Great Grades.

My little sorceress got grade grades for the first quarter at school! She even brought up her math with a knockout punch quiz and test A and A-!! You go girl!

Waiting out the storm.

While Hurricane Sandy blows outside I am going to take the time to write about trick or treat weekend. What's up with these Halloween Storms anyway? Last year it snowed. This year it's the mother of all storms?
Anyway. I took Gracie to Bounce U on Friday with TSS Nina and she loved it. It took her just one time, being a little afraid , to go down the big slide and then she was hooked! She tried everything!
The problem was I wore her out for the day. She didn't have a nap and we went around the neighborhood for trick or treating that night. She didn't get too far. After the 3rd house, she kind of had a meltdown. It was my fault. She did much better up at Pappy Angelo's trick or treat on Sunday though.

TRICK  OR TREATING WITH COUSIN SAVANNAH

 At Pappy's she actually grabbed her bucket when it was time to go and headed out without any complaint and then she didn't even need her blanky while we were going door to door!!
While we were at Pap's Grace found a toy cat he had that made noises and she mimicked a MEOW!
She is imitating alot more actions and she is comprehending when you tell her to do things.

Halloween festivities.

Even though Hellertown's council is trying to take Halloween out of the Halloween parade, we decided to carry on with our HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS this year.
Grace had a great weekend. We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday and she was super. She and I waited for Dad , Joy and Savannah to get out of the corn maze for about an hour and she had a good time. She put beads on a bracelet all by herself; she petted the goats and wanted to touch the chickens; and she got a pony ride. When we ran out of activities we sat and did stickers!

If she was great on Saturday, she was awesome on Sunday at the Halloween Parade. She came out of her shell and sat on the curb with Chris and other kids! She even went to pick up the candy when Chris told her to! She decided she liked a little orange spider ring so much she walked over to get another one. She liked the bands and didn't really mind the fire trucks.

She had her cousin Savannah with her so I think that helped. Savannah loves Gracie and loves to be with Gracie and Gracie loves her back. 

Waiting.

We took Gracie to an open house at Equi-Librium in Stroudsburg today. They use horses to help kids and adults with special needs.
They had just started demos with their riders when we got there. Once Grace saw what was going on, I knew she wanted to ride, but we couldn't because of the demos. I was waiting for a meltdown but it never came she allowed me to redirect her for a while . Then finally they resumed the ride and luckily they took her first. She just loves it. She was giving me the sign for walk that she learned at Advent. Then at the end of the ride, she gave the sign for more. So I talked Chris into another ride and she put her helmet on and waited for 7-10 minutes , quietly !!!!!!!!!! Who is this little girl?!? She was awesome!!!

Forward.

 Since we started ABA therapy on August 27, Gracie has made so many advancements. I am going to try to wrtie down some of them for posterity.
-She now communicates with some signs. She signs "more" and adds signs for what she wants to do.
She made up her own sign for "around"- she signs for bounce- jump- shoes- open- swing- . Plus she makes complex signs by using "more" with her other signs. She is getting good at telling us what she wants.
She points. This may not seem like a big thing but for autistic kids , it is huge.
She listens and waits for READY< SET< GO.
She goes down the GIANT SLIDE all by herself.
Her eye contact is wonderful. She is attending to projects for 15-20 minutes at times.
She is starting to mimic things that people do.
She is making a wide array of sounds. Uh, nah, mah, ng, nyah, mm, and is starting to apporoximate sounds with syllables.
She actually said MOM with the m on the end, twice.

This week, I was writing out a project that Joy and I did. She came over to the table and tried to take my pencil so I got her paper and crayons. I looked over and she was drawing semi-straight lines down the paper. I almost fell over. I had to get the phone and make a video of it and sent it out to her therapists. Again, this may not seem like a  big deal but for Grace it is huge. She normally makes circle scribbles but she sat down and made those deliberate motions ALL BY HERSELF.

 She is feeding herself. She really likes vanilla bean yogurt. She still has a texture problem but she is much more open to experimenting. She stuck her tongue out to LICK A COOKIE yesterday!!!!!
Grace has had great therapists since we started therapies. Now she has 4 great ladies that work with her during the week. 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon and the consultants that they work with. Each of these ladies ;Rachelle, Norma, Nina, Megin, Heather, and Melissa; they all have amazing patience and truly love to help Grace to learn. We are very grateful to have them to help Gracie on her long road.  I appreciate them EVERY day.

Making cookies with mom and Miss Nina

Back on her swing with Miss Megin

All this play is hard work.

Snuggling with mom.

Stickerification*

This is how we start,

 Its' almost like a makeover.
She is so serious as she puts the stickers on. But each time she puts them on my nose, she laughs!
Whenever I need to keep her awake, we get the stickers out. Or if she feels the  creative urge, I guess.

* Stickerification- n. - the act of rendering something more beauteous by apply stickers in a strategic formation.

Stickerfied- adj. - having been subjected to the art of stickerfication- willfully
or otherwise.

THe Stickerer.

The Stickee.

THE FINAL PRODUCT