Erika stayed home from school today. She has a cold. She's been having some rough days at school, and it's a lot to expect of her to deal with her anxiety plus cold symptoms. I believe that we saw an improvement initially with her new meds, but I think we need to increase the dosage. She has a doctor's appointment scheduled for next week to review her meds situation. With that said, it is difficult to know just how much is enough. She has not been willing to do her work at school. How much of this is oppositional defiance, and how much is boredom? I feel that Erika seems completely bored with life in general right now. It's winter in Michigan. She needs more exercise, more outlets and more outings. I'm doing my best to help her in these areas, but I need to do better.
I needed to be focused on projects for school today. I'm way behind, and Erika's IEP is scheduled for Thursday morning, so there will be less time at the end of the week to catch up. I was not the mom I wanted to be today, to say the least. I left Erika alone to rest, and to find things to do. Eventually, she made her way to our basement. A few minutes passed, and when she came back upstairs, she presented me with our old VCR, cables still attached, and an old VHS tape (a recorded episode of Sesame Street) that she hasn't seen in a few years, ever since the VCR finally broke and we decided not to replace it.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Happy Birthday, Elmo!
Today is our favorite furry red monster's birthday. I can hear the Elmo's World music in the background and his signature laugh as I am typing this. Anybody who knows Erika knows that she is addicted (yes, addicted!) to Elmo's World. (For more information about Erika, and her life with Autism, visit Erika's World.)
I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some fond memories from Christmas, 2007. Erika was six years old. Erika has always taken Christmas morning in stride. While her same-age siblings are consumed with excitement well over over a month in advance of the big day, Erika typically shows little emotion about the whole ordeal. But Christmas of 2007 was different. Erika woke up that morning and, instead of being directed to check her stocking, she noticed that Santa had somehow managed to deliver a goldfish to our house. The first words out of her mouth that morning: "DOROTHY!"
Happy Birthday, Elmo.
Erika loves you.
-Erika's Mom
I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some fond memories from Christmas, 2007. Erika was six years old. Erika has always taken Christmas morning in stride. While her same-age siblings are consumed with excitement well over over a month in advance of the big day, Erika typically shows little emotion about the whole ordeal. But Christmas of 2007 was different. Erika woke up that morning and, instead of being directed to check her stocking, she noticed that Santa had somehow managed to deliver a goldfish to our house. The first words out of her mouth that morning: "DOROTHY!"
And, of course, Santa would never have sent Dorothy to our house without her favorite furry red monster to keep her company. I can honestly say that it was Erika's best Christmas ever.
Happy Birthday, Elmo.
Erika loves you.
-Erika's Mom
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pancakes and Syrup
This weekend, I made pancakes. At our house, since we want to eat them while they're hot, we find ourselves eating them in shifts. One of the kids put placemats on the table, and a new bottle of syrup. Erika was the first kid I served. She sat down, and I noticed that she was struggling to get some syrup out of the container, which was still sealed from the grocery store.
I said, "Oh, sweetie, there's another syrup in here that's already open."
Erika immediately got up and returned the new bottle of syrup to the pantry near where I was flipping the next batch of pancakes. She looked around, but didn't find what she was looking for. I came over, and found the opened syrup bottle behind a few boxes of cereal. I handed it to her, and she poured her own syrup.
As I continued with my pancake-making prowess, I considered the very remarkable thing that just happened.
I said, "Oh, sweetie, there's another syrup in here that's already open."
Erika immediately got up and returned the new bottle of syrup to the pantry near where I was flipping the next batch of pancakes. She looked around, but didn't find what she was looking for. I came over, and found the opened syrup bottle behind a few boxes of cereal. I handed it to her, and she poured her own syrup.
As I continued with my pancake-making prowess, I considered the very remarkable thing that just happened.
Social Stories: From Clunky to Slick and Accessible
I was playing around with the Erika's World website from my iPad, and I decided to check out the pdf documents containing the lyrics to some of Erika's favorite songs (strategies that work). When I opened the document on the iPad, I noticed an option that appeared on the top-right of the screen: "Open in iBooks." What happened next literally made my day. The pdf document appeared on a bookshelf, in a library separate from the iBooks that I had purchased. This is my very own library of pdf documents!
In Erika's mom's world, the significance of this cannot be overstated. I realize that at Erika's school, there is no wifi access, so this concept of accessing these pdf documents from the classroom at a moment's notice from Erika's iPad is truly a novel idea. I immediately opened all of the lyrics, and they are now in a library on my iPad. When Erika arrives at school today, I hope the teachers take a look at her iBooks app (per my note), where they will find the lyrics to "I'll Show You The World." Erika and I sang this together this morning, as we viewed the lyrics in iBooks.
In Erika's mom's world, the significance of this cannot be overstated. I realize that at Erika's school, there is no wifi access, so this concept of accessing these pdf documents from the classroom at a moment's notice from Erika's iPad is truly a novel idea. I immediately opened all of the lyrics, and they are now in a library on my iPad. When Erika arrives at school today, I hope the teachers take a look at her iBooks app (per my note), where they will find the lyrics to "I'll Show You The World." Erika and I sang this together this morning, as we viewed the lyrics in iBooks.
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