Day #73

All three of these pictures help to sum up how our day went.

First: Star spent almost all day outside playing with the neighbor kids. It is amazing the drama they go through just in trying to play a game! Lots of "I don't want to play with you anymore" "you aren't my friend anymore", then of course 5 minutes later they are all best friends again. 

Second: Josie "hiding" in her room and when I walk in saying "where's Josie? I don't see her..." she looks up with a huge smile and says "mommy, mommy, mommy you found me!" 

Third: Maeve with her poor, mangy, plucked nearly bald bunny. See the tufts of bunny fuzz on the couch, this has become one of Maeve's favorite pass-times.

Day #72

The girls and I went for a walk this morning and I took this photograph of Maeve with my cell phone. We walked Mountain View cemetery because there was a service going on at Mountain Shadow (they are right across the street from one another). It was so bright out, nice and cool but not cold. The California poppies were blooming by the hundreds amongst the graves, it was so pretty. I like walking cemeteries, they are a good lesson in history, social studies, and spirituality...even if Star did keep saying it was giving her the creeps :D

Day #71

Beans...friend or foe? They seem innocent enough but not when a certain little girl puts them up her nose, AGAIN! I had to squeeze a bean out of Maeve's nose tonight as she giggled with extreme joy. Then a few minutes later she began to sneeze and out popped a split pea. I understand and appreciate the concept of a sensory bin and I also know how much joy that it brings to Maeve but this is not the first time a stray bean has ended up in her nose. There has to be a better solution... :D

Day #70

AWWWWW! Josie was petting kitty Fae so nicely and very quietly saying, "you're so cute". Then Fae started licking her little fingers, what a special moment, love love love it! :D

Day #69

Dress-up time! Fairy Josie coming through. Jo insisted on wearing a "coshtoom" (costume) and jumping around waving her wand yelling "FAIRY!!!" as she did so. Oh, and she made mama wear a costume also, it was a bit small but she was satisfied when I just went ahead and tied it around my neck:D

Day #68

 

While on our walk this afternoon Star came running up to me with this leaf and said "Auntie, I love you." Isn't that the sweetest thing ever! :D

Day #67

Attack of the brownie snatchers!!!! I had a pan of brownies cooling on the counter, turned to the sink to rinse a dish and when I turned back the brownie snatchers had quietly left a big crater in my nice, chocolatey brownies. I looked to the usual suspects and sure enough the evidence was all over Maeve's face, as well as a BIG smile :D

Day #66

I took this photograph with my cell phone, I had been listening to Loreena McKennitt and Josie really got into her music even drumming with her little fingers on the table. Then I realized she had rested her head on my arm and looked so peaceful. Her eyes fluttered as if she was going to go to sleep and as I type this right now she has dozed off leaning over the table. It has been a busy day for her and I guess peaceful music will put anyone to sleep. Think I am creating another Loreena fan, score! :D

Day #65

This is a two picture kind of day :D #1 is Star in her gorgeous face painting from the ICES children's fair, thank you for taking her along Ginger, she loved it!! #2 is Maeve and Josie enjoying the seasons first day of  water play on the deck, sure is warm enough for it! What a great day :D

Day #64

This is Josie's newest friend that she is tucking into her dollhouse. He isn't the prettiest thing in the world but she loves him. He is a deflated mini punching balloon animal that is chewed upon and quite hairy but it would be a tragedy to her if he went missing. The grossest part is that she brings him to me and shoves him into my mouth wanting him blown up again and again but the poor critter has suffered a gash and will no longer hold air. It is amazing the things she gets attached to :D

Day #63

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MAEVE!!! Mama LOVES you with all her heart!! :D

Day #62

Josie has spent a lot of time this afternoon placing her little friends here on the rocking chair. You see, she had to have them just so and it looks like they are all facing the back of the chair. She would run into the bedroom and grab an animal then run out to the chair and set her friend on it just right then run back for another animal in her room. When she gets a wild hare about something she just has to do it :D

Day #61

"Push, push!" See what you started Ginger, just kidding. Josie loved riding the tricycle today and is even on it squeaking away as I write this. She kept me going for a good 45 minutes or so after you left this afternoon :D

Day #60

Maeve wants chocolate! Sounds good to me :D

Day #59

Maeve and Josie have decided that mama's bed is the latest, greatest place to hang out and play! :D

Day #58

First thing Monday morning I am going to tell my apartment manager that I insist they put in a new sliding glass door for me, one that actually LOCKS! I have been using one of those extendable shower rods that you can tighten into place but it has become rather wonky. Now Maeve just drags a chair over, pulls down the bar and opens the door right up. To keep it locked though I will need a new door for one, a bar as a secondary precaution and most likely a chain lock to top it off, though Maeve will eventually be able to figure them all out and get it open anyways.

