This weekend, an old friend came to visit. She lives out of state and we hadn’t seen each other in years. She brought her son, who’s 7, the same age as my little boy, Max. Except he and my five-year-old immediately jetted off to the basement to play on the Wii. I helped Max walk…
Category Archives: Conditions and Diseases
Does your husband spoil your kids? Do you?!
I am always grateful to my husband for taking care of the kids when I’m doing some blog-related activity, like this last weekend when I did a workshop at the Blogalicious conference about blog writing. That said, he is a total marshmallow when it comes to the kids and their requests. Dave took Max to…
school is at home now
“She’s above benchmark in all her skills,” said the school psychologist when she was evaluated at the beginning of last year. I know the school staff surely thought I was nuts. “She doesn’t appear to stick out from the rest of the class behaviorally,” from the school OT, after a 10 minute in-class observation. Then…
Spina Bifida Awareness Month
October is Spina Bifida Awareness month… We kicked the month off by going to our local association’s Walk, Run, and Roll. I think I would love to visit every race held all over country someday. So many of our friends who were first-timers at the race commented on what a family atmosphere it was. I…
Explaining the autism experience in 6 words
As many of you know,I am a big fan of the 6 word memoir project, and asked Larry Smith, it’s creator, if I could run another 6 word memoir contest on my facebook autism page. The top 25 (I was the judge) won a signed copy of my book A REGULAR GUY GROWING UP WITH…
Potty training: the saga continues
We have been trying to potty train Max for two-plus years now. He does OK at school, because he is on a strict schedule; he’s on the potty every two to three hours. He is going nowhere at home, partly because we have not been rigorous about a schedule on weekends. But he doesn’t even…
The kindness of friends: how have yours helped with your child?
Last week, I got an email from my friend Rob. He said that a yoga teacher who works near where we live was going to be at an event he was planning for Saturday night that I’d be at, too. “Maybe she could help Max!” he wrote. “I’ll make sure to introduce you two.” The…
iPad for Autism: Selecting the best apps
“The iPad wasn’t designed with autistic children in mind, but, anecdotally, the results are seemingly miraculous,” say’s well known technology bloggers (and Apple Critic) John Gruber. There is a lot of buzz in the autism world about the many ways that the iPad helps children with autism, for good reason. As Ashley Harrell of SF…
That special kind of high you get from your kid
I put up this video on my blog last night. Seeing Max playing piano like that made my whole weekend. For those of you who are taking time on Labor Day to read this (shouldn’t you be out barbecuing?!), tell me, what’s the last thing your kid did that thrilled you? Big or small! I…
A kid who can’t stand crowds
Max is a pretty social kid—but crowds? They freak him out. This weekend, we were at an event and we had to take an outdoor group photo. It was a very, very large group. Max started wailing at the sight of everyone standing there. My husband was holding him, and even though he was talking…