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MMM

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

~Pablo Picasso

Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven’t heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back…

 

 

The resident 10-year-old is still fascinated by the world of Peter Pan and recently decided to draw a picture of how she sees Mermaid Lagoon in her imagination.

Hope your week is filled with imagination and creativity as well!

 

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The Christmas Miracle

As the story goes, many, many years ago, a teenager gave birth to a son in a stable.

The Christmas miracle.

When I was a little girl, I used to cry when the church sang “Away in a Manger.” My mother reminded me of this as we sat at my daughter’s Christmas pageant at school.

I thought it was terrible that God himself didn’t have a place to sleep! Growing up in a rural area, I knew a lot about farming. I had helped bale hay. I know how to feed and muck up after animals. I know the smells.

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Magic Marker Monday — Neverland…

MMM

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

~Pablo Picasso

Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven’t heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back…

 

 

The 9-year-old has recently become intrigued with a Junior Classics copy of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan that we came across in a used book store a couple of weeks ago.

Since then, she and the 6-year-old have transformed my living room couch into Hook’s pirate ship, declared the living room floor to be Mermaid Lagoon and the underside of the dining room table to be the hideout of Pan and the Lost boys.

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The Slippery Slope of Sickness

Happy Little Buggers Despite Pneumonia, 2010 

This scenario has played out several times over the past two years… ever since that fateful camping trip that culminated with My Beautiful Boys hospitalized with pneumonia for two weeks – one with a partially collapsed lung — while my Old Soul was juggled amongst family and friends developing her own lesser- case of pneumonia. Bad mama that I am, I erroneously thought that camping at the beach and a bit of fresh air might do The Boys’ colds a bit of good. THAT is now the experience we balance all of our vacation decisions against; the thing to avoid at all cost when one of our kids catches a cold that threatens to endanger any travel plans.

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Magic Marker Monday — Out of the Blue…

MMM

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

~Pablo Picasso

Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven’t heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back…

 

 

It’s not often that my 6-year-old wants to sit down and draw a picture with crayons.

In fact, I had recently bought some Crayola Slick Stix (see video below) to entice him into some coloring activities:

 

 

So it was a lovely surprise when he decided to color all on his own the other day. And even more of a surprise when he delightedly showed off his creation to me.

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Sometimes Our Special Kids are Just Kids

The dread of last summer visited us already this spring.

Nights filled with tiny bumps about J’s feet, legs and arms that delivered the unsatisfiable itch. No anti-itch lotions or creams could touch it. The “brush” usually reserved for sensory processing disorder related therapy was now used to give temporary relief to the insanity. Of course it only did so for the time it was being used, as the moment we stopped the scratching, the itch would return.

It would drive J crazy. It would drive us crazy. Every single day and night filled with the routine of constant itching.

Towards the end of last summer, we visited our immunologist for suggestions.

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Pain Thresholds

The child has a very high pain threshold. She can run into a brick wall, fall down, get back up and continue on her way as if nothing happened. We theorize that her hypo-sensitivity to pain contributed to her aggressive behaviors when she was younger. I don’t think she understood that those actions were painful to other people because she didn’t feel pain herself. Just a guess.

It seems like this high pain threshold could be a good thing in some ways, but lately it’s getting a bit scary.

Minor injuries have been turning into badly infected sores because she doesn’t tell us that she hurt herself.

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Send a Special Thank You to a Favorite Doctor

Originally posted on my own site (ColoradoMoms.com) I wanted to share this with all of you. The Autism Science Foundation is an amazing organization and is have a unique fundraiser.

I’m lucky to be blessed with such amazing doctors that have helped us with our journey into Autism. Dr. Moe from Children’s Hospital in Denver is amongst my favorites. His kind words and gentle demeanor wrapped around me like a hug as he explained the different tests we should do back when my son was just 9 months old and showing the first signs that something was amiss.

The Autism Science Foundation has a great way I can thank Dr.

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Words Get in the Way {Book Review}

Originally posted over at my own site, ColoradoMoms.com, I wanted to share this book and review with all of you as well. I hope you enjoy this novel as much as I did.

I was lucky to get an advance copy of Nan Rossiter’s latest novel, Words Get in the Way. A fiction novel about a mother’s struggle with a child with Autism.

Callie Wyeth is a young single mom living in rural New Hampshire and struggling to make ends meet.  Henry is her beautiful three year old son who is trapped in the silent and lonely world of autism. The obstacles they face are overwhelming.

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Anne Moore Burnett’s “Step Ahead of Autism” Reviewed

“Autism is not a puzzle but an opportunity to step up to the challenge and be the best parent you can be.”
                                           - Anne Moore Burnett

How many of us have thought about staying a step ahead of Autism instead of trailing behind picking up the pieces?  Anne Moore Burnett, author of “Step Ahead of Autism: what you can do to ensure the best possible outcome for your child” has….and she’s passing along what she’s learned.

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