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Special Needs and Finding a Babysitter_Part 2
Remember back in November when I was giddy, or optimistic,with the possibility that I found a new sitter? Well, a respite worker really, because that is what it takes to handle children with special needs.Optimistic turned to giddy and then naturally because I had something in place and the world looked to be manageable again, well the universe laughed and my excellent masters student in neurology, well she got Mono and I think she also headed home to Calgary. Dammit! Now, don’t get me wrong, I feel bad for her and hope she gets better because she was all sorts of wonderful. But really truly when my own Mother, ill…
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My One of a Kind Wreath
This is my 2011 wreath, er um my kid. Well, you can see that it is clearly a wreath, right? A tiny bit unconventional perhaps. Just like my child. She has special needs and she does a regular therapeutic riding program, SARI, where they gave each child one of these craft sets to build. This is how ours came home. My brilliant husband, hung it immediately. He knew not to adjust any of it. We actually still had our Easter egg wreath up because I am lazy. No wait, because I have a child, two children with varying degrees of special needs and things like home decorating get lost around…
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The Fine Art Of Finding A Babysitter When Your Child Has Special Needs
I found a new babysitter/ respite worker. Happy clapping. See for your average family finding a sitter might be hard enough, but we are far from average. My little one has special needs. So it was never even remotely possible that we could hire the teenager next door. Or the granny across the road. My little one would chew her up and spit her out while laughing maniacally or raging and trying to tap dance on the stove. We had a wonderful student from university for a few years. She was fabulous and grew to love our daughter as if she were a little sister, or something like that. Then…
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And then She Lost It…
If you are a parent to a child with special needs, then odds are you are familiar with this level of exhaustion. Dog Tired. Yup, that’s me this morning. And every morning lately. But this morning, well it was epic in its bleary-eyed beauty. This morning, before I could find the Visine eye drops my charming child turned to me and said:”wow, are your eyes ever red.” And yes they were. Because I am tired, the kind of tired that comes from shivering for a week without a furnace. The kind of tired that is show week for oldest daughter, when the culmination of running back and forth three nights…
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Shining a Light on Our Bullying Stories: Part One
This is Ainsley. In my eyes she is perfect. Not every day, but most. Like today when she hopped out of the minivan and blurted: Rachel (not real name) said yesterday that the only reason I have any friends is because I have a disability. Rachel is a classmate. I listened to her words and the sounds of my heart breaking. As it does regularly – because I am a Mom. Biting cheek and tongue. I think I might have said, “Hmm. well that wasn’t too nice. What did you say?” Answer: “Nothing.” For the last week Ainsley has been asking me why people like her. I ask her why do you think?…
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A Note to the Month of June: Signed Just the Mom of a Child With Special Needs
Oh lovely July when we throw our school cares out the window, in more ways than one. Dear Month of June: I hate you madly. You suck the life out of me every year. My family needs a bloody vacation as my child is off the wall and the school is spazzing me out. Right now I am trying to come up with the smartest way to tell the school to quit losing my daughter. See she reacts to June by running away and leaving school and such. It’s called fight or flight. It’s pretty common with sensory processing disorder and FASD and so many other special needs.…
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A Thursday BlogHop and Life In General
I am posting this bloghop here because it has been awhile and I plan to visit some new friends as a result. I have had a dull day of tedious things that are necessary. My Mom seems to be getting to a stage of life and state of health where it is no longer advisable to have her living off on her own in the city where she taught for 35 years and the place where I grew up. So we need to move her soon and that is not an easy task or one that I even want to do mentally or physically. But the thing is life happens…
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The Oopseat: Interview and Review with Mompreneur and Autism Advocate Lisa Goodman
Moms are some of the savviest and most creative people I know. If necessity is the mother of all invention as the saying goes, then mothers are also the greatest inventors. Take Lisa Goodman for instance and her protective chair covers. Goodman, the single mother of a young child with autism, was looking for an item on the market that would protect furniture from those little spills children so often make when eating, drinking, crafting. When she couldn’t find what she wanted, she designed the perfect chair covers herself and so began the Oopseat. Lisa sent me a square Oopseat and placemat to try out. These colourful Canadian chair covers come…
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A Girl and Her Dog: Autism Services Dogs and Sophie
No Frill’s owner Brian Macdonald with Sophie Davies-Hales, mom Dana and their newly certified Autism Services Dog Crosby Tweet Meet Sophie. She has a riot of dark brown curls, cheeks as round as apples, a little brother who likes to play dressup and a big sister. Sophie also has a whole host of largely invisible special needs, and now an autism service dog that shadows her every move. Sophie was adopted as a baby by Mom Dana Davies-Hales and Tony Hales. She was three when she was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Neurological Developmental disorder ( a condition that falls under the umbrella term of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, caused by prenatal alcohol exposure, and PDD-NOS (…
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FASDOne Symposium
Fasd camp 2009 outside London, Ontario Many London parents, professionals and educators will head to Toronto tomorrow for the first ever province-wide symposium tackling a challenging disability gaining national attention. The FASDOne symposium began with a limit of 300 parents and professionals, but demand for the training and information being offered has been so great that organizers have had to cap attendance at 425 and turn people away. A large number of participants are from the London area, many are part of a local group of experts and professionals here called the FASD ELMO (Elgin London Middlesex Oxford) network. Health Minister and London MPP Deb Matthews is opening the day. It is…