Posts Tagged ‘autism mom’
Thankful
‘Along my journey I have learned that the more thankful I am, the more I have to be thankful for.’ Today I was…Woke up at before 6 am by a ‘Mama…wake up!’ Shot in the neck and the butt and everywhere else by Nerf Guns. Negotiated one zillion times over how many days it is until Cooper’s birthday. Cleaned every surface area of my house a dozen times. Wiped pee off the toilet seat every time I had to use it. (Life with boys!) Broke up fights. Kissed boo-boos. Got…
Read MoreA Reward for Cooper
Yesterday, Cooper’s dad and I took him to the paper store. He picked it as his reward for having an amazing week at school. Parents outside our world probably don’t know that understanding rewards and incentives and motivation is a huge deal. Something we hope and pray for! Cooper didn’t understand any of it until this year. Age 9. That also meant he was pretty hard to spoil. But not anymore. Something clicked and he is now independently able to pick where and what he wants to work for. Last…
Read MoreDora the Pirate
I’d love to bring you a smile today. Because over here we are grinning from ear to ear. A week or so ago, my son Cooper took an interest in Dora the Explorer. But not just any Dora. Because she has always been his favorite. He wanted to dress like Pirate Dora. He wanted her hat, jacket, backpack and black boots. He wanted to board a pirate ship and search for mermaid rock. He wanted a pet monkey named Boots. He wanted whatever the pig characters were too. He asked…
Read MoreThank You For Including My Son
Disclaimer: Due to privacy concerns, names have been changed to protect the identity of minors. There’s a little girl in my son Nicholas’s class. I’ll call her “E.” Nicholas and E just met this year in Kindergarten. They like to play outside together. They like to sit by each other in school. They even like to hold hands. You may think this is a typical friendship story. A cute little love story. You may think you’ve already heard this story before. But this is different. This is a story of…
Read MorePublic Schools Accused of Defrauding Special Education Students During Pandemic Nationwide
Our lives are often broken up by dates that mark significant events that change us. Our wedding dates, the birthdays of our children, the death of a family member we loved and cherished.. And for parents in 2020, there are various dates throughout the second week of March that will stay with them forever. For us, March 11th 2020 is the day our world stopped. My husband began working from home, my small business was forced onto a virtual platform, and so were our therapies for our six year old…
Read MoreOnce Again, The New Normal Didn’t Have Room For Us
Normal. Such a funny thing. When I say our life is not, I’ll hear back “Who is really normal?” or “What is normal?” I get everyone is different but when it comes down it, there is such a thing as normal. In some ways we are normal, but in many ways not and haven’t been even before I knew it. I never wanted my kids to be like everyone else. I want them to march to the beat of their own drums. Howl at the moon. Sing when they feel…
Read MoreA Letter to the Mama Who Gets It
How would it feel to meet someone who knew every part of your story, before you told them? How would it feel to meet someone who lived your story, when all along you thought you were the only one? How would it feel to meet an old friend, for the very first time? You and I, we are the same. We learned early on that the journey of a special needs parent wouldbe a lonely one. We each have wonderful friends that choose to loveour children. We have families that…
Read MoreHe’s My Brother
These two had it out last night. Like brothers have been known to do. It was over an iPad. There was a truck involved too. Lots of screaming and wrestling. They were eventually separated. One was put in the bath and told me the whole story, nonverbally of course. He asked for hugs and kisses as his alligator tears filled the tub. The other one, the tough guy, he didn’t need a hug or a kiss. But he did tell, and by that I mean yell, his side of the…
Read MoreThe Beauty of Repetition
How many times have you watched that now? Like many 12 year olds, my daughter struggled to wake on a dark wet morning for school. To ‘soften’ the early start I said that after breakfast and getting dressed she could watch something for ten minutes before school. I knew exactly what she would watch and I was right. She watched the same episode of her current favourite programme for the 23rd time. As I walked her to school she asked if I had remembered her book. Due to current restrictions…
Read MoreBucket List
Have I told you all that I made a bucket list for our family? For 9 1/2 years we were mostly homebound. And in those 9 years we worked on things like safety, waiting, sitting, standing and communicating. The progress felt painfully slow at times. But his hard work, ours too, is starting to pay off. Last week we visited a zoo! The week before that it was a pool. Today, it was an aquarium. A real aquarium with sharks and sea turtles and string rays. The place was deserted…
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