• family - Health

    Five Triggers of Alzheimer’s Disease #Health

    February 5, 2013 - By 

    This year was a hard one. We have been doing our best to help my mother manage her diagnosis of dementia. Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease are heartbreaking and it can be devastating to watch. As words disappear and memories start to fade your loved one, can often end up being explosive. It’s not uncommon at all and is completely understandable. Over the last couple of years I have noted numerous Alzheimer’s Disease triggers. Here’s a bit more about what Alzheimer’s Disease triggers look like and how to cope. Alzheimer’s Disease triggers This past year was, at