She seems to love Cheerleading, but transitioning isn't her strong suit...

I took this pic of Juli a few days ago. She was preparing to put on one of her dance shows for me. She combines what she has learned in Cheerleading and mixes it with what she sees in Angelina Ballerina. She just adores putting on these shows for me :). I love it!

I'm considering finding a dance or ballet class for her to go to. She loves to dance. She was watching the Olympic figure skating with the biggest eyes and then trying to do the moves. I was actually very impressed! She can see it once or twice and copy it. The problem is she is trying to copy and do what has taken these adult skaters years to master and she gets so frustrated when I won't let her do it because it is way too advanced for her or she can't do it.

I know she loves her cheerleading as she tells me she does everyday that she doesn't go.  She practices her routine all of the time, everyday. She would practice it ALL day if she could lol.

Her coach created a group on Facebook where she uploads all of the videos of the kids routines. This way I can just go into the group and play the videos for Juli to watch and use to practice. At times, I've lost my computer for a couple hours straight while she watches the videos mesmerized and then tells me "Watch me mommy!!" and she goes through the process of her whole routine :). She can spend the whole two hours watching and practicing the moves, watching and practicing... It's beautiful. It amazes me how she has that much energy too.

She really blows my mind as she stands on my legs to pose and stretch her legs out as the older cheerleaders do. She has her legs in such a perfect straight tight position. Her somersault or "rolls" as she calls them are very well executed too. She is really good at this!

All would be fine and dandy if it were that easy. But of course, I'm learning, with an autistic child it isn't.

Enter the very hard transitions.

She has an extremely hard time transitioning from one activity to another and an especially hard time getting ready to leave the house to go somewhere. Even somewhere she wants to go.  If I didn't hear it from her coach when I pick her up I would seriously wonder if she enjoys it. The fight I have to go through to get her out the door on Saturday mornings is incredible. The minute she wakes up and asks me where we are going today, I tell her cheerleading, I get "I don't want to go to Cheerleading!"

Then comes the one to two hour process to get her out the door :(.... It's the same for everything.  If I didn't see her practicing all the time and hear how much she loves it from her coach I would think that she really hates it, but I learned a while ago that it is just her inability to transition.

So I force her to go all the time feeling like a horrible person because she is begging me not to make her go.  But I know when she comes out after practice she will have a smile on her face and tell me she had a good time. I used to wonder if she was telling me that because she knows it's what I want to hear, but her coach says she really seems to be enjoying it. Which makes me feel a bit better as I want her to find her passions in life. I just can't wait till the day that I don't have to feel like my dragging her there is like putting a cat on a leash and dragging it for a walk.

If I do decide to put her in a dance class - I was considering ballet as she LOVES watching Angelina Ballerina - I will have to make sure that I find out from her teacher honestly if she thinks that Juli enjoys it or not. Since Juli's problems with transitioning it can sometimes make it hard to tell if she really is happy doing something or not. And I want to make sure that she is happy and enjoys everything she does as much as she can. Especially her dancing :).