Week off of school

I am going to try to put out more blogs about what Stephanie does each week. Just a little insight into her life. As I've said before what works for Stephanie one day may not work the next day so it may not work for others with autism or apraxia. We are all unique and even after 16 years I am still trying to figure Stephanie out.

There is always a little letdown after Christmas. Stephanie LOVES opening presents. It isn’t necessarily the gift inside but the act of opening, the surprise. She has been a big fan of those surprise eggs/bags for a few years now. It doesn't matter what it is, she loves opening them. As soon as she opens all her gifts she asks for more or asks for her birthday. It doesn't matter is she opened 2 or 20, she always ask for more. Her birthday isn't until July so it's a long time to wait for more presents. But what she doesn't know is that she does have more presents to open. I've told her we are going to her Nanna and Grandpa's house for more presents but we haven't talked about when. Hopefully this weekend we can have our next delayed Christmas celebration. One of favorite gifts was her guitar. She doesn't really play it but she wants us to play it and sing. I do not have a musical ear and never played an instrument but as long as she is happy it works for me. Hopefully her music therapy can start back up soon. It's been one of the few services she receives that she LOVES.

Stephanie was also able to play in the snow this past week. We didn't have a white Christmas but winter has shown up now. When she was little, around 2-3, she hated the snow. I think it was a sensory/balance issue. Without any vocabulary she couldn't tell us why but she didn't like walking in the snow. And she didn't know how to play in it. She would just stand there. So once we started ABA at age 4 it was one of our first goals since winter was approaching. But since Stephanie likes to surprise us, she didn't hate the snow that winter and it's never been a problem ever since. Every year I want to take her to a tubing hill but I worry about the waiting and possible meltdown or outburst around a bunch of other kids. Maybe this will be the year we give it a try. She has done adaptive skiing in the past and loves that but she can't go this year because of vaccine mandates through the company we use. Too bad. She has brought it up a couple times already but not recently. Hoping to be able to ski though next year.