Twice in One Week!

Today I woke up at the crack of dawn (5 am) and headed down to San Antonio to babysit for Merced. He is a lot easy to take care of than I thought he would be. I has no self harming behaviors, which is really typical for autistic kids. He is also a lot more talkative than most autistic kids. Unfortunately, he is a huge sensory seeker, which means he is constantly looking for sensory input, which also means that he is ALL over the place ALL the time. Its fun, but it definitely wears me out. If you don't know a lot about autism, and want to learn more, click here. Its just the Wikipedia site on it, but its got good basic info.

He is also outrageously smart. He can read, use the computer, and do a lot of things that most autistic kids at his age would not be able to do. He is also dang good at the Wii. He kicked my butt today at Wii bowling (p.s. I totally want a Wii now).

Merced also has the weirdest stem I've ever seen in an autistic child. Stems are repetitive behaviors that autistic children perform in order to calm themselves or get the sensory input that they desire. Autistic kids have tons of stems that they perform throughout the day. Stems can include rocking, making a particular noise over and over, rubbing their hands together, stroking an object over and over, or stacking blocks and knocking them over repetively; pretty much anything that the child can come up them. Most autistic kids have a favorite stem. Most of the kids I've seen have a favorite stem of stacking blocks and knocking them over, or rubbing an object.

Merced's favorite stem? Watching the seconds 16 thru 35 of this video over and over and over and over and over.
I added the hyperlink for extra suspense. I wouldn't want you guys to get bored.

After work I went to class (the last day!) and did reviews for all the finals I had next week. Then, I went and checked out a car for Jaron in San Marcos. It's a nice car and a good deal I think, so I hope everything works out.

After that I came back to Georgetown (I have to get more blood drawn tomorrow, boo).

BIG NEWS IN THE COE FAMILY HOUSE: As I recently wrote, my family was interested in getting a foreign exchange student in the spring, but today the woman from the agency called and said that a girl the same age as my sister was on the plane to America today and going through her training in the next couple of days when the family she was going to be staying with had to cancel because the mom lost her job. The woman told my mom that she didn't want to have to send the girl home, and asked if we would take her.
Tomorrow, we have an interview with the agency to make sure we aren't total weirdos, and as long as we pass (cross your fingers, we are a little weird!), Martina will be here on Thursday.
She is from Italy, speaks Italian, Spanish, German, English and a little Chinese and seems really nice. It should make for an interesting year.

Last thing and then I'm done. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my haircut. I have big decisions to make, and I thought I would turn my haircut into a democracy. Here are my choices.

1. Leave my hair at shoulder length, trim it a little and add some layers.

2. Do a litle something like this:3. Or pull a Victoria Beckham and go with a little something like this:
Except for not as long in the front and sans tats.

Anyways, your votes and opinions are greatly appreciated. Until next time!