Serafina is our non-verbal daughter with autism, AKA, our angel and sage, a huge spirit in a little body. Half angel. Half crazy. Here to make us all grow immensely in love and patience, as well as in consciousness of the meaning of our thoughts and actions for the spiritual world.

Hmmm… What can I get into here???

These days Serafina is a real trouble maker. Well, let’s just say she is very curious and into the world and everything in it. Her developmental level is probably around that of an 18 month old right now. She loves to climb and get into everything. She loves to dump everything; cereal, coffee grounds, noodles, berries, margarine. And rip everything too, pictures, papers, tea bags. Everything I say! And she also loves to put everything in her mouth, from soap to toothpaste to cat litter and even poop. That’s right, I said poop. In her mouth. Yea… that’s what happens if we are not constantly on guard. Like the other day when I tried to check my email. Silly me.

Covered in coffee grounds.

We have all of our cupboards locked up, as well as all of our doors because she can get into everything. Still, from time to time people forget that we have a little “pooskie monster” living in this house and they leave things in her reach. It is like we are in a prison, under constant lock down. Even my bananas have to be locked away in the cupboard or she will open them all and squish them up just for fun. It is a 24-7 watch job. Like having a giant baby who can get into everything. She is by no means stupid and we know that. She even figured out how to wiggle out of her backwards sleeper because she loves to strip naked and hates clothes. (A real true hippie.) I thought I had her on that, but she is smarter than all of us. We now have figured to put the sleeper on backwards, with the feet cut off and tie a ribbon through the back also. So far she hasn’t figured that out yet. Last weekend I also tried tying pants and a shirt together in the back too because people want to start seeing her in actual clothes. These are the successes we celebrate with Serafina.

Lately she also loves to cry and whine. ALL. DAY. LONG. The past few days she has been very whiny. I need my fresh air, sunshine, and walking to keep me sane. A little bit of yoga is very helpful too, but most days I count down the hours until Craig is around again so that I can have a bit of time to be away from the craziness and some peaceful moments with Autumn and Kesa. It is a very stressful life for us all, but I still love every minute of it, even if it isn’t always easy to feel that way.

I ordered Serafina a Joki Swing that I thought she would love because her absolute favorite thing in the world is spinning. She loves us to spin her in the computer chair all day and cries whenever we stop. I thought that the swing would be a lot of fun for her and less of a burden on us, but she still wants us to swing her in it and to twist it up and make her spin in it, so one of us always has to be on Serafina duty no matter what.

She is at that age too (three-and-a-half) where she really believes she is the center of the universe. She demands attention and is very dramatic. I am hoping that this is just a phase and that it will pass and she will not be so whiny forever.

In other Serafina news, she has been going to bed really early (like anywhere between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm) and sleeping all night until 8 am, so that makes for a bit of a breather. She has been sick and when she is sick she knows how to direct her energy and just goes to her room, shuts the door, and goes to sleep. If only we were all as intuitive as people with autism. I am learning a lot from my little sage.

And here are a couple of videos of some of our days. At least we all love music on all the time. It makes the days go faster and feel much brighter.

I am grateful for every moment with my precious, happy, healthy girls. I love taking pictures and videos to look back on. It helps immensely with perspective and seeing that everything changes. Every time I look back I miss every moment and learn how precious all of life is, good and “bad.”

How do you find life as a parent or sibling of a child with autism? Or how do you find life being someone with autism? Did you find that the toddler stage was especially difficult?

Much Love!