I haven't posted in a long time!
Well, how is everybody? Pretty good, and downright weird, all of us.
Azadeh is doing so well with all her therapies that I think she might "graduate" from them soon. I have mixed feelings -- there are still things that are pretty hard that I'd like to work on, but I also can really see the progress she's made, and I think she definitely doesn't need the social skills group at this time. That doesn't preclude us from doing occasional meet-ups or events at the MIND institute or whatever, but I think in general I'll be glad to see the end of the weekly social skills group. And not just because I have to drive an hour round trip to get there.She had close friends, and there was a falling out, and there was a girlfriend and a breakup and a band? and a renewed old friendship and a crush and a clique and a club and... It's sort of normal 5th grade girl drama, about 90% of it. The other 10% is that she's weird and awkward and temperamental and doesn't read other people's feelings that well.
She was invited to her first sleepover, and they watched YouTube videos and played dance games and ate pancakes for breakfast and went to sleep at 10, so overall a total win, I think.
She's still a crab to us a lot of the time, and it's hard as hell to get her to do a chore, but you know... such is life.
She is in musical theatre class, which she enjoys. A bonus for us is that Grandpa BowSaw takes her, so she gets some guaranteed Grandpa time every week. Sounds like sometimes they talk and sometimes not, but that's always her deal.
Lochlan is a pretty awesome kid. He has a verbal facility that matches Azadeh's when she was his age, but also with a real flair for figures of speech. Like, the other night we said we would go in the hot tub, and he said, "How could I say no to that?" He's so knowledgeable about animals and dinosaurs it's really remarkable. I love experiencing how his brain works as he talks about the features of animals and what their purpose is.
He is still so sweet and loving. He'll cuddle up, hold hands, give kisses, and spontaneously tell me he loves me. I got a picture today of him and his buddy at pre-school holding hands on a field trip.
And he gets wild and runs and jumps and shows us his "karate moves."
He's also still a little mixed up on gender, probably naturally. He's happy with his boy clothes, boy haircut, boy name, and pretty much everything else. But if you say, "You're such a sweet boy," he'll correct you and say he's a girl. I want to be respectful of his identity, but I also don't entirely, really think he's a transgender girl, you know? (This picture aside.)
Anyway, it'll all shake out eventually, and I promise that if I'm wrong on this I'll be supportive as hell and always use the right pronouns.
Speaking of... My lovely Ánt is happier than I've ever seen her, although as she spends more time as herself out in the world, she does encounter more societal judgment than I think she was expecting. She says she gets "clocked" (recognized as being trans) all the time, and she sees people staring.
She has also started engaging on Twitter a lot more than she used to, and while I think she benefits from a really kind LGBTQ community on there (I see a whole lot of "You're valid and you're cute," "No, YOU"), I believe seeing some of the bad/worst news she encounters there as well as the TERFs (basically, trans-haters) she sometimes argue with take a toll on her well-being.Still, she's discovered new music she likes, new hobbies (she's taking a lot of lovely photographs), and is sort of enjoying a whole renaissance of life. It's exciting to be privy to.