Braids, Barrettes, and Balls...

This morning I decided to braid Katelyn's hair. Katelyn thought it was great and asked for "more braid" and began to pull on her hair. Since she had pulled some strands of hair loose, I decided to put a barrette in her hair. Well, that was all it took to bring out the girly girl in Katelyn! She began demanding more and more barrettes! I finally had to say it was enough because otherwise she would have the entire box of barrettes, clips, and scrunchies in her hair all at once :)

Later on while the girls were napping, I decided to bring up Katelyn's old ball tent/tunnel set that she hasn't seen in about a year. The thing is huge, so I only assembled the ball tent and two tunnels. When the girls got up from their naps, I brought them over to the tent. Katelyn immediately became ecstatic and wanted to get in there and play. Ashley also was very interested, so I plopped her right in the middle of the tent.

The girls had a blast, Ashley sampling every colorful ball and Katelyn going in and out of the tunnels. Katelyn also learned to "shoot hoops" with her bumpy ball.

It is indescribable how rewarding it is to see the girls playing so well together. As Ashley gets older and is able to interact more with Katelyn, Katelyn is becoming more and more interested in her baby sister. And of course, Ashley absolutely adores her big sister; her smile lights up the room when she sees Katelyn. Nothing beats seeing my two girls sharing special moments together, making memories that will last a lifetime.

A Whole New World, A Whole New Girl...

Now that Katelyn is back in this world, she is improving so much, and in so many areas. Her speech is flourishing, her play skills are growing, and even her social skills are developing more. She actually initiated play and "conversation" with her cousins, Anthony and Lexi, who are 8 and 4, respectively. She usually follows their lead, and she normally does not approach other children, so this is a huge step! I am hopeful that she may initiate play with other children, especially peers her own age, since she usually does not even acknowledge their presence.

And she also has been incredible with her baby sister, Ashley. She loves to be around her, share toys with her, talk to her, sing to her, and more. And Ashley absolutely adores Katelyn. It is truly beautiful for us to witness this since we weren't sure if Katelyn would ever have a special bond with her sister.

Katelyn will be attending a new playgroup on Tuesdays, starting in early March, through Early Intervention. Unlike her Monday playgroup where the parents stay, at this playgroup the parents attend a separate meeting of their own in another room. This is specifically designed to help children get ready to transition to the pre-school environment. I am ecstatic about this opportunity and I believe that Katelyn will really benefit from this experience.

Katelyn has been doing wonderfully with her ABA therapy. Aimee, her ABA therapist, said that Katelyn is so bright that she is breezing through all of the programs so quickly that she is having to find other programs to do with her! This obviously brings a huge smile to her family! We couldn't be more proud of her. Aimee said that Katelyn is very academically smart, so we are going to focus on her behaviors and social skills, as well as providing more challenging academic work as well. And of course, being the mathematician that I am, I am really excited that she loves numbers and already counts up to 10.

Overall, we have seen a drastic improvement in Katelyn recently, and this gives us hope that she will be very successful academically and hopefully socially. But the most important thing to us is that she is happy, and with each success, she is gaining confidence, independence, and most importantly, happiness.

I Finally Have My Girl Back...

For the past few months, Katelyn seemed to be slipping away. She would no longer feed herself independently, watch her favorite TV shows, play with her toys, walk up and down stairs, etc. She even stopped singing and clapping. Overall, she seemed very unhappy, as if she was locked inside herself and couldn't break out. But with some help, Katelyn has returned.

Since it wasn't clear if she wouldn't, or simply couldn't, do certain things that she used to do, we were not exactly sure how to handle the situation. If she truly could not do these things, it would not be fair to her for us to try to force her to do so. However, if she was just choosing not to do certain things, this would be a behavior issue that could be corrected.

Exactly one week ago, I decided it was time to try to break Katelyn free, if possible. For some reason, she would no longer enter our kitchen for the past few months, so I decided to start there. I also wanted to tackle the self-feeding issue since she was only eating if I shoved the food into her mouth. I already have an 8-month-old who cannot self-feed, so as you can imagine, having to feed my 2.5-year-old as well was time-consuming and exhausting.

So I picked Katelyn up and brought her into the middle of the kitchen. She was not happy, but she lied down on the floor. I got out one of her favorite snacks and put them in a bowl. She really wanted the snack, but she got very upset that I refused to put them in her mouth for her. I held the bowl and told her that she needed to take them out herself. She began to cry and protest, hoping that I would give in. However, after enough time went by, she finally took one out and shoved it in her mouth reluctantly. It was like a battle of wills, not against me, but against herself. I praised her a ton and then I put the bowl down on the floor, no longer holding it for her. Once again, after some tantruming, she finally took one out of the bowl. Again, more praise. All in all, it took an hour and a half to get her to successfully feed herself, but it was worth every minute. This was a huge breakthrough!

