November 3

Halloween was a success! In a mostly traditional way. Both girls were excited to wear their costumes all day (and Amy wore hers on Friday too). Thursday morning before preschool I felt very much like a mom as I sat sewing a ramshackle seam in Sarah's costume so it wouldn't fall apart. The snaps were so old that they didn't really stay snapped. I made treats that the girls were allowed to have so when they got home from preschool/daycare I took their bags of candy and swapped them for approved cookies and cupcakes. After trick-or-treating at night I gave them the same trade and both went along with it easily. When we were waiting for Carl to get home to go trick-or-treating, Sarah kept saying, "going treating." True. Probably more true than saying "trick or treating." She also practiced saying "I am a stripe" and "Happy Halloween," though she didn't say much when we were going to the houses. She did tell our friend at the end of our journey that she was a stripe (in response to our prompt).

Earlier in the week Carl was gone for a business trip. The first night he was gone, Sarah came into the bedroom at 4am looking for him. She was very upset that he wasn't there and cried hard for many minutes. She even counted down from 10 to 1 flawlessly in the hopes that that would bring him back. I didn't know she could count down like that and it was touching how much she missed him. She ended up falling asleep with her head on his pillow.

We had two field trips this week. The first was to visit Norman the pig at the animal shelter. Amy was very excited in theory but was scared when we were there. Sarah, usually not one to be overly interested in animals, was very interested and was petting Norman and saying "pig!" very excitedly. (If anyone in Pittsburgh wants to foster a pig, let me know. For real. He needs a home.). Our second trip was to the Science Center. Both girls enjoyed the submarine and the big dinosaur sculpture. Sarah also loved the space station replicas inside and she did wonderful exploring with Sonia while Amy and I had a snack.

As the week began and Becky Blake left our house I felt totally overwhelmed about integrating the new parts of the program. Even though I know that is how I tend experience adding new things (overwhelm), knowing that doesn't seem to lessen the feelings. Once I started implementing the new stuff then I felt better because I realized I really could do it. My favorite new thing is doing table top toys. It is like a mini school session where I set out a few things for Sarah do to in a certain order and she does them. It works on building her academic skills and her attention span for doing them. She seems to love it as much as I do. I love how I just do tiny adjustments as she masters certain skills so I'm not upping the ante too far but I am keeping a slight challenge for her. 

Sarah loves the new songs that Becky gave us, in contrast to the old songs which Sarah doesn't want to do anymore. I'm thinking of ways to get the same movements but in different ways or with different songs. It's not that she won't do the old songs, but I have to do a lot more prompting whereas both girls request the new songs and participate easily.

Sarah has been saying "hi" very clearly and with eye contact to more and more people. She said this to strangers twice yesterday while we were out walking. This morning we had a play date and she said it to the visiting girl. When I prompted that she could then say "I'm Sarah" she did so!

I have reposted my volunteer request listing on ASD climbers. This is a site that helps match Son-Rise families with people who want to do Son-Rise volunteering. Two of my current wonderful volunteers came through my first ad. For the past couple months I was waiting to see how our schedule would evolve to decide if I wanted more volunteers and finally the answer is yes. Not many, but one or two more would be great.  If anyone is interested in finding out if there are listings in their area, one way to do so is to go to my listing and then scroll to the bottom of the page. There is a list of places all over the country where families are looking for volunteers.

http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp1513780.jsp

Recently, someone commented that Amy seemed sort of like a middle child. I don't know what that really means, but it struck me that this is sort of weirdly true. She is the youngest but with some things she is already more like an older sister and I think that may continue. So she will be both younger and older sister to Sarah and Sarah will be both older and younger sister to Amy.

Amidst my overwhelm earlier in the week, worrying and beating up on myself very skillfully, I called my mom. She wisely advised that I had already had enough servings of figuring things out for the day and that I had to stop. I cracked up and my energy shifted. I allowed myself to let the girls watch something, which we rarely do, and I cooked something. I think I will use this idea often of limiting my servings of worry/self-attack, etc. I know the ideal would be no servings, but let's not get too radical all at once. :) 

Last night, Carl and I went to Josh Groban concert. My goodness can that man sing! He ended with my favorite, "You raise me up." I am so grateful for all of the amazing support I have in so many ways!!!!! I could name so many people and go on and on, but for now I want to give an extra nod of appreciation to my mom and Carl who consistently raise me up to be the best that I can be. My mom has done this since day 1 (or before that) and Carl for as long as we have been together. They are also the ones to see all of me, the wonderful and the confused, and to still love me and help me climb mountains. (The more Sonia is around the more aspects of me she gets to see!)