Busy, and uninspired

Well, I got a subtle hint from my brother, Dave, asking me if I've been busy lately. Yeah, I guess I have, but I also have not been motivated to work on my blog, and I'm also having a hard time getting motivated for some things, for example, scrapbooking. When my mom was here we started a scrapbook for Ilianna. I think we got around 12 pages done, and we really enjoyed it. Since then I've done 2 pages, and I haven't been able to get inspired to do more. I've tried, but I kind of get stuck, and have a hard time being creative. I'm sure I'll get back into it soon.

As for Ilianna, she has been inspired! She has had a really good week. The other day I asked some moms that I know that were standing in the school yard to hold my bike on which Ilianna was sitting, so I could quickly run a schoolbag into one of the girls I babysit. That way I didn't have to take Ilianna out of the bikeseat, and take her with me into the school. When I came back out, she saw me and said: "there's Mom!". That was really great! And that same afternoon she came up to me and said: "jas oan", which means "coat on", because she wanted to play outside with two of the girls I babysit, who were playing outside. Communicating like that with me is a real breakthrough, it's showing that she knows what she wants and how to ask for it. Things like that are becoming more frequent with her, which is really nice to see.

Another way that Ilianna has been developing lately is in her "fantasy playing". She is starting to use her imagination, and that is really great to see for a child who has autism. You can see that in the picture above; she put her stuffed animal friends on two chairs and then sat down on the other chair beside them. And the other day she put her little doggy on her booster chair and put a bib on him!

Last week thursday we went with Ilianna to her new "school". In january she'll be going to a sort of daycare/treatment center, called an MOD (medisch orthopedagogisch dagverblijf, if you want a translation, you'll have to look that one up). She'll go 3 times a week, and will get alot more attention than she now gets at her preschool. She now has 1 or 2 teachers for a room full of 15 kids, and at her new school she'll be in a group of 10 kids with 3 teachers! So that really makes a difference. There are also specialists at her new school; a speech therapist, physical therapist and a play therapist. She'll also have one-on-one time with some of them on a regular basis. We decided to send her to the MOD in Leeuwarden instead of the one in Drachten, what we were first planning, for many different reasons, and after we left on thursday we had a great feeling about our decision! It's really nice there, and the people who works there are super! The building is cozier, homier, and they even have a swimming pool!! I wish I could go there! The only thing is that Ilianna will be picked up and brought home in a taxi, which will be very hard for me, but our first plan of bringing her and picking her up 3 times a week, and later on 4 times a week, is just not realistic. If I ever get sick, or any of the girls I babysit, then we'll really have a problem. I can always pick her up or bring her, I just have to let the school know. We are looking forward to january, when Ilianna can get the extra attention and care she needs and can profit from.

I haven't taken many pictures of Ilianna lately, hopefully I'll have more for my next blog.

Do, re, mi, and pee, pee, pee

Well it's been quite a while since my last blog, and a few things have been happening around here. Ilianna's flourishing, learning something new every day, and that's really great to see!

A couple of weeks ago we started to teach her the song "Do, re, mi" from the Sound of Music. A couple of days after we started teaching her, we played that scene in the movie for her, and she was very interested. She now sings along with the whole song, and just loves it! She also watches when other songs are on, and she loves the scene with the puppet show. I especially like it that she is so interested in the movie, because it's my favorite movie of all time and I started watching it when I was a little girl with my mom!

Last week I went out and bought a potty. Ilianna is also pretty interested in it, but she hasn't peed in it yet. She's peed twice in front of it, but not yet in it. We are hoping that happens soon. It will probably take a while for her to get the hang of it, but we'll see what happens. It's pretty easy having her in a diaper yet, especially because she's not talking a lot yet, and can't tell me when she has to pee. Boy, what a stupid topic to put in a blog, but that's our life!

Yesterday Ilianna and I went to both get haircuts. Both of us we starting to get sick of how long our hair was getting. Ilianna sat very still and had no problems at all! She got quite a bit off, and looks really cute (not that she wasn't cute already)! The hairdresser put pink hairpaint in her bangs, and Ilianna thought that was pretty interesting.

This next picture is of Ilianna mimicking her dad, whenever he is working on his laptop. She grabs a calculator and starts to "type" as well.

Well, that's it for now, I'll try to write again soon...