Fall Sensory Fun

I love this time of year. I really do…. well except for the change in weather…. the colder it gets the more I just want to pack up and move south. But every year we make it a tradition, pumpkin carving, seed baking, and practice with getting our hands messy without washing them every 10 seconds. Because our schedules are just so busy, I knew we wouldn’t have time to go pick out the pumpkins let alone find a night to carve them. But I saw that Lowe’s was having a too hard to pass up sale on their fall items, which included their pumpkins. $1 for any size!!! OMG we have got to get some. So of course I made my order online so that I wouldn’t miss the chance to get the sale. We picked them up after Jazz got home from school. Printed out our Elsa pumpkin pattern and we got started…. Of course we ended up with the not so perfect pumpkins. The one Jazz insisted that I carve out had that gross pumpkin fungus growing pretty much everywhere on the “good” carving side. So I had the idea to shave off the skin before carving out Elsa. This worked out great because I had such a smooth surface to carve from but bad idea because the pattern was getting wet. So I had to free hand it and just use the pattern as a visual guide. Still not too bad I think. Jazz went crazy nuts with the carving tools and made what she called “Art” She even have hers stitches. It worked out so well. Only had to wash our hands three times through the whole thing! #ProgressNotPerfection

Our Happy Halloween

Halloween is always an eventful evening for us. We love going out and Trick-or-Treating, seeing all the little ones dressed up as Elsa their favorite characters. We go to Daniel’s dads neighborhood so we can get “the good stuff” However, this year was a little different for us. Jasmyn was so excited for Halloween, she counted down the days (very cutely I might add). We woke up every morning the week of Halloween and it was the same thing….. “Happy 5 days before Halloween Mommy”  “Happy 4 days before Halloween Mommy”   “Happy 3 days before Halloween Mommy”  and so on…….

For the weeks leading up to Halloween, I kept seeing the same cards floating around on all my Autism support groups on Facebook.  I looked at them and kept saying to myself, We don’t need these because Jasmyn is obviously verbal but also pretty good at this whole trick-or-treat thing that I just didn’t feel the need. So you can imagine my surprise as we were going from house to house, Jasmyn didn’t say anything! She would walk right up to the house and just hold out her “hand” bag and look at them. It was actually kinda cute. Each time we would say to her… You have to say trick-or-treat babe…. and she would just simply look at us and say “No, I’m not saying that”… OK so she doesn’t want to say it… no big deal. After about an hour into it she finally looked at me and said “Mom, you need to say trick-or-treat, but you don’t hhhhaaavvveee to say it”.  Its amazing though the amount of people we visited that actually MADE you say it, in order to get the candy anyway. She handled that like a champ though.

The cutest thing did happen at one of the houses we stopped at. For those who aren’t aware, one of the fun things that go along with Autism is being very literal and Jasmyn is VERY literal. She is also practicing her reading skills. So naturally we find someone who has fun decorations outside of their house. As she is walking up the driveway she stops and reads…..

She looked at me with this terrified look and read it out loud to me “STOP. Turn back now” as she starts to walk back down the driveway to us…. He He He… so cute right… I couldn’t help but laugh (which is always a bad idea) as Jazz got a little frustrated at me for laughing, I explained to her that it was just a decoration and she can go and get her candy.

All in all it was a very successful night. Being that Jasmyn is allergic to chocolate, we had to separate it ASAP. She ended up with half chocolate, half candy. As we drove back home, Jasmyn is begging me to eat the candy. Of course I tell her that in order for her to eat them, I have to check them first. Well she just couldn’t understand why the heck I would need to check the candy…..its candy…..it was there… and she wanted it. So I had to explain to her that sometimes, there are things that shouldn’t be in the candy that I want to make sure isn’t in our stash. Still not understanding and growing increasingly more frustrated with me, I gave it to straight. “Sometimes people can be mean, and they may put bad things in the candy like razorblades or try and stick yucky stuff in them with a needle, so I want to make sure that there are no needle holes or razor blades.”  Well that got her to stop bugging me but she still couldn’t figure out why anyone would ever want to do that to kids candy. Of course we got home and I found already an article about this situation that I decided to share with her…

She could not believe her eyes. So horrified by this article. So horrified that it made her paranoid. Crap, I’ve done it now…. she was terrified that I had missed something. As she opened her ring pop she saw a hole on the top of it, looking at me almost in tears she asked “Why does this have a hole in it, I don’t think its safe to eat this, what if that’s a needle hole.”  Sometimes it’s just better to not go into details with her.

