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My inquisitive, unique, loud, autistic, beautiful, creative little girl is now officially a teenager! Here is what I wrote about her last year.

She’s in the 7th grade this year which means it’s her first year of middle school. Although she continues to go to the same charter school for autistic children, the transition to middle school was not easy and much of this school year was a little rough for her. She was very excited to find out that she had been selected for the student council and said that it made her feel special to be part of student government. They ordered her a special jacket which she loves even though it is enormous on her. Unfortunately, she had a lot of conflict with the student government teacher and was removed from the class.

She was able to go back to in person school for almost the entire year. She had one week of all her classes online and has had every Friday online for the entire school year.

By the way, I wanted to let you know that their school provides play places for children. They have created new play areas in schools by relining playground markings to improve the environment while also encouraging active learning and physical conditioning. By including educational components into designs, children can learn cognitive abilities like arithmetic, literacy, and science while playing.

The other class she was super excited about this year is Drama. She has wanted to preform for years. She was cast in the school play and was thrilled when her drama teacher said she was very expressive. She is playing Miss Muffat in a production called “Big Bad.” They’ve decided to record it instead of preforming live so we’re still waiting to see it.

Nicole has become increasing interested in a variety of topics in science, especially biology and “medical stuff.” She enjoyed learning about the parts of cells at school. She asked for two things for her birthday: candy and slides to look at with her hand held microscope. We did her one better and bought her a nicer microscope to go with the slides we bought for her.

She continues to be fascinated by diseases and contagion. This interest predates the Covid-19 Pandemic. She was given some cards and a book for Christmas that describe a variety of symptoms of deadly diseases. She enjoys asking people questions about their symptoms and evaluating the likelihood that they have a particular deadly disease using her cards.

Her interest in diseases has facilitated a diligent mask wearing philosophy. She will often wear her mask even in situations that don’t warrant it. For example, when we drove down to Las Vegas to visit my sister, someone mentioned case counts being higher in Arizona. Nicole responded by wearing her mask the entire time we drove through Arizona, despite the fact that we never got out of the car or rolled down our windows.

She’s still interested in romance and gets a huge smile on her face when she talks about her main crush which is a boy at her school.

She loves the outdoors and enjoys swimming and playing in water. She finds nature fascinating. She still gets excited to see bugs of all kinds. Recently when she was asked if she had any pets, she listed “a singular ant” as one of her pets. Some of her favorite animals are sloths, monkeys, owls, and birds.

Like all of my other children, she enjoys our pet cats. She is often concerned about developing a good relationship with the cats. She will become instantly upset if she accidently steps on a tail or something, but it makes her particularly happy when a cat approaches her for affection.

She still loves everything 80s. She enjoys 80s music and sings along with all the hits from that decade. She also likes fashion in general, but particularly 80s fashion. She likes bright bold colors and patterns. She prefers skirts to jeans and has recently started tucking in all her shirts and experimenting with wearing her clothes high waisted.

Nicole has fairly recently taken an interest in learning to cook. This interest was most likely sparked by her little sister who has been working on baking independently.

Nicole is interested in sewing. She was excited to learn some sewing skills in her Career and Community Awareness class. When she came home from school, she went right over to her grandparent’s house to practice her sewing skills. She loves to turn scraps of fabric into outfits for dolls or other toys.

Getting along well with and being included by her siblings is very important to Nicole. She gets upset and complains if one sibling is “getting a better relationship with” another sibling than her. However, she is often enthusiastically happy when one of her siblings invites her to play with them.

Nicole’s favorite game is Roblox. Her favorite things to watch on YouTube are 80s music videos and Pokémon fusion videos. Her favorite shows are The Simpsons (we watch the old ones with her) and Bob’s Burgers. She likes to play and read Drawception games. Her favorite treats are Krabby Patty gummy candy, Japanese candy, and Australian liquorish. Some of her favorite foods are fruit, Taco Bell Soft tacos, funnel cakes, Calamari, Little Caesar’s pizza and cheese sticks.

Nicole is loving and sweet and often full of contagious enthusiasm. She loves genuinely and brings me joy regularly. I am lucky to be her mom!