"God stays in Heaven." Says Melissa, matter-of-factly. "Oh?" I respond, tuning in, hoping for a glimpse into her soul. "Yeah." she answers flatly. "Because He's dead." Has she decided this because she can't see God?

I'm glad I got that sorted out. It leaves so much more time available to listen to long-winded discussions about dragons. Dragons are very real and alive to her. Why is that? Why dragons and not God?

Bemused. A very familiar emotion when talking to Melissa.

MidSummer MeltDown

The best laid plans for family fun sometimes backfire for Melissa. Here we are at a local pool on a beautiful summer day. Moments before, Melissa was happily playing with her little brother. But the smallest shift in her equilibrium can be disastrous, and when she scraped her knee on the pool bottom it was the end of the day, the end of the fun, and the beginning of a full scale, hide under the towel melt down which ended when she was wisked away by her Nanny to go back to the safety and silence of her bedroom.
It hurts me to see her suffer so in her own skin.
We will keep trying for summer fun . . . maybe next time we will bring a first aid kit along.

FutureCasting

What does Melissa's future hold for her? It is so hard to predict. She has such a range of abilities and non-abilities. She is starting to read, and even write her own storybooks. She does math at school, and can laugh at a joke. But she has such a hard time interpreting what is going on with other people. She always thinks people are laughing at her, or are going to laugh at her. In some ways her odd obsession with being made fun of only points out my own tendency to personalize things. Don't we all imagine that there is a "Kick Me" sign pinned to our back, and other's are snickering? Melissa is just real enough to vocalize that fear, as often as she has it. "Those kids think I'm a joke!" she will protest - not true, but painful enough. I think her future success is going to depend upon her developing some way to cope with this anxiety. She will have to join the rest of us.

Returning to the Planet

I am back. Some loving encouragement has brought me back to Melissa's blog. I am glad it is still here. Only three years have passed! LOL - as they say.
Melissa is counting down the days until 3rd grade is over. It has been a trying year for her at the new school with the "professional" autism support team. Despite transferring over to the new school district with a file already 3 inches thick from her school, the new people tried to reinvent the wheel until April, when Melissa finally said "I've had enough of you!" by throwing chairs across the room.
Our IEP meeting was 12 people strong and included the head of the Special Education division of the school district and lasted 3 1/2 hours.
Things are much better now that they are not using the "quiet room" a.k.a. bank vault closet in Melissa's plan.
Her latest art is taking a fantasy turn, lots of dragons and wizards and fairies. I enjoyed the brief mermaid/merman phase. Hope you do too.