For your viewing pleasure:

Another fun Autism York Event

We are lucky enough to have a great non-profit organization (Autism York) that not only hosts monthly support meetings but also local events that are low- or no cost for families and individuals living with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I can not say enough about the support we get from this wonderful organization. This past weekend they held a family fun event at Maize Quest. This was our first time ever at a corn maze and I am so glad we got to experience it. The actual corn maze took a little over an hour to “get out of” and it got tough a little over halfway in when Jazz looked at us and said “Ok, I wanna get out of here now” For those who aren’t familiar, one of our challenges with Jazz is that once she has an idea or makes a decision, that is it and there is nothing we can do to change her mind or get her to think of ANYTHING else but that particular thought. Problem was … we were in the middle of a corn maze…. there was no quick exit. We managed through and even got a slight smile at the end of it…. but I’m not sure we will be walking into any corn mazes anytime soon.

There was a really cool Bamboo Maze that we did… Very fun because they had stations to find inside the maze and each station had a different color chalk type substance to color your finger with and once you found all five colors you could check the chart at the enterance of the maze to “find your mood” … Jazz got ~ Hungry as a Hog…. Of course she immediately looked at me with those eyes she gets right before a freak out and said “I have to wash my hands”… so we found the sink out side the snack barn and washed our hands before grabbing a snack

There was a huge tunnel type slide that Jazz went down at least 5 times while we were there. They even had a sensory fun little chicken coop filled with corn for the kids to play in!This place had lots of fun things to do and we spent hours there easily.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO AUTISM YORK FOR THE FUN EVENT 

Some fun things we have done this year…..

I try to do so many fun things not only for the memories but for the public experience. Jazz has a tough time when it comes to being outside of her comfort zone (our house) so I try to get her out as much as I can for the exposure. Crowds and changes can be tough but when they are fun….

Build-A-Bear Workshop ~ We live about 45 mins from the closest Build-A-Bear, so when Jazz has a chance to receive an award for behavior, or meeting goals set for her, I like to throw this in as a special treat….

We got to take a special train ride. A local railroad did an “American Girl” themed tour where we were able to try on some bonnets and see what girls wore “back in the old days” and even got to bring along our very own American Girl dolls for the ride.

We went to a local art show where they even had a kids craft sale.

She even made a few friends there.

We went to Jazz’s very first LIVE CONCERT!!!! We saw the McClain Sisters at the York Fair (For those who are not sure who these ladies are…. there is a show on Disney called A.N.T Farm that China Anne McClain stars in….. a favorite here in our house). This was so fun but so rough at the same time…. Try having to not only look after two little girls in a stadium full of teenie boppers AND not only that but having and ASD babe who just had to be up against the stage to try and get one of the McClain sisters to “touch their hand” while crying because she is getting touched by other kids, pushed, shoved, and not getting touched! Talk about nuts.

Another new addition

August 23rd at 2:22pm we were blessed with a new addition to our family. My sister had a sweet little baby girl, 7lbs 7.6oz and 20 inches long. Although we were not able to be there for the birth (Which, if we went by past experiences, I would have been there for all but the actual delivery anyway) But we did get to take a trip out to see her. What a blessing this little one is and we are so very lucky she has joined our family!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD BABY ARABELLA

  

Disney’s FROZEN on Ice

There has been an obsession with Frozen since it has come out. When I say OBSESSION I mean….. Elsa everything, only wanting to listen to the soundtrack in the car over, and over, and over again, watching the movie on repeat 1000 5,000,000 times! We are all things Frozen in our house. Its annoying so cute 🙂

When I first saw that Disney on Ice was coming to our area, I considered it but when I saw that this year they were doing Frozen, I knew that we just had to go. Thankfully there was a Pre-sale offer back in May… Yep MAY!!! So, me being the crazy, I have to have the front row seats, determined, stubborn momma that I am, sat on ticket master’s site with my FIVE pre-sale codes, I entered all of them in at once… and then it began….. refreshing a site that was getting hit hard by all the other crazy mamas out there…. 2.5 hours later (yes I refreshed the entire time) I got the tickets….It came at an outrageous price but the experience was totally worth it. I knew that this was going to be a special show for us to go to.