Day #57

Josie insisted on having her tea set spoons in this position for quite a while today. If they were jostled in any way she would study them and put them back exactly how they were to begin with. When grandpa changed them and put them in this position only with the bowls of the spoons touching Jo leaned over them and studied them for a few minutes and it must have met her approval because she then wanted them that way for a while. Finally I broke the trance by spinning them which led to spinning the tea pot lid and other things and eventual boredom with the whole thing. My girls always keep life interesting :D

Day #56

 I decided to bring back a couple classics of Josie just because I got to thinking about how she loves to go off into a corner with her head against either a wall or floor and it struck me that this is not a new thing for her. Looking through older pictures I find that several of her throughout her short 3 years shows her in this very position and I never took notice of it until today...duh! It is odd to look back on what I always took as a "normal" or "typically developing" phenomenon and see it in a whole new enlightened light now that we have a diagnosis. Signs of autism were always there it just took guidance and understanding to realize what I was looking at. She is still my beauty which I wouldn't change an ounce of for anything in the world! :D

Day #55

I am really not sure which girl did this or if it was a joint effort but I have a sneaking suspicion that it was Maeve. I saw this ring of toys when I popped back in the living/dining room after doing dishes. Nearly a perfect circle of lined up toys starting at the recliner, going under the table and around Butterscotch the pony and back to the recliner. Whomever did this spent quite a bit of time doing it and even though it is not the "norm" for toy play I applaud the effort...let's just not make a habit out of it :D

Day #54

Star reading her latest issue of highlights magazine, isn't she pretty?! :D

Day #53

When I returned from the grocery store I saw that Maeve had fallen asleep again in her swing. She LOVES her swing!!! This picture is good but doesn't do the whole image justice, when I saw her she looked like a fetus in the womb, maybe that is why she likes the swing so much, it gives her the tight, comforting feeling she needs. She can literally spend hours in it, and if she starts to have a meltdown we can head her off by letting her swing. Greatest tool ever! :D

Day #52

Hoppy Bunny Day! :D

Day #51

Now if you can't tell what is going on here I shall explain. You see Maeve has a quirky way of calming and snuggling with me, both girls do actually, but Maeve goes either up my shirt or down my collar to my armpit, her favorite is the left one. That is what she is doing here. I had been wondering what I should take a picture of today when she walked right up and dove up my shirt and I just happened to have my camera with me so snapped it up. Josie on the other hand will snuggle with me while sucking her thumb and pinching my bottom lip between her little fingers, not hard but just enough to keep the contact I guess. We call it "plugging in to mama" :D

Day #50

Josie enjoying her chicken enchiladas and using a fork to boot! Her tastes are expanding and every day it seems something new is added to her food repertoire. Still working on Maeve...

Day #49

We have too many toys! The girls room looked like a toy tornado went through it when I got back this afternoon. Dad was watching them and figured if they were happy and quietly playing the mess didn't matter...and he's right :D

Day #48

Day number one of Maeve's stool sample collection, we have to collect three days total. She was such a trooper going into the lab today and getting blood drawn. They had the easy part and sent me home with homework tubes, not as gross as I expected, I guess changing diapers everyday for four years desensitizes you.

Day #47

Captain Josie insisted on wearing her pirate hat and using her fingers as her spoon to eat her banana mixed berry today. Isn't she adorable! :D

Day #46

These three little girls are the loves of my life, the reason I get up in the morning and carry on despite all the crap and heartache, they are my reasons for existing, my world, my everything.

Day #45

Today the 1st of April 2012 I lost my beloved mother, Stephanie Ann Gates, to metastatic breast cancer at 5:21a.m. It is such a surreal feeling knowing she is gone but not feeling like she is. It feels like I can pick up the telephone and talk to her or go to her apartment and visit her with the girls like we have done every day for so long. I love you mom...always...