• Back To School - FASD - special needs

    When They Exceed Your Expectations

    December 19, 2010 - By 

    My children have both given me hundreds of proud moments. They both excel at something. My eldest is bright and talented and pretty much every year from the time she started school she has won awards. Student of the month. Check. A’s in every subject. Check. Friends. Check. She is a beautiful smart and creative overachiever. My youngest child is now six. She is beautiful and smart and incredibly athletic and she also has special needs. I love her madly and we agonized for years over the choice of school for her. We kept her at a great private preschool as…

  • FASD - Giveaways - special needs

    My 411 Mabel’s Labels Review and Giveaway Open to Canada and US.

    November 8, 2010 - By 

    My 411 wristbands from Mabel’s Labels: Good for All, Excellent for Kids With Special Needs It is a moment, hardly longer than the blink of an eye, and your child disappears from your line of sight. Your stomach sinks, breath catches in your throat, heart freezes and your mind races. Where is she? Did someone take her? Is she hiding? You tell yourself it will be okay, but newspaper headlines are all you can see or think and you fly into panic mode, or maybe survival mode. Every parent on the planet, if they have a child who is old enough…

  • family - FASD

    Weekend Warrior post

    June 21, 2010 - By 

    So I was browsing around the other day and I found this excellent topic Weekend Warrior, started by the lovely blogger at Adoption of Jane. The idea is to educate others about special needs. So this is my post from the weekend – better late than never. This is my daughter Ainsley. She’s 6, beautiful, daring and athletic. She says Arm of Woir for Armoire and “No I willn’t” and that still makes me chuckle. She also was adopted at 5 months old and she’d been prenatally exposed to a number of substances, including alcohol and variours drugs. She has…

  • FASD

    Children’s Mental Health Week: When Little People Have Big Worries

    May 4, 2010 - By 

    Imagine waking up paralyzed with fear over the simple fact that it is Monday. You get to school late as usual and slip into class, stomach in knots, head hurting, perhaps you have Tourrette’s, an invisible mental health disorder which causes you to tic, perhaps you are anxious or depressed. Maybe you have ADHD. In Canada one in five children suffer from a mental health disorder ranging from anxiety to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to bipolar depression. That’s about 2 million children and adolescents in Canada. This week is Children’s Mental Health Week. Last weekend thriftymomma was fortunate to take part in…

  • Back To School - FASD - special needs

    Grade One and Registration Day

    February 11, 2010 - By 

    Today I registered my fiver for grade one. It’s a monumental occasion for many. It’s a big deal for me and for her. Everyone who has a child with special needs will get what I mean when I say that my heart is in my throat and my fingers are crossed as I tentatively prepare to ship her off to public school. I have had a big knot in my stomach since I left the school this morning. And to think there’s another six months before she starts. It’s not that I don’t have faith in our public schools –…

  • press_conferences
    FASD - Parenting

    Payback, Press Conferences and Special Needs Parenting

    November 5, 2009 - By 

    Many days special needs parenting is a challenging proposition. It’s weighing do I go to work out of town for the day and Some of you may know I went to Toronto for a speaking thing yesterday at a press conference. Sometimes I do this when someone calls me to advocate for an issue I care about then I do go out of my way to attend press conferences. That meant my husband took my kids to and from school and took the day off work. I went to the event – not my first rodeo. Press conferences and speaking…

  • FASD - Health - Parenting - special needs

    FASD DAY 09-09-09

    September 9, 2009 - By 

    On the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month of 2009 (09,09,09 FASD DAY) we gathered in London’s Victoria Park for a pregnant pause to raise awareness regarding FASD Day. The Number 9 is Symbolic A pregnancy takes 9 months typically. So the number 9 has become a symbol to people in the FASD disability world. Hence the day – the ninth day of the ninth month and this year in 2009 this felt ever so meaningful. The Stats Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, is an invisible neurological disability, affecting an estimated 300,000 Canadians. The numbers are staggering,…

  • family - FASD - Parenting

    Forgetful Frankie Children’s Book and FASD DAY Interview

    September 9, 2009 - By 

    First and foremost, a small disclaimer. Those of you who know me and read me know that I am a Mom of a little girl with FASD fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. So I may be the tiniest bit biased about this one but when I first saw hint of a book for children about FASD I was overjoyed. Anyone who parents a child with FASD struggles with what to tell them and when to tell them about their disability. This book is a way to help parents do that. So what follows here is my interview with Jill Bobula, author of…

  • FASD - infertility - Parenting

    Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption

    September 1, 2009 - By 

    Last week’s release of the highly anticipated report from the Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption was well worth the wait to many of us labouring in the trenches as adoptive parents and advocates. While much of the public debate around the report, dubbed Raising Expectations, was clearly focused on the fact that the panel recommends the Ontario government’s health plan pay for infertility treatments like in vitro fertilization, we in the adoption community were celebrating. Many of us spent hours consulting on this report whether by phone, in written form or in person appearing before the panel. The Adoption Council…