Weekend Report

The weekend has been busy.

Miss M is definitely more regulated than ever before and has a noticeable bounce back feature that used to be non-existent. She got upset about taking a bath Saturday, didn't want to wash the hair, ya know. She started the banshee scream and I thought well here we go, 8 weeks later and we are finally going to get the wham-o. I cleared the area and a few minutes later Dad went in and made the announcement that when she was calm Mom would come in and help her with her hair. It took a few minutes but she calmed down and I went in and asked, "Are you ready for Mom to help you with your hair?" She nodded yes and we moved forward. She immediately wanted to say sorry for her behavior and I commented on how quickly she had come back into control of her behavior and that was good.

Mr. is quite simply a kid on the autism spectrum who is struggling right now with all the change we experience during this time of the year. On one hand he likes the break from school and being at home more, he is really affectionate and gives Mom hugs and cuddles regularly and tells me how much he loves me and sticks his nose in my hair and says, "I like smelling you, you smell like Mommy." Precious right?

On the other hand the break from school is breaking from routine and that is difficult for those on the Autism Spectrum, so we are struggling right now. As his CBA put it we are back to square one with Mr. C. Our main focus is to get him to use calming techniques and anytime he is upset and does not assault someone or destroy property this is a positive outcome.

Saturday we went to the local zoo. Miss M had some disappointment when we did not go where she thought we should go first, the playground. It was interesting that she started to have a tantrum, she stomped her foot and crossed her arms and just as quick turned it off and moved forward with the group. I did notice that she became passive aggressive with some really minor stuff after that. She asked to put her shoes on and go play at the animal care station with Big Sis. I put her shoes on for her and she went over there for exactly 30 seconds and then came back and jumped in the indoor sand pit with her shoes on. It is really obvious that everyone has to take their shoes off even the babies understand to take their shoes off and she has been there a hundred times so she definitely knows that there are no shoes in the sand pit. I directed her to kick the sand off her shoes and come on out because there are no shoes allowed in the sand pit and we were getting ready to leave (so it did not warrant taking shoes off and starting all over). She did that big smirky smile as she knocked the sand off her shoes and then turned around and jumped right back in the sand pit. I said, "Nice jump, come take a sit down with Mom for a few minutes." To which the smirk turned to ticked off face. There were several other accidental on purpose things but all in all no biggy.

Here are some pics from the day and the new header pic is from the day also and the updated side photos of the kids. I really love the old header pic but I thought this one was good also.

I love how they are in sync step for step.

Winter Florida Style

The Sand Pit

The Play Area at the Zoo closed so we improvised.