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Friday, December 28, 2012

Strange Attractors

Although Janey will often ignore things that you want her to focus on, once in a while, she is strangely attracted to certain objects.  She will find them wherever they are, and will resist all attempts to keep them away from her.  This year, it was one present under the tree.  It was for Tony, and was wrapped in the same paper as many of the other presents, was a simple box shape, was nothing that stood out in any way.  But as often as I put it back under the tree, she took it out, held it and then moved it to a new place.  She didn't try to open it---she just was drawn to it in the wrapped form.  Today, I realized Tony never opened that present, because by Christmas it was no longer under the tree.  It's no longer anyplace that I can locate.  It's very possible that it wound up in the trash, as sometimes that is a place Janey puts objects she is interested in.  I got a brand new pair of sneakers a few years back that she took a fancy to.  I only wore them once before one of them disappeared, and despite a housewide search, was never seen again.  I think it had that same fate as the present.

Lately Janey has been drawn to my camera.  I tell her "THAT'S A NO!" in a loud voice whenever she gets close to it, but usually if she grabs it, she just holds it.  I had no idea she actually knew how to use it, not until a few minutes ago, when I heard a tell-tale "swoosh" sound it makes to imitate the old time sound of film being advanced.  Janey was standing next to me taking a self-portrait.  I took it away, spoke to her firmly, but couldn't resist seeing what she had taken.  Several of the picture were of her finger firmly pressed against the lens, which is just the reason she can't use the camera, but 3 or 4 were pictures of herself.  That impressed me a little---she knew how to turn on the camera, knew she needed to turn it around to take a picture of herself, and even kind of how to frame the picture.  I might get her her own heavy duty kids camera.  In the meantime, here's a few of the self-portraits...


7 comments:

Sabrina Steyling said...

Well I must admit, Janey is much better at taking a self-portrait than I am LOL. Maybe she's on to something here!

Sophie's Trains said...

Sophie loves pictures! She can't take them herself, but will stand and smile and wait expectantly. I don't know what she likes more- the sound or the flash, but I suspect its a mix of both. You can get cheap digital cameras refurbished in electronic outlet stores- the older models make a very satisfying sound :)

Jess said...

How cute that she took self portraits. Evan loves taking those too.

mknecht24 said...

Jacob loves using the iPad to take self-portraits. Has Janey tried that (probably-lol)?

Suzanne said...

Janey hasn't yet discovered the iPad can do that! I tried to show her after reading your comment, but that stood in the way of her going into a pinball game Tony uses, listening to the music, quickly changing to another app she likes the music for, listening to it, repeat for about an hour. I think she'd enjoy it a lot if she tried it! Janey is like Sophie. She adores having her picture taken. I hope she keeps that trait and doesn't get like me. I let someone take a picture of Janey and me the other day just so if I were to ever perish suddenly, it could be proven to her I actually did exist.

Unknown said...

Hi Suzanne! I'm so glad I came across your blog. My daughter who is 3 years old was just diagnosed with Autism earlier this month. I tried to locate you on FB, but wasn't able to find you. Do you still have a FB account? If so, I'd love to get connected.

Suzanne said...

Hi, Candace! I am still on Facebook, and I'd love to connect with you there. I just noticed I had my name on my profile as Suzanne Amara, and on Facebook I am Suzanne Billheimer Amara---a couple people had said they couldn't find me,and that might be why. Try the 3 part name---hopefully that will work! Thanks for reading the blog. It's wonderful for me to get to meet others with daughters with autism. Best wishes to you and your family for 2013!