Moving ALong.

I can't believe that school starts in 11 days. The summer went flying by. Joy Lin will be starting 5th grade on the 27th and it looks like Gracie will be starting a new "school" too. She will be staying at the preschool at Advent but she will also be starting behavioral therapy which will one on one therapy, Monday through Friday. I am so relieved to finally be getting into this program. Gracie is becoming much more open to new things and people and engaging in new activities willingly that I think she will be very receptive to this new therapy.

She said MaMa last week. She has said nite nite several times. She is starting to make an MM sound for more.
She has a long way to go but she has come such a long way! Our journey will take us on a new path soon and we'll have more exciting things to report.

10 years old!

It's hard to believe it but my little girl is turning 10 tomorrow. Seems like yesterday we just moved into the new house and got her referral and headed to China to bring her home.  She is so excited about her birthday that she volunteered to go to bed early tonite. She is so into holidays and birthdays( even if they aren't hers!)

She is growing into an amazing young ....girl. ( Lady is not a term I would apply yet.) We love her dearly. The only regret I have is that we weren't able to share her first 13 months with her. But we get to share the rest of her life with her! I named her Joy for a reason!

Equine Therapy. Gone to the horses.

Last week was our first time at the ranch for horse therapy, I call it. So I thought this week would be just more orientation. Nope. Grace sat on a horse for the first time. She was none to pleased about it at first.

It improved in a few few minutes , but till then , she let Miss Trish  know that she was not happy. But Trish turned her sideways to give her a feeling of rocking as they rode. Then, she turned her backwards to she wouldn't be afraid of what she saw ahead of her. Then it came time to turn her around and she was fine with it. 

Trish took her off the "pony" named Rex, for a short feeding session and when we took off the helmet( which was a problem last week) she actually reached to put it back on! That's my Gracie and by the end of the session. We even got a smile out of her.

Kiss Kiss

Today Gracie started to give kisses by pursing her lips! She came and found me in my bedroom, made great eye contact as if to say "Hey Mom", pulled me down to her and pursed her lips for a kiss!!! Words can't express...

She also had her first experience at Equine therapy today. She was totally ticked off by the helmet she had to wear and that set the mood for everything else. But I really think she didn't know what to make of the horses. So the plan is to go by her cues and see how she comes around to them. I think she will love it once it becomes familiar with it. But it's step by step. She watches and waits.

Gracie and Pappy on her birthday.

Also today Chris caught her climbing ON her crib and pulling the balloons in her room off their hooks.
Do they make gymnasium floor mats in designer colors? I don't know what else I can take out of her room. She needs a jungle gym and a bungee chord!!!!

Long time no post.

Wow It;s been a while since I posted. Things have been going very well with Gracie. She is engaging with other people much more!
But I will go more into detail on that later.
Right now I want to share a poem that my talented niece, Savannah Murphy, wrote about Gracie and her brother, my nephew, Jim.

Words- by Savannah Murphy


It's- It's there
It's right there
I want it
I need it
F-for release
But i don't know- how to

say
What I- I need
So I'll take your hand
And be your lead

...
You can see it
In my eyes
How I feel
If you try
But don't expect
More than that
Because no matter how hard
I try
My words wont fly
...

.........
But they don't need to
Silence speaks the loudest
And I am heard.


Right after I read that, Grace started to cry, like something hurt her and I couldn't make it better because I didn't know what was bothering her. Then I read the poem again, after I managed to calm her down and it made me realize how close to true this poem is.

I have two very talented, beautiful nieces and a smart, strapping nephew and I love all of them. And they love Joy and Grace. But Nana and Jim both have a soft spot for Gracie. Nana calls her " itty bitty".

~Patience. Patience. Patience. Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you may see as limitations and see the gifts autism has given me. It may be true that I’m not good at eye contact or conversation, but have you noticed that I don’t lie, cheat at games, tattle on my classmates or pass judgment on other people? Also true that I probably won’t be the next Michael Jordan. But with my attention to fine detail and capacity for extraordinary focus, I might be the next Einstein. Or Mozart. Or Van Gogh.

~ author unknow

 

A friend of Chris' sent this quote to him. He has a son with autism. I think it applies to Gracie as well. Once we can crack that little brain and see what goes on in there, oh the wonders we will find.

Animal Kingdom

(Be sure to check out the last picture of Gracie with Minnie Mouse!)
 Some online research said that Animal Kingdom was not the place to go with kids with autism. But that was not the case with Gracie. The park itself was much more relaxed than Magic Kingdom. The music was calming- it wasn't all kiddie chaos. She was able to stay in her stroller which was calming for her. We managed to get her on the safari ride because we were able to bring it right up to the ride. She sat on my lap with her Listening Program music on and watched the animals.

We were also able to get her into The Lion King show, again, wheeling her right up in the safe zone in her stroller. She was leery of this one because the theater was dark but managed to sit though the whole show. 

After that it was off to the Contemporary Hotel for dinner with Chef Mickey and his friends.  This was our first sit down dinner with Gracie. Normally we eat at restaurants when we are in the parks but we didn't do that this time. It was much less stressful to just grab things on the move. She did pretty well with eating and with having the gigantic mice and ducks and dogs come up to her. They didn't talk either, though, so it went pretty smooth.

The adults got a cocktail with an ice cube that lights up.

This is my favorite picture. I think Gracie's face says it all!

The Magic Kingdom.

Magic? Really.
Kids everywhere. Noise everywhere. Plus we had to take the monorail to get to the park. Gracie says, "whoa, this is a ride and i don't like it!!!!) Then it just got better from there. Chris says try the Carousel- it's outside. We get in line, Joy gets on a horse and Grace won't let me put her on a horse OR let me sit with her so we stood by Joy's horse. Strike 1. Chris says TEACUPS. We walk over and the noise from them and the race cars is unbearable so Gracie won't even look at them  on the ride.
Chris then tries  one more ride- the monorail type ride in Futureworld. Guess what? Half of it is IN THE DARK!!!! Finally, after that, we decide to leave Gracie in peace. We even go back to the hotel for some pool time for her! But we go back to the park in the evening. We go back to Pirates of the Caribbean land and everything goes relatively well.

The other thing we learned is that we could use Gracie's stroller like a wheelchair. They gave us a sticker that would let us take it as far as they take wheel chairs, where most people have to abandon their strollers right away. This was a HUGE help because her stroller is her safe zone.
We made it till close and went back to rest for another day.

Post Vacay Part 2

So... I found myself in Florida in February in near 80 degree weather at EPCOT in Disney World, crying in a quiet floral spot while Chris and Joy went on Soarin' and Gracie slept. So I called Aunt Peewee and yowled about how bad I felt for Gracie and all I wanted was for her to have fun. So after a Peewee Pep talk and one more ride on Soarin, we headed over to the Countries. We had made a reservation for dinner in Japan but decided to nix a sit down in deference to Gracie and ATE our way around the world (so to speak), stopping at different vendors.

She seemed to do well as long as she was in her stroller.  So we ate and I relaxed a little. I could spend days in that part of the park.

We had fun going from place to place and Gracie almost made it to the Commando Closing time but said she'd had enough right before we got to Mexico. But she did good, all in all.

Back to the hotel.

Tomorrow: THE Magic Kingdom. (oh no!!!!! :o   )

Post Vacation

First, let me say, I have never had a vacation quite like this last one. I have always wanted to take 10 or 12 days and drive to Orlando and go to Disney. That was before Gracie. Don't get me wrong, some things went well, like the drive down. We broke it up into two days. When we got to the Marriot, she was ok. I think she likes hotel rooms, as long as there is a swivel chair in it!. The problems began the following day, on the ride to EPCOT. When we went to put her in the rented Tahoe, she went ballistic! I think she thought we were going on the road again. OK so we are off to a not so great start.

One smart thing we did do was bring her stroller with us. That was one of the reasons we drove down. She is comfortable in it and that helped alot. Another thing we did, because I did a little bit of research before we went down, was to get a special access card. Disney does alot to help kids with autism and this gave us access to handicapped entrances, which were less hectic than going through the maze that most of the rides have.
     First you must understand that Chris is a Disney Parks Maniac. I call him Commando Chris. The only concession he makes for us slackers is that we don't have to get to the park at opening. Expect to be there ALL DAY.
     Then, you try to explain to Commando Chris that Gracie might not take to the parks the same way that Joy Lin did.

The first ride we tried to take her on was Spaceship Earth. We used the handicapped entrance and the wait was ok.
This picture was taken BEFORE.  There was almost no wait. THen we all went to step into our little cart or pod or whatever they put you in and .......
We found out that Gracie doesn't like the dark in the rides. or the noise. or .... the ride.
Ok, so dad says maybe it was just that ride, lets try another.
We went to take her on the NEMO ride. We thought we didn't need the special entrance. so we went through the maze. Chris carried Gracie screaming all the way. We ended up not taking her on the ride. At this point she didn't want to even look at the fish is the little aquarium. So I took her outside to wait for Joy and Dad.

This is Gracie and Mom after the NEMO experience.

to be continued....