Saturday morning

I am still pissed that I lost my last post. However . . . .

Today, I am going to learn to scan photos on my new printer, take some pictures of my bathroom and the old kitchen cabinet in the basement, and make a big pot of beef stew for our church supper tomorrow evening (the recipe says that the stew benefits from standing over night and I usually don't do that. Of course, we will eat it tonight for dinner as well without standing over night).

It's snowing, slowly and lightly but snowing nonetheless. Julia is with a therapist now until noon; David is going to a blocking rehursal for his play until 2. After the therapist leaves, I am planning an at home quiet afternoon with Julia: painting, reading work, and bath will take us most of the afternoon.

Lovely, lovely day.

Oh, I miss my Cheshire. She left yesterday and I started missing her as soon as I dropped her at the airport. It was nice to get her text message later on that she was back on NYC soil and missing us. I don't know how else to say it but that Cheshire completes us. When she is home, I feel like a complete family -- not that there is not room for others, not that at all, but that we are a happy, content circle. I hope that one day she settles closer to where we live or that we move closer to where she is. I am so fortunate to have such a daughter -- I know that my mother never had this kind of a relationship. She never asked for it, but she never had it either.

Julia is bursting as usual. Yesterday morning, Julia barged into Cheshire's bedroom to say good-bye to Cheshire. Julia told Cheshire that she was going to miss her and then asked to take the pink bear (which is really Cheshire's but also used by Julia most of the time) into her bedroom. Halmark moment? Indeed. Very sweet.

Last night, I read the book, The Jolly Postman (an old favorite of Cheshire's) to Julia. It is a little book that has letters to different fairytale characters. I had not read the book before to Julia thinking that she would not understand the concept. She loved it last night and woke up this morning eager to draw/write a letter of her own. Julia's colored pencils are her best friends these days.

The last two weeks or so, Julia has been covering pages with "words", actually letters, in an attempt to write more. I think I've said that I can usually pick out Mom, Dad, and Julia amonst the letters. This morning, she is drawing little pictures on the sides of her letter like those in the book. I don't always know what will inspire Julia but when I find something she does take off.

I found some wiki sticks last weekend -- bendaroos -- and Julia has been playing with them all week. She and her therapists copies a number of the two dimentional shapes and then went on to the three dimentional animals. The set came with detailed directions which appeared pretty complicated when Julia began to use them but were well written and illustrated and taught Julia the basics of working with the bendaroos. Then two nights ago, Julia started on her own creation -- she made a wonderful cat following the general direction for making three dimentional animals. She is generalizing! Which is very important for kids with autism who seem to have touble with this concept. I have to check on ebay and other sources to see if I can find more bendaroos at a reasonable price.

I have been talking to Beth and Ginny, Julia's teachers, and to Debbie our lead therapist about drawing and regulation. All agree that drawing, clay, and now bendaroos, can be a regulator for Julia. She definitely instinctively uses drawing this way in the morning when she first come into school. But at some point, the act of creation is also super stimulating. So the engine settles into the place just right and then soars too high. Using this knowledge comes next or at least soon.