~A little background as to why this would be special for us~ (and its not just because of the Frozen fanatic that I have)

Back in 2012, we went to Disney on Ice, it was Saturday, November 3rd, we had such a good time. I was actually on the fence about going because we had gone the year before but we had  a coupon (of course) and it was only going to cost us a small amount of money for the tickets…. my mom (was still with us at this time) had just had Jazz over at her house for their weekly Friday sleepovers… I was sitting in my moms living room debating…. she of course convinced me to just go and have a good time, so we did. On our way back from the show we were coming up to my moms exit off the highway and I thought to myself… we should stop and tell mom how much fun it was, show her all the pictures we took and to thank her for convincing us to go…. but it was late and I figured we can just call her instead and we can show her the pictures the next day…. So we did call her when we got home. She was so happy to hear that we had such a good time… and of course it came with the “I told you so” 🙂

Unfortunately… that would be the last time that I got to hear my mothers voice because at 1AM Sunday November 4th, I got that dreaded call from the hospital telling me that my mom was there…. and two days later she took her last breath… and life would NEVER be the same for us. Since then, I have avoided Disney on Ice. I am sure that Jazz does not remember like I do (how could she right? She was only 7) but for me, I thought this whole time…. If I just would have not gone to see the show and stayed to hang with Mom that day, I would have had more time, or if I had stopped at her house on the way home like I thought to… I would have seen her smile one last time, I would have gotten one last hug and kiss. I am not really sure why I couldn’t bring myself to go to another Disney on Ice show since then….. It’s not Disney’s fault that mom had a massive stroke. But I am thankful that they brought Frozen on ice to our area this year…… because the smile on my little girls face as she sat there so close you could almost touch the skaters…..not only justified the astronomical price I paid for the tickets but let me know that its OK to sit back and enjoy the show.

Here are some of our favorite moments ….. We even got waved to by Elsa and Anna!!!

Life kinda gets away from you…..

Ok Ok…. I know its been AWHILE since I last posted. I think my life just kinda got away from me as I am so absorbed by the hectic schedule called life. SOOOOO much has happened since my last post so I will try and do a quick update here….

First things first….

I GOT ENGAGED!!!!!  Yes you read that correctly! ENGAGED

Four and half amazingly wonderful years together…This guy has been such a support for not only me but for Jazz too! We have been through everything that you can think of and more. The road has been long and sometimes harder than it should be but in the end… Daniel is there to love and support us. I can not wait to see what the rest of our life has in store for us!

We even made it Facebook official 🙂

Jazz has made so much progress it is hard to believe. When I sit back and think about how hard it was two years ago…even last year really, She has really come a long way. We have been working so hard in all the different therapies to learn coping skills and learn how to understand our own body. I am so proud of how hard she is working. We are currently experiencing a period of regression, which for those of you who know what that feels like, its tough, heartbreaking at times. But like anything, we just have to keep working hard and it will get better. “Progress, not perfection”

4th grade for Jazz started out AMAZING. She was ready to concur the world, so much excitement and really ready to be back at school. She actually came home everyday WANTING to do her homework. She was enjoying the 20 mins of reading everyday and loving the fact that she gets to complete her daily math homework ONLINE. This feeling for her lasted about a month and a half. Sadly, we have had such a tough time getting her to even look at the assignment book. For my sweet little girl, the hardest part of our days now is homework (mostly), the teacher has assigned a written portion to the reading called Reading Response. The kids are suppose to write a very detailed response to what they have read for the night. This is extremely challenging for Jazz because not only is she still on a 2nd grade reading level, but her short term memory is…..VERY short term. We tried to complete this assignment as best we could but we would get through the 20 mins of reading and by the time Jazz got a pencil and paper, she had no memory of what she just read! Thankfully we have an amazing teacher this year! We instead are trying out something really neat called Google Voice. The teacher supplied us with a phone number to call in, and Jazz just has to literally leave a voice mail message with her reading response. SO COOL! Jazz completed her first “message” to her teacher today. She was so worried about messing up that she actually read part of the book to the teacher on the message (but hey, its a start). I am crossing my fingers and hoping that this gets her back into loving her books again.