I then decided to see if she would feed herself at the coffee table, since she had been refusing to even go near it for months. I put the bowl on the table and turned on Blue's Clues. With some prompting and reassurance, she finally went over to the table and fed herself. I praised and praised her. She became very excited to receive the praise. I could see the pride that she felt. It was then that I knew that she was not incapable of doing things that she once did, she just lacked the confidence. It was like she just got stuck in a rut and didn't know how to get out, but I opened up the door for her. Finally, my happy girl was back!

As if a magic switch had been turned on, Katelyn quickly resumed to many of her old activities. She now walks up and down the stairs completely independently, feeds herself (she even used a fork and spoon tonight and she did well!), doesn't require Mama and Dada to be in the same room with her all of the time, and she even has been incredibly sweet with her baby sister. She is constantly laughing and smiling, and you can just see the difference in her. Also, her language has just exploded and she is actually starting to form sentences! And to think, just a few months ago, we weren't sure if she would ever say more than one- or two-word phrases.

Also, her ABA therapy started last week and Katelyn is doing amazingly well. She already has a bond with her ABA therapist, Aimee, and she is enjoying the one-on-one sessions. And now that she has the language skills, we are able to see just how smart she truly is. She continues to amaze me every day.

Katelyn has taught me many things in her short life so far, but one of the most important lessons that I have learned is to cherish the small accomplishments and never take anything for granted. When you have a child with autism or developmental delays, you really hold onto the little successes, and if and when your autistic child reaches the "normal" milestones, even if it takes months or years longer than other children, it is truly euphoric. It is almost like witnessing a miracle because it isn't definite that your autistic child will ever do some of the things that other children do naturally. After witnessing, and being a part of, Katelyn's recent breakthrough, I feel on top of the world. I finally have my girl back, and I am never letting her go.

On Thanksgiving Day, Katelyn was thankful for...

Spending Thanksgiving at Uncle Pete and Auntie Amy's House!

"poobs" (tubes)

Sticks

Mama's Necklace (note the red scratches on my neck from her trying to rip it off of me)

Dada warming up her cold hands

Paper Tablecloths (so she can tear pieces off!)

Tickles!!!!!

Her Baby Sister, Ashley

And Katelyn is also thankful for all of the wonderful people in her life who love her very, very much, and are doing everything they can to help her become the amazing little girl that she is.

Thank you.

Who Needs Toys?

With a house FULL of every toy imaginable, Katelyn's favorite thing at the moment (aside from Giraffe, of course) is cardboard tubes. Whether they be from toilet paper, paper towels, or Christmas wrap, they get the job done. And the more, the merrier. She carries them all over the house, rolls them back and forth, snuggles with them (and Giraffe), stacks them -- you name it, she does it. She affectionately refers to them as "poob" :) When they start to unravel, she shows her concern by pointing out their "boo boo" and asking me or Dada to fix it. Yesterday, her Auntie Amy gave her an indestructible "poob" that will be able to withstand Katelyn's constant play. However, it was quite long and we were concerned that she would break everything in the house or poke out her little sister's eyes, so Dada cut it into 3 equal pieces (about the size of paper towel tubes). Now she is ecstatic that she has 3 indestructible "poobs" to roughhouse with, and we are grateful that Ashley won't have to sacrifice an eye in the process.

Zoning Out for the Holidays (photos, that is)...

Yesterday my grandmother and I took Katelyn and her baby sister, Ashley, for their holiday photo session. It was also Ashley's 6-month picture (she will be 6 months old at the end of the month). It certainly was an interesting experience.

I had been a little worried about how Katelyn would react because she was NOT happy at her 2-year photo session, although she had never had an issue before. I fully expected the blood-curdling screaming and crying and I was anticipating walking away without photos of my beautiful little girl. However, what happened next was unexpected and quite interesting to witness.

When we first approached the photo area, she began screaming and crying and clinging to me like a koala bear. She did NOT want to sit for the picture, even though her baby sister was perched happily (as usual) on the stage and smiling at her. Katelyn was repeating, "Mama, bye bye, Nana," desperately resisting to pose for the pictures. I then took out her beloved Giraffe and asked them to take his picture so that Katelyn could see him on the screen. She still cried, but she was interested in looking at Giraffe on TV.

Then all of a sudden, it was like someone flipped a switch. She stopped crying and just zoned out. It was like she went into her own little world. She was no longer scared, it seemed. However, she was so zoned out that it seemed that she was no longer aware of her surroundings, which made it virtually impossible to get her to look at the camera or smile. She did not respond when the photographer was clapping, banging, singing, shouting, squeaking toys, etc., except that she would occasionally repeat what they would say or she would start saying random words, "Wow, Mama, up, clock, ding, ding, ding." She also would immediately yell, "Mama!" if I tried to get up since I was sitting right next to her. That was the only thing that she seemed to notice.

Now, I have witnessed Katelyn zoning out and staring off into space before, but this was the first time that I saw her go from one state to the other. It was just as if someone had flicked a switch and off she went.

Needless to say, there are no pictures of Katelyn smiling, but that is perfectly fine with me because the pictures that we got capture the essence of Katelyn beautifully. I always tell the photographer not to focus on getting her to smile because she hardly ever does for pictures, and that is fine with me because she smiles and laughs off camera all of the time, and that is all that matters to me.