Third Grade

It is the first day of school. She just got on the bus, no big thing. I feel like I want to throw up.  I am so worked up.  I hope she didn't catch on to my feelings.

She has all new classrooms, teachers, paras, bus driver, and bus aide. They don't know her yet. They will adore her. They will take care of her. They will keep her safe and help her learn and grow.  Let me just say all of that 3000 more times today while she is gone. They will adore her. They will take care of her. They will keep her safe and help her learn and grow. They will adore her. They will take care of her. They will keep her safe and help her learn and grow. They will adore her. They will take care of her. They will keep her safe and help her learn and grow.

The husband has no idea why I am so nervous. She's got this.

She has a sub in her special education until Thanksgiving. Then her new teacher will return from maternity leave. She and the sub played at the ice cream social. They had fun. This is all going to be great.

I miss her. I can not wait to pick her up.

Third Grade Look Out

How can it already be time to go back to school? C lucked out and had the same amazing core team K-2. Now it is time for all new people again. It will take time for them to get to know her and her to get to know them. Transitions are hard.

It is important they know she can't focus once there is glue on her fingers, she adores hello kitty, and that she loves to jump, spin, swing, and get her wiggles out.

There are so many things I want them to know...

A Few Favorites
movie: Zootopia
show: Wonder Pets
fruits: watermelon and peaches
vegetables: cucumbers and peppers
toys: nesting dolls, eggs, shopkins
drinks: water and chocolate milk
snack: popcorn cookie
dress up: crowns, wands, and princess dresses
animal: cat
color: pink


She loves the water, but hates the sand. She prefers to stay clean and wants socks and shoes instead of bare feet. She will play in the pool for hour after hour. She prefers to play independently and does not like to be man handled in our out of the pool. She loves gymnastics, but won't try the bars because to teach her the coach has to maneuver her body instead of her being in control. She will ask for help when she wants it, but prefers to do things herself.

She loves routine and needs to know what to expect next, knowing the plan for the day helps too.


Finding flowers, frogs, toads, butterflies, and ants is always exciting. Finding spiders and bees is not.
We have tended our garden all summer. C is growing pumpkins and watermelons. We had fun picking berries few times this summer too.


This summer we started reading chapter books out loud at bedtime with Mom. We enjoyed "Alice in Wonderland", "Dewey the Library Cat", and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

When watching a show or movie and a character goes to sleep she pulls out a pillow and blanket to tuck herself in. She loves to watch herself do things in the mirror and practices her emotions.

She loves her iPad. When given the choice she will sadly choose iPad over almost anything else.  The one at home has a Hello Kitty cover and to ask for it she asks for kitty.

She focused on vocal production in speech this summer and really wants you to understand her when she talks. This makes her very frustrated. She talks, signs, and uses her talker. She uses full sentences and asks "Can I..." questions with her talker.

This sign means "_____, where are you?". We use when we are in a parking lot and call the car. We use it when she hides her toys and wants to find them. We use it when we play hide and seek. It is one of my favorites as she has developed it into a full game that can be played anywhere.

When she holds up one finger it means she wants to choose just one, often junk food or a toy! When she counts on her fingers she wants 1, 2, 3, GO for whatever activity she is about to do or she has a collection she wants to count together.

There are 1000s of more things to know about her. She is smart, creative, charming, bratty, fun, stubborn, silly, easily frustrated, strong willed, thinks she is the center of the universe, and will dig in her heels to try to get her way. She is full of wonder.

Spring Break

I was lucky to be able to take all week off to hang with my favorite 7 year old.

We had a blast on a little hike and
checking out a nature center.

We enjoyed Easter with cousins, grandparents,
aunts and uncles. There were multiple
egg hunts and the love of all things in
eggs seems to continue to grow.

She found this house on clearance the day after Easter when we
were grocery shopping. She hugged it for the rest of our trip to the store.
When we got home she opened it on her own while I unpacked the
groceries. I was in charge of the frosting. She was in charge. I put it
where she told me to and she placed all the candies. We made her
bunny house vision a reality and she loved it. 

She loves the water, but swimming had become a challenge.
We quit private swim class in October when she would
scream in terror the drive there and the entire session. The
teacher was wonderful, kind, and patient, but it was not
what we wanted for her experience. I planned to take her
swimming for fun weekly. It is now 6 months later and
this is the second time we went. The first time was terrible.
She never calmed down and it was crowded and rough.
When our friends invited us to play at the pool we warned
them that there would be some fear and screaming.
She screamed going in and for the first 15 minutes. Then
something clicked. She had a blast. She tried doing laps, jumping,
paddling, standing up, jumping again.  After two hours I asked her
to get out. She got out, signed "more please" and pointed back to
the pool. I let her have ten more minutes twice before it was
really time to go. I hope she has this much fun next time!

