Stephanie has been busy doing some school work at home while school is virtual. As of this writing there are 7 days left on her back to school countdown and this momma is praying that I don't get an email that it is extended. Since it was a countdown number 18-1, not sure how I can extend it. I think next time our countdowns will be more in calendar form just so we don't run into this kind of issue again. We have been telling her that her teachers are resting and she talks about it everyday. one of these days I expect her to say "done resting". But I think in her mind her teachers are in their beds with their pillows and blankets
This is one of Stephanie's no emotion faces she draws when she is going fast with her smiley faces. I don't think she understands that the straight face means no emotion and when you make it curve up that's what makes it happy, but she can identify a happy, sad, and angry face. She has always been able to show emotion and empathy. It was one of the reasons that I didn't think she was autistic when she was little. She may not show emotion correctly, like she may laugh when someone gets hurt. But she knows crying means sad and she will continue to bring up "Mommy sad" most days. Overall I am a very emotional person and it doesn't take much to make me cry. It's been a very emotional 6 months and I have done a lot of crying. My 19 yr nephew, Noah, died 6 months ago today after an accidental electrocution on the 4th of July.. He had been at Stephanie's (and Emily and Matthew's) birthday party the day before. And just last week Jeff lost a very close friend/co worker. We talk about how happy they are to be in Heaven with Jesus now but we are so sad they can't be here with us anymore.
Stephanie was able to take her babies for a walk once last week. She had asked to ride her bike but it wasn't that warm so she was content with the stroller. Elmo use to be the one who went everywhere but now the babies are the ones getting all the love these days. She was able to stop and place a shirt order in the mailbox on our way around our circle.
We made it out to dinner this week. Something we didn't do very offen before and now even less with Stephanie's strict foods that I allow her to eat. But she had been asking to go so I thought we should give it a try to make sure she is still comfortable with it and it doesn't become a thing that she doesn't remember. She did great considering she spilt water on her pants soon after we arrived. And even though we went for the early bird dinner there was still a short wait. She is still talking about it a few days later so I call it a successful night out. So far I have not noticed any adverse reactions from the food she ate so hopefully that means we can do it again, soon.
Song of the week is "Count on Me " by Bruno Mars. It's been one she's liked before but I think she likes it because she can count to 4 and that's what he does in the song. It does confuse her when he counts backwards from 4-1, but numbers, counting, and one to one correspondence is something we are continuing to work on.