Spring Break

Allison and I just finished our week long spring break. Every time I am going to be home with Allison for extended periods, I must admit, I get a bit nervous. I wonder how I am going to fill the time in a meaningful way for her. I feel like when she is at school she is stimulated in a positive way for most of the day. She sees her therapists and she is learning new things.

At home, Allison's primary interest is television. She is totally fixated on it and pretty much watches it for most waking hours at home. This has been a big source of frustration for me. I never wanted to have my kids watch TV much at all and she would watch it for hours a day if I let her. She will not play with me, or tolerate me playing and her watching. She refuses help, runs away and whines if I try to read to her, pulls her hands away if I try to help her color or finger paint. After years of trying everything I could think of I have grown weary. I still try new things with her every so often, but for the most part, she has won. She watches TV a lot. J doesn't think it's a big deal saying that she works hard at school all day long with no TV. He thinks she deserves a break. He is right, but it still feels so wrong letting her veg out.

So when we are off together I go out of my way to plan things outside of the house to get her away from the TV. It might just be a trip to the mall or grocery store but for that time she is looking around and seemingly interested in other things. I talk to her and feel like we interact more than when we're at home. We actually had two really good days this break- a beach trip and a trip to a hotel with a heated pool. Swimming and the beach are two things that Allison adores. I took probably 150 pictures of her trying to get some good shots from the past week. Here are the best ones:

At the beach (looking quite grown up...)

Playing at the hotel pool

On Easter, looking thoughtful..

In the car (I would kill for eyes like hers)..

Completely passed out on a deck chair after swimming..

Here, at the end of my week, I feel silly for having so much anxiety about being off with her for a week. We really did a lot and had a good time. I had fun with her! It was easy to keep her busy and our TV time was somewhat limited. I don't know what I was so worried about!