Take the Photo Dads

I realized today that even though I have 6,000 photos on my iPhone…I had zero of me and my three boys. I felt like I was wrangling cats, got a few sighs and protests, cleaned dirty chocolate mouths, said a few threats and told them to stop fighting a few times. But I got it. It only took 30 to get the good one Take the photo dads. These babies grow up over night. It feels like yesterday I was celebrating my first Mother’s Day. And now I have 8…

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My New Dreams as a Mother

I have two amazing daughters.  Claudia is 15 and Keira is 13. They both are beautiful. They both have crazy curly red hair.  And they both have Autism. A spectrum disorder that affects individuals differently and in varying degrees.  They may share this diagnosis but in most ways couldn’t be more different. My Claudia has severe non verbal autism. She didn’t say her first real word until age 7. She still has toileting issues and needs assistance with every aspect of life. She rarely sleeps through the night and is…

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To the Special Needs Mom on Mother’s Day

I am thinking about you today. I want you to know that everything you do matters. When you crawl into bed at night, aching from your temples to your toes, know that you have done enough.  There may have been no progress made with toileting, feeding therapy or communication today and that is okay. Your child is safe and so loved. The weight of hectic schedules, parent trainings, OT, PT and visits with every other MD in-between can feel suffocating. The research, the meltdowns, the battles over chicken nugget brands…

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Just Another Day to Autism

Mother’s Day… Oddly, each year it only gets harder. I knew my first Mother’s Day that something wasn’t quite right. I knew it deep in my gut—or should I say soul? I had dreamed of being a Mother and I had a vision of how it would be with my child. Now I see those visions—my visions—through others on Social Media. As a special needs parent, we miss out on so much. It seems to be the most typical things most take for granted that hurt the most. To be…

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My Most Precious Moment

It’s been 525,600 minutes since we last celebrated Mother’s Day. Has your child progressed as far as you hoped he would? Has he reached the goals you set for him? For those who have…congratulations! For those who haven’t, know that you are not alone. I remember a year when my daughter, Lizzie, came nowhere near reaching the goals I had set for her. Lizzie was diagnosed with autism days after her second birthday. She had every red flag…no functional language, no joint attention, no ability to communicate, and no awareness…

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