The toughest thing to really battle with Jazz and homework is her anxiety she has over failing, disappointment, and getting things wrong. I try so hard with the positive reinforcement and to reassure her throughout the entire homework but just the thought of getting something wrong or not doing enough gets her completely upset and makes for a difficult time, THE WHOLE TIME! Its challenging to say the least but I am hoping that this gets better.

Here are some snapshots of the last few months for your viewing pleasure 🙂

There is still good out there….

So we went to visit Daniel’s mom in Somerset PA this weekend and we made plans to go to Idlewild and Soakzone. I looked on their site to see if they had a special policy for special needs children and I didn’t find one on their website. So I thought about maybe bringing with us a copy of Jasmyn’s diagnosis but we were in such a rush to get out the door since we were already late leaving.

So we got there and right away Jazz started her complaining about wanting to go to Soakzone first. We got into the park and we went to the first ride we saw – it was the log (water) ride…. we ended up waiting for 45 mins just to get on the ride. The wait was like torture for Jazz. She moaned and complained and cried and she even bit me TWICE! After we were able to get on the ride she loved it of course. As we got back out of the exit from the ride I swore that we were not riding anything else because I just couldn’t do the lines with her. 

We stopped at Guest Service to rent a wagon (which was actually pretty cheap and very handy to have) and I just mentioned to them about Jasmyn’s challenges and the immediately got someone from their back office come down to meet us. They gave us a Ride Admission Policy Pass which allowed us to skip the lines and go through the exit. What a blessing this pass was for us! They even wrote her height on the pass so that they didn’t have to measure her each ride! The rest of the trip went off without a hitch! We will definately be going back there this summer!

So for all you mama’s and dads out there who are looking for an amusement park that still has a disability policy, make sure to take a look at Idlewild and Soakzone. They have lots to do and see and ride!!!

 

Equine Therapy

I am so thankful for wait lists. Jasmyn got put on a wait list last year (and we were warned that it would take about a year to get in) and after a long long year wait, her turn has finally arrived. I am so happy and excited. I have heard some really amazing stories about equine therapy and Autism and how much help it brings! We have had 3 sessions so far. The first two went great, she had good form and was really just a “natural” rider. They are working on core strength. She loves going each time.

Today’s lesson was not so great but not terrible either. I knew it would be trouble to get through since after I picked her up from summer camp she had quiet the fit in the 20 min car ride to therapy. By the time we got to Leg Up Farm Jazz was a mess. So I tried to explain to her that she can not be like this in front of the horse. Of course after telling her we are going home so that she can calm down and we can just reschedule, she stopped and composed herself. After her session, the therapist came out and explained that today was an “off” day for Jazz. She wasn’t focused, she was having a difficult time leading the horse and just not really good posture throughout the whole session. These days of course are bound to happen but in a way they are good to have every once in a while. She got to really truely learn that the horse can sense when something is wrong. Ella (the horse) was also having trouble following direction and keeping on task. For once my sweet little girl had trouble being the boss!!! 

Thankful for bed time today for sure! Here are a few pictures from the first few sessions. Stay tuned for more updates!!!

 

Brown’s Orchard ~ First Strawberry picking of the year

Jasmyn absolutely loves strawberries. They are one of her favorite fruits. And one of the only things that she will eat that is red! So last weekend we were up at the usual 6 am time….and I could tell it was going to be a tough day. So what better way to try and break the day up then find an outside activity! I happen to just be scrolling down my Facebook news feed and saw that Browns Orchard had their pick your own strawberries. So I got Jazz motivated to change out of her pajamas (which is a task on its own) and off we went. This was our first time picking strawberries so I wasn’t too sure how the event was going to go. It only lasted about 30 minutes and was not without tears due to the prickly weeds that were scratching her and the mess that the strawberries were making on her hands. (And with no sink in sight to wash them) But all in all I think it was a great fun experience that we will be definetly be trying out again soon!