She has a bird fear. As a result she has aversion to entering
any buildings at the zoo. This visit she choose the swamp.
After that, I chose the reptile house. She fought me a bit, but
I explained she made her pick and this was my pick. She was
okay with it. We spent about 45 minutes in the reptile house.
She adored it. Her favorite was the black headed python. She
wouldn't leave his enclosure. We probably stood there for 20
minutes. The whole trip was super fun. We even saw
the elusive arctic fox, who she decided must be a kitty
because one was curled up sleeping in a ball. 

We ventured across the state to see wonderful family and
butterflies at the gardens.We had discussed the outing for
a few days before we went. She had been excited.
She became extremely agitated upon entering the building.
With all the successes of the week this was one bridge
too far. These butterflies inspired extreme fear, she was
inconsolable. Our family was amazing and handled
the issue with grace. They tried to distract and teach her.
They were patient and understanding.  After I tried to
comfort her and explain butterflies can not hurt her we decided
to get out of the butterfly area ASAP. We had a blast on
the grounds, in the children's garden, with the sculptures.
We wanted to check out the new Japanese Garden. On the way
she saw the horse and wanted to go to it. We agreed horse
after Japanese garden. We went out on an island and were
sitting and chatting in a gazebo. She grabbed her talker and
stated " I want horse". So, off we ran to the horse. 

My kid is awesome

There, I said it, really it is just a fact. She is awesome. I was lucky enough to get to spend the day with her today. I took the day off to go on a field trip to Disney on Ice. Jessie from Toy Story has a special place in her heart. When Woody and Buzz came out she asked me for Jessie and I told her she might not be there. When Jessie came out, she hit my arm to get my attention, point to Jessie, and nearly yelled her approximation which is closer to DeeDee. It was so cool. She just glowed.

I let her choose if she wanted to back to school on the bus or hang with mom. She chose me!

So, off we went to pick up a few spring clothes which she picked out herself. She filtered, she put a few back, and made great choices. Then she bee lined to the Disney Store. Her sense of direction always continues to amaze me. She did the rounds of the store and then focused in on a stuffed Minnie Mouse. She showed it to me and held up on finger. It meant "Please, Mom, Can I have one pick?".  Yes, one pick (I am a sucker, sue me). With more wandering she found Minnie Bank, she ran and put back the stuffed animal and showed me the bank with her one finger again, to show me she replaced her one pick.

Then she tried to take us to the candy store. I said no. No fit was thrown. She said "Go?" and we went back to the car.

Next stop was a favorite park. It is 50 and sunny, really, just glorious out.  We played, and spun, and played some more. When she she feel down, she wiped herself off and tried again. Then she practiced until she mastered it.

Not today, look at all those leaves

She is so brave. There is a fence maze with a metal grated stairway you can climb to see the whole maze and direct people. She chose, with no prompting, to climb the stairs even though she was scared. She clung to my leg and climbed to the top, over and down the other side. She did the same thing with the elevator in the nature center.

She got the pond over look before me, and said "Ma, Ff" while pointing at me and then signing fish. I love being included. I love her telling me what she sees.
 I love the damn fish.

It was the kind of day that left me near tears of joy, a little weepy in a good way. Thankful that this smart, creative, assertive, sweet, thoughtful, brave, passionate kid is mine. Yea, my kid is awesome.

Great Bike Giveaway

UPDATE: She won a buddy bike in the raffle!  Watch for photos and videos once we have it :) We are so excited!

Me, an ambassador :)

We feel weird that we entered this giveaway / raffle / fundraiser. We are not wanting to put food on the table or fun in our lives, but we do not have a $3k adaptive bike budget. We still hope C will ride a typical bike someday (and she already has one, that is in the budget), but she has been on the cusp for two years. She can pedal, she can steer when she pays attention, but the balance and the attention span are just not quite there. Bikes give you a new way to see the world, the wind in your hair, the fun of the adventures, the power of the pedal.

I look through the other entrants in the Great Bike Giveaway and see many with much higher need. They do not love riding their big wheels, and the adaptive bike they wish for is very different than the one we want. The goal is to get a bike for all 600 entrants, but if enough is not raised it will be a drawing for those with over 100 votes. I don't want to take anyone else's bike.

