Wednesday

Where did yesterday go?

Today was pretty intense. We had our first social skills group meeting. Six kids today (one was missing and we are still looking for an 8th child), four adult guiding, and our autism expert floating from group to group offering pointers. I can only talk about the experience that I had with my group because I was too focused to get an overview of what was going on in the whole room. I played with Julia and L. and both girls did very well in terms of cooperation with each other and with our procedures -- lots of visual schedules for everything. I really did not do much to encourage or facilitate conversational interaction. I was much more focused on getting them from through our day's schedule, having smooth transitions, and keeping both of them on task.

I still have more to do and lots of organizing to get ready for next week, and thank goodness, I have a week to do it.

Oy, I am exhausted.

Some interesting things have been happening . . . .

Julia lost a tooth last night while I was out shopping and getting the dog from the kennel. She immediately asked David about the tooth fairy and last night the tooth was put in a plastic bag and ceremoniously placed under her pillow. She slipped into our bed some time last night, as usual, and so she was eating breakfast before she remember about the tooth. She rushed upstairs and found a dollar under her pillow. She was not incredibly impressed, but maybe it's time to talk about money and what it can do.

Yesterday, when we woke Julia up at the hotel at 5 a.m., she was not happy to get up. She gets up pretty early every morning but not at 5. She didn't want to get up, and she moaned and groaned. I tried to coax her to get dressed but she seemed impossible to move. She seemed to be getting into tantrum mode. She was not crying but complaining. Finally, she said that she was scared. She seemed to get a little bit of clarity -- not much, just a little -- and was able to say exactly what was wrong. I flashed on her being woken up the morning that she met us, told to get dressed, and given something to eat before she was bundled into a car and driven three hours away from the only home that she knew to meet the strange people who would take her away from China. Maybe this is just me going way out on the inference limb, but it was what I immediately thought of. I gave her a hug then and told her that she was safe, that we were going home, and that we were staying together.