Does anyone else feel like they are standing in a room screaming at the top of their lungs but no one is listening. Or cares. Because I do. Distance learning is really hard. Trying to work with three kids and a husband is really hard. Never being alone is hard. Self care is hard. Motivation is hard. Trying to be happy all the time is hard. Trying to stay busy without leaving the house is hard. Finding Christmas cheer is hard. When everything shut down in March for us I…
My son Cooper has taught me so much about timing over the years. And how we don’t have a set time limit to accomplish things. When he was diagnosed we heard a lot of things. We heard game over. We heard prepare for the worst. We heard he would never talk, or make a friend or ride a bike. We were told he would never live independently or have any type of self care. After kindergarten we were told he would never be able to attend a public school. And…
Today we ventured to Walmart for a few things. Eggs. Milk. Nerf gun bullets. And 2 pieces of paper. The essentials. Obviously. Outings as a family are still relatively new for us. And while they are far from perfect, they are real. See, we have a kid who is just learning about waiting and buying and walking and all the parts of the world. While our son Cooper is making amazing progress at stores and by amazing I mean huge leaps and bounds…so much of it is still hard for…
I will be 36 years old in one month and I’ve never been the plain white coffee mug. I’ve been the funny coffee mug. I have made it my job to make everyone laugh around me. I’ve been the accomplished mug. From grade school through obtaining my master’s degree. I’ve been the pregnant mug. Sickness all 41 weeks – Can’t see my feet Hangry – I will NEVER do this again. I’ve been the ew mom mug. I became a mommy for the first time in 2013. I was so…
Last night my daughter asked me what she was like when she was ten years old. “Did I have attention problems back then?” This morning I thought back to that year and what I ‘could’ tell her… At that time we were on a two year waiting list for our third psych evaluation because her therapists told us, “This is way more serious than ADHD. You need to get her tested again”. At that time you were on some medications that helped a little but came at the cost of…
It was only an hour and a half into the first day of my son’s school-sponsored summer enrichment program when my phone began to ring. It was supposed to be math camp – my 6 year old’s first love. Not enough kids signed up so they went with our third choice, farm camp. He does not dig farming so much, but I had viewed it as a chance to be around typical kids in a safe and fun environment.I had no expectations that he would grow even remotely in his…
Growing up I didn’t know much about people with Autism. In fact the only thing I really knew was that I have a younger brother who has Autism. He was diagnosed with PDD (Persuasive Developmental Disorder), which apparently was very hard to diagnose years ago, when he was 13 years old. Despite getting diagnosed late and receiving no therapy due to private insurance cut off age limit, he went on to graduate high school. I was so proud of him for what he had accomplished. But I never imagined what…
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about exactly what to do after you have learned of your child’s diagnosis, you can find that post here. It’s a bit overwhelming and once you pull yourself out from behind the curtain of sleep deprivation and emotional exhaustion, you need to do something very important. Find Your Tribe. At first, your friends and family will be there. Emphatically. Supporting you. Hanging on your every word and asking how they can be there for you. You may have friends that will want to…
I have three sons. Most of you know Cooper. He has two younger brothers. A lot of folks ask about them. They want to know why I don’t share them more. Some are asking sincerely. Some equate photos on Facebook to love. Letting me know that I love my other two children less than Cooper. I don’t feel that’s true but what do I know I guess. I’m not expert in parenting, that’s for sure. Sawyer is 7 and Harbor is 2. They are both exhausting and amazing at the…
These three picked out the absolute best tree at the tree farm today. It was an experience I tell you. As it typically is with these three. The baby found mud. Then we lost him for a second. He was hiding. Sawyer wanted every tree. Cooper didn’t care what tree…he just needed ‘A’ tree in the back of truck. Jamie didn’t swear or yell once! No one threatened to call Santa! And after we went for doughnuts. But they were out of sprinkle doughnuts so it was quite a negotiation…
