Aside from Samuel being sick with a bit of pink eye and nasty cough, things have been going good. Mackenzie headed off back to school this Tuesday and she looked to have a good first day back. She came out running with a huge smile on her face yelling, "There's my mom!" It makes me happy to see her so happy, sad at the same time that she is growing up so fast...too fast.
Kenzie was a great help to me over the holidays, trying her best to engage and play with Zoe-Mai and even helping with chores and simple stuff with her little brother, like bringing me the wipes or a diaper. She loves to put a blanket over Samuel. She says, "Samuel is so cold." And will place it gently over him. When we're in the truck and going places, if he fuses or cries for his bottle she'll hold it for him since she knows that Zoe-Mai just doesn't like crying.
Zoe-Mai has been having a good couple of days. I thought that the holidays would've been worse since she normally does better when Kenzie is in school. But I think Kenzie is learning how to play with Zoe-Mai and is picking up on the things that upset or might trigger Zoe-Mai. Yes, Zoe-Mai still had a few tantrums, but they weren't as frequent.
This morning we headed off to do a few chores and our last stop was Wal-Mart. We head in and Zoe-Mai starts grunting and doing her half whine, letting me know that she wanted down from the cart. So I let her down so she can walk, which is great because she wears down faster and is more likely to nap in the morning- like I need her to. She does great most of the time with the walking through Wal-Mart. I usually linger around her favorite spots for a few minutes just so she can enjoy it. She loves the full length mirrors over by the socks and underwear section, which also happens to be by the baby and kids stuff. She'll stand in front of the mirror for a few minutes and sway and hum. After we stopped to let her do her thing we head off towards the milk and cokes. There is a little Hostess stand full of $1 hostess treats. For some reason, she loves the big red Hostess letters on the side of this stand, the big O for some odd reason just amuses the heck out of her. She'll run up to the stand and plant herself in front of the letters. Then she'll lean her head in about an inch from the big red O and just look at it.
It's fun to watch and I wonder if her spinning (one of her many stims) has anything to do with loving this big red O.
The only problem with allowing her to walk in Wal-Mart when I go by myself, without Jeremy, is that she sometimes will stop dead in her tracks. If I'm not holding her hand it might take me a second to realize that she has done this. She did this to me a few times this morning, thankfully Wal-Mart wasn't busy so we weren't having to shuffle through any traffic. When I looked to see if she was still walking beside me, a few times I would find her planted a few feet back just staring and waving her hand in her face. She does this often with her hand and other objects. Today, I was thankful for this as she was so immersed in her hand waving she didn't even notice the buggy with the crying toddler pass right by her.
On another note. I often get asked what stimming is and what Zoe-Mai does. Stimming is a repetitive behavior done over and over again and is thought to soothe or stimulate the child. Every child is different and not every autistic child displays the same behaviors or at the same lvel, but a good majority do. Severity really depends on where the child is on the spectrum.
Zoe-Mai is classic or what is considered to be lower functioning autism. Her stimming behaviors are what is the norm for most classic autistic children. Her more frequent types of stimming behaviors are swaying, waving/flapping, and humming (see video below). She does this more when she is bored or isn't getting enough stimulation. She also spins, rocks, grinds her teeth, and on occasion will bang her head against the floor or back of the seat. Her spinning can be anything from spinning a wheel on a toy over and over again, watching the ceiling fan, and also lights- boy does she love spinning lights. Her teeth grinding is something I wish she would stop as it can't be good for her teeth.
Another thing that we've noticed about Zoe-Mai is she is a leg kicker as well. When she lays down for a nap she'll normally pick a spot either on the living room floor or on her bedroom floor and just crash down on her belly. She'll usually begin her humming and will kick one leg for a good 5-10 minutes until she falls asleep.
I should mention that this video was taken by Jeremy around June/July of last year after I had left to run an errand. So this is a good example of how Z0e-Mai self soothes.
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