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Nicole just finished middle school and is officially a high schooler.  It’s really hard to believe that she’s old enough for high school.  She transferred over to Spectrum Academy (SA) one month into her 2nd grade year.  Although I’ve considered pulling her back to the public school over the years, I think we’re all fairly well settled on the idea of Nicole graduating from SA. It’s fun to see her in her element interacting with her peers, laughing and sharing inside jokes and enjoying being part of a group. They accept each other without reservation and appreciate each other’s differences. 

Last year was a particularly difficult year for her at school.  She had a lot of conflict with teachers and recieved school discipline regularly.  Her 8th grade year progressed smoothly with almost no conflict.  All her teachers were impressed with how much better 8th grade was for her than 7th grade.

Nicole loves fashion.  She likes to create a signature style every day using a theme or a color.  Her basic wardrobe is a shirt, a skirt, and leggings.  She has been adding vests, belts, and other accessories to create outfits that she feels represent her unique sense of style. She wants to stand out and be noticed and she feels like most people are lazy about their style.

Nicole continues to be fascinated by bugs.  I love to see and hear the joy she feels when she finds a particularly nice beetle.  She was beyond thrilled to find a katydid a while back, but she did not want to keep it in a container.  She was thrilled to have it crawl around on her arms.  One night she slept with the katydid and woke up devastated that it was nowhere to be found.  I had to send her to school a little distraught.  I decided to tidy up her bed in hopes of discovering what happened to her beloved friend.  I found the katydid amongst her blankets and she was able to continue loving it until it died.  A few weeks ago she found a June bug on the way to church and was thrilled.  She considered it a lucky find and wanted to keep it in her pocket through all 2 hours of church.  Luckily I was able to convince her to leave it in a special place outside of the building and she happily retrieved it after the meetings. Several nights later, I heard her sweet little voice at about 2 in the morning.  I went in to check on her and found that she was sleeping with and talking to the June bug, fortunately she was cuddled up to the container with the bug in it and didn’t have the June bug crawling free in her bed.  Over the last several weeks, some of the neighbor girls have brought her crickets in jars which she accepted joyfully.  Unfortunately her favorite thing is to have the bugs crawl on her and she does not appreciate my rule that she can only have jumping insects crawl on her outside.  Several times over the last week, I’ve checked in on her at night and found her talking to and loving an insect outside of it’s enclosure!

Nicole is passionate about music.  Music speaks to her soul and brings her joy.  She loves music from the 80s and 90s, especially rock anthems and metal.  She knows the words and sings along, often at the top of her lungs.  She loves music by Bon Jovi, David Bowie, and has too many favorites to name.  She loves to dance with energy and movement. 

Roblox is the primary game she plays on the computer.  She will also play a variety of steam games with her siblings.  She enjoys finding and sharing amusing memes and funny videos and is particularly interested in AI (artificial intelligence) generated content.

Nicole is at the age where boys have become interesting to her and she dreams of romance.  She imagines the movie style romances where she bumps into someone and music starts to play and they fall in love.  In real life she’s on the lookout and claims not to be too picky, but hopefully she will refine her taste at least a little as she gets a little experience.  Nicole is fairly open about how she feels and we all appreciate her candor.  She often makes us laugh with her open and sometimes amusing ideas about romance and boys.

Nicole seeks after uniqueness.  She wants to be interesting more than she wants to be trendy.  She likes to express opinions that are uncommon and enjoys the reactions she gets from such opinions.  The more unusual the opinion, the more appealing it becomes to her.

Nicole was invited to a summer school enrichment program in science either because of her interest in science or her aptitude for it.  They never specified which reason prompted her invitation, but she does enjoy learning scientific concepts.  She was thrilled to get a microscope for her birthday last year, but disappointed that she couldn’t see things at a cellular level through the scope.

Connected with her interest in science is her fascination with disease and medical knowledge. She likes to learn about the causes and symptoms of diseases. She has several books on medical diagnosis and treatments that she enjoys reading. She still enjoys using a starting symptom to investigate potential diseases people might have.  She says she was able to diagnose an adult at school one time with an accurate rare diagnosis.

Nicole is particularly good at entertaining children.  She has the ability to engage with them enthusiastically and to be flexible enough to avoid potential conflict.  Usually in situations where a young child would appreciate being entertained, Nicole will respond enthusiastically to my request to entertain the child and she will be a very giving and kind host. I’ve been amazed to see my autistic daughter demonstrating so many good social skills and being so good at relating to others. Just the other day I pointed out a shy younger boy that I knew and asked her if she’d invite him to play.  She made up a fun new game with him and they had a grand time together.  

Nicole enjoys our pet cats and they’ve become good friends to her.  In the mornings the cats love to go into her room with me to wake her up and they will walk all over her bed meowing at her and enjoying pets and loves from her.  Sometimes at night one of the cats will bring small stuffed offerings to her door and I’ll find a pile of small toys lovingly laid outside the door.

Some of Nicole’s favorite foods are Taco Bell soft tacos, “restaurant chicken”, Panda express honey walnut shrimp, and buttered noodles.  She usually requests a “traditional American breakfast” in the morning which means she wants eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.  Special drinks have always been a favorite treat for her.  She likes mixed drinks, flavored water, or juice.  She also loves asian candies and sodas.  

Nicole is a delightful and kind girl.  She is enthusiastic about the things that interest her and eager to accept and love others.  I feel very privileged to be her mother.  I love watching her grow and mature and I genuinely enjoy her company. Here is what I wrote about her last year.