This is the bike we want for C to be able to join us on bike rides on the trails by our home

The cool thing about the Great Bike Giveaway is we are not competing. You can vote for every single entrant if you take time. You do not need to choose one child. If it is a cause you want to get behind you can donate. That is what funds the bikes. We donated, we want as many of the kids as possible to get a bike. No guilt! If you are looking for a way to really change a child's life it is a great place to start.

So, please take 2 seconds and vote for my charming, sweet, smart, kind, little girl. If you have 10 more seconds please vote for a few more kids wishing for the chance to ride a bike.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

Again! Again!

I theorize special needs parents have more theories about kids shows, ideas for spoofs no one else would understand, and time to think about the enormous holes in premises or plots because our kids fixate on a few shows or movies for a longer period of time. Maybe this is just my kid, but we have been watching "Wonder Pets", "Cars", and "Oswald" FOREVER.


I will admit a crazy amount of joy in discovering "Robot Chicken" took the time to visit with Linny, Tuck and Ming Ming.  It is off color, it makes me laugh. You can choose for yourself if you click on it.  If over years you have seen every episode of "Wonder Pets" at least twice and some favorites more than 50 times that makes it funnier, just sayin'.

How are the characters in "Cars" born? Who taught McQueen to race? How old is he? How did he not know anyone until Radiator Springs? Does he have parents? Did he grow up rich and sheltered? Do they live forever? Can a mechanic / doctor replace every part? If so, what gives each vehicle identity or soul? Is it a post apocalyptical world where the people created the vehicles and then the vehicles took over and killed all the people off?

 Is Daisy a cannibal when she eats a salad? Why does Flippy live in the water, but Oswald lives in the air? What makes Weenie a pet? How did they decide how many roller skates Oswald would need? Why doesn't Johnny melt? Is he selling his offspring?  Peppa has similar, though less surreal, questions. How do they have pets? What decides if you see Dr. Hamster (a vet) or Dr. Brown Bear (a doctor)?

There was a period where she loved "Penguins" and currently she can not get enough of "Home". I think she would watch "Home" multiple times every day if we would let her. I love this "Home" trend as she acts out many parts of this movie, including lots of hugs, and has a line up toys she needs, including a hello kitty heart that helps her find "my mom" when they use the map. I am excited when she is willing to give something new a chance, as she is usually resistant. The excitement fades quickly as we watch the same thing over and over and over.

I  found an About Me project from three years ago and her favorites were... drum roll please... "Wonder Pets", "Cars", and "Oswald".  

What are favorites in your house? Any theories you have been searching for a venue to explore? Any answers to the questions above?

Not Feeling Well

Clues of Illness
1) Would not put Abby Cadabby down
2) Took Abby instead of Talker when we left the house
3) Refused ice cream
4) Little appetite in general

How She Threw Me Off
1) Didn't stop jumping for joy
2) Look at that smile
3) Chatty as can be
4) We were on vacation from school and PJs and lounging were the norm

Results
1) Fever
2) Fades out in the evening
3) More days off school
4) Snuggles

AAC Specialist

About six months ago we started seeing an SLP that specializes in AAC, alternative and augmentative communication, devices. He is a MAN! We once had a teenage boy teach swimming, every other professional has been female.  Really, that is not important, but it is nice for her to interact with man in this type of environment.  

She is awesome at communicating her needs and wants. We want to know what she is thinking, have her be able to ask us things, and use her device for more than answering questions from the outside.

He is focused on her using her talker (AAC device) more conversationally. They have been working on "where" as the first question word to master. Every week she chooses a toys box, usually the baby, and then he hides things she needs to play with.  She has to ask on her talker "Where is the baby?" or "Baby is hungry. Where is the bottle?" He coaches her when she defaults to "I want baby." or "I want bottle.". 

They struggle, some days she wants to work with him and some days she doesn't. We drive an hour each way for her 30 minute appointment. Recently she just cried for 27 minutes because she didn't want to work with him. This center has an observation room where I watch the sessions and can hear everything they do. I am so thankful for this to see their progress and learn strategies, but also to know she had not mistreated her and not have to worry too much about her crying for a week. 

One cool thing that has developed recently with her talker is describing things she sees, when we don't ask. If "Wonder Pets" are headed to save an animal then she says the name of the animal on her talker. If she sees a baby, or a snack, or a ____. She tells us on her talker. This new spontaneous talking is not in complete sentences, and sometimes makes context difficult, but it is spontaneous! 

Rufus Kisses

It is nice having the love of a girl (and her mom) when you are an old dog.