Some days, I swear I’m looking for the remote or the volume control. And no, it’s not for my TV, it is for my son. My son who abhors loud noises; the one who in every movie we have ever seen in a theatre has to cover his ears for most of the movie. The…
An Unexpected Gift
I get so used to medical procedures being difficult for Ashley that when something good happens, it’s like receiving an unexpected gift. We received one of those gifts recently, and I want to publicly thank Carilion Labs and the wonderful folks who did blood work for Ashley yesterday afternoon. Until recently, there was only one…
Special Exposure Wednesday.
What do you do when you are at your Great grandfather’s 90th birthday? You lie on the floor, amongst all of your relatives and play with your helicopter, of course! Noah gets down to the nitty gritty of the celebrations. Got something cute and funny to share? Join in at Special Exposure Wednesday. …
Try This Tuesday #50: OTPlan.com
I recently heard about this cool website called OTPlan (Occupational Therapy Plan) from a member of my local ASA chapter and just had to share it with all of you. What is OTPlan? In their own words, The concept is pretty simple: OTPlan is an activity idea and treatment plan search engine. The site matches…
How do you make sure other kids play with your child?
We spent this weekend with friends who have three girls, ages three, five and seven. When Max was little, it was hard for me to spend time with friends and their kids—I was always comparing him to them, which inevitably made me feel bummed out. I don’t do that anymore, but lately I’ve been grappling…
Step2 Is Making Parker’s Summer Shine Brighter: A Review And Giveaway
Comments are now closed. Note: This is a compensated (Parker received his Sand and Water Transportation Station for free) review and giveaway from Step2. It was a warm summer’s morning. Parker had been signing “outside” since he woke up, hours before. Finally, after the medications, the morning therapies, bath time, trach change and breakfast, it…
Dancing
Last week, I posted some photos of Esther-Faith “dancing” with her Daddy. She wasn’t wearing her orthotics. One of my blog readers left this question in the comments section, “She’s not supposed to ‘be able’ to do that right?” No, she’s not. I wish I would have kept a list of all the things my heart…
True Confessions Autism Style
Matthew had been at camp for two and a half days when it hit me that I had stopped grinding my teeth. This was two years ago, when Matthew was 21 and home for the summer from Camphill Soltane in Pennsylvania. The lack of structure at home had made Matthew anxious, impulsive-and aggressive. I prayed…
The big “G”
When a baby is born and for the first time, you hold that sweet little thing, you hold them close to you, breathe them in and give your heart away. Never in your wildest dreams do you stop and wonder if there is anything wrong, what the future will hold for this little person. In those first few…
Planting the “special needs” seeds
Because Hannah’s disease progression is slower than was originally expected (thank goodness!), we have been able to slowly plant the seeds of Hannah’s illness to Ethan (8) and Abigail (5). We made a very strong point never to say she is “sick” but that she has a “disease.” We don’t want them to connect being…