Monthly Archives: June 2011

Strange Milestones We Have Met

Something strange has happened to my perception of childhood milestones. Perhaps because it took my daughter a little longer to meet many of them, I’ve sort of made up my own list along the way. It’s not that I’ve given up watching for the standard markers, it’s more that I appreciate events that other parents…

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Special Exposure Wednesday: Hair Cut

“Mama, I did! Haircut!” is not something you want to hear your scissor happy seven year old say. Alas, I was too late. <a href=”http://www.specialneeds.5minutesformom.com/category/special-exposure-wednesday/”><img title=”specialexposurewednesday” src=”http://www.specialneeds.5minutesformom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/specialexposurewednesday.jpg” alt=”special needs wordless wednesday” width=”286″ height=”255″ /></a> Share what you managed to capture. Please spread the comment love around.

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Your stress is killing you. Here’s how to fight back.

We’re a stressed-out group of parents. I sat with jaw dropped and tears flowing down cheeks as I watched the documentary. A UCSF expert in cellular aging was explaining that special needs moms were one of the best groups to study the negative effects of chronic stress on the human body. Her colleague, a Stanford…

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I have handicapped parking

For a reason!! I’ve blogged here before about things that have been said to me either seriously or in passing. Mostly then, I was explaining I don’t always need advice or criticism. I had a situation happen last week that shook me to the core. I’m pretty open and honest about everything, with good reason…

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One-on-one

Precious has been getting one-on-one therapy since she was very young. She’s has a lot of attention focused on her over the last 5 1/2 years. She went to a special needs’  preschool for two years where there were 4 children with two teachers. The next year, she went to a private kindergarten with one…

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Update & buying friends…

So here goes, today was the orthopedic appointment I talked about 2 weeks ago. No surgery this summer, is what the doctor said. But he may need it further down the line probably 2 more times. I checked to make sure he wasn’t near retirement yet…he assured me he had at least another 15 or…

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Eating Issues

We’ve developed a really good system for getting the child to eat when we are together as a family. Like most things now that it has become the routine she doesn’t even need a lot of support for this most of the time, but occasionally she is too tired, anxious, excited, distracted, or angry to sit…

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The Gift of Life is Not Free

Modern medicine offers the gift of life. Babies with birth defects are saved. Improved treatment for chronic illness adds years to life expectancy. And while we celebrate these advancements, we often lose sight of the cost that is incurred to support these individuals in our society. The gift of life is not free.

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A Home Crossroads

We’ve thought about moving. There’s nothing’s wrong with our house, we love it…but we felt trapped. Trapped with houses all around us, nothing to look at, no escape from the special kind of race we’re running, no reprieve, no privacy to speak as we will without the entire neighborhood in on our private conversations…if we…

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Dealing With Anxiety in Our Kids

It’s the same every summer. We leave the routine of school and it throws my girls WAY off. We’ve got anxiety and stress-related behavior challenges coming out our ears in our house. So I thought it would be a good time to repost this short vlog I shared at the start of the school year….

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