fragile. She's having fun one minute then she's crying or screaming. Its really confusing. Lately I've been trying to explain to her that she shouldn't be said, like, "Nixi, you not sadden right now, you happyen." She doesn't really listen. I feel bad for her. I wish she could have longer periods of happy.

I had a great week at school, playing with the kindergarten class on Wednesday and just having fun learning with my friends. We went to the sand park after school one day and I conquered my greatest sand park fear since I was a baby...the metal rolling slide. Its loud, bumpy, and just weird but I've always wanted to try it. Been too scared. However, a bunch of kids were going down it and I decided it was MY day. I DID IT! It was loud, bumpy, scary...and I LOVED it and was so proud of myself!

Nixi got a home visit from Teacher Lorene, and that was cool. Heather was feeling better so we got to spend like all week with her...Nixi has really missed that. Me, too...but Nixi says every day that Heather isn't here that she misses her. We got to hang out with our friends Sebastian, Gideon, and Penelope at the pet store on Friday. We even got to pet a long haired guinea pig! It REALLY liked Sebastian and Nixi...purring and kind of chirping. It was a really fun outing and Nix was happy the whole time. We went to the park and to the arcade over the weekend, mom made us Yo Gabba Gabba poncho's, and we're just all ready to start a new week. New weeks can be full of anxiety, but also full of promise and hope. So, I'm hoping Nixi starts finding her balance and finding her joy place more often....and I'm hoping I can keep it together. I'm always trying really hard to keep it together, really hard. So, that's where we're at, and that's where I leave you.

xoxo
Safi

VICTORY!!!

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

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!!!