Challenge

This morning in nursery I had a riveting conversation with an incredibly intelligent child about specific species of dinosaurs, characteristics of whales, traveling and food. I then braided a 2 year olds hair. I mean TWO french braids with her thin curly blonde hair. she sat for at least 10 minutes while my fingers worked this fine and whispy hair. And as so often is the case, I then looked over at my daughter, on the other side of the room away from everyone, twisting a chewy in her mouth while touching and mouthing everything in the room. I got that feeling that...

I will never have those experiences with my child.

It's hard to watch my child fixate on an object for an unusual amount of time. Or become so unhappy and so miserable so quickly in a situation. I try and praise her for every step she takes on her own or every page of a book she turns. I know I must say 'NO' or 'Don't do that!' a million times a day.

Some days are harder than others - Some days I stumble across articles like This. A mom with years more experience who gave me some perspective, hope as well as reality (which can really be rough)

If she, along with the many thousands of other moms can survive so can I - but I'm not going to lie or pretend that I'm excited for the next meltdown, because I'm not! But I am excited to see milestones, however small they may be to other children's, I'm excited for Maggie and her life! She's such a happy and joyful little person. From such a young age she was fascinated with everything and made everyone around her fall in love with babies. She even inspired a friend of mine to start her own family and she now has 3 children!

GOALS:

• Figure out what I need to learn from a bad situation so that I don't repeat that mistake the next time.
• Become more comfortable with others (strangers, random judge mental individuals)
• I need to try harder to find the blessings in the challenges.
• Not stress so much and just take it a day at a time

When you’re dealing with something like autism it’s a challenge 24 hours a day for your whole life.

Rainy Day

I have been really down lately. Unmotivated. Unhappy - which by the way I don't enjoy. I hate not being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. On the positive though it is a lovely dark, gray, raining today in Minnesota! Thunderstorms are a part of Spring but so is sunshine and we have been lacking in the vitamin D department and I really think it's effecting my mood

I am hoping for some better weather - emotional and meteorological.

Smile

Like every sane individual I do not enjoy going to the dentist. My dentist is nice and always thoughtful about pain and is willing to numb or give me the good pills before starting! But her gloves smell like cherry, that odd cough syrup smell. There are covers on the light that made them look like a cloudy sky. The TV is a nice bonus if for nothing more than an audio distraction from the drill or metal picks poking on my teeth, like nails on a chalk board. This morning I went in and they could only work on half my mouth today, which when finished made me look and sound like I'd had a stroke on the left side of my face. But I survived and get to relive the charms of the dentists office next week - because honestly it's really odd having half my mouth sparkly clean teeth and sore bloody gums(eventually will heal) while the other half is easily 5 shades darker and the gums are pink.... I'll just keep my mouth shut... And Floss more...

The real excitement will begin this summer when this beautiful smile gets to undergo her first formal cleaning. Yeah... I took her for the first time in January and they did a basic look over while I held her. The actual exam part was about 5 minutes of the dentist looking for cavities and any other noticeable issues that required immediate attention. I held her while she leaned back on the dentists lap - It was 5 minutes of pure screaming! Joy, just lovely joy. So you can imagine I'm looking forward to this summer's full cleaning. NOT - she gets to be put under because well she won't go willingly. This is a moment I get to look at my baby girl and say don't worry. Everything will be ok. I will see you soon. I love you. Your going to have an even more amazing smile when I see you soon! Go Sleep Sleep. And then as soon as she's out - I get to pray and hope I was being entirely honest with her. Why does everything have to be complicated?!?

Maggie Vs. The Ball

Another set of amusing Maggie exercise techniques... Wrestling with inanimate objects.

sorry super blurry she was moving so fast.

Your so funny baby girl

Fight

Mags Vs. The Monkey

When she gets going she takes no prisoners! Even adorable pink monkeys.

slightly distracted but then quickly back to business

So cute with his red heart. He was a birthday present

Body Slam!

Simple joy, in simple acts!

Trader Joe's

I love seeing my little girl act like a big girl! She is just so adorable! Trader Joe's has carts for children, like other grocery stores, and every time I have taken her she has shown absolutely no interest in pushing her own cart or helping. But today she wanted to! She was even excited about pulling food off shelf! Such a big helper and when we found the cereal - WOW! Happy girl!

Cereal and rice milk what more do you want in life?

She started signing cereal the rest of the way through the store and became less than amused as time passed and she did not get what she was asking for.

Super Cute!

SNAKES!

A couple weeks ago I took Maggie and her Uncles to a Reptile store, because of zoo has no snakes or that many reptiles. She makes a great 'Ssss' sound every time she sees a snake like her stuffed animal or if she she sees on TV or anything that looks like a snake, like an earth worm. And pet stores are always fun to go to with Maggie - but our local pet smart has maybe 10 snakes. This place add 1,000 - seriously they are a breeder store for the nation so they have stacks of containers, 10 high filled with baby Boa Constrictors. It could either be something out of a horror movie or really cool - still debating... I personally wasn't freaked out by the snakes that were confined behind glass in the store BUT more by the odd people coming in to buy food to take home which got me thinking who is my closest neighbor who owns a snake would could eat me....

She was in love!

Lots of 'WOW's

Cute right? In my home... :( Maggie you can have a dog

If they weren't behind glass I'm pretty sure Maggie would have tried to hug it.

This is hard to see (sorry all these photo's were taken from my phone) but this baby boa constrictor is eating his breakfast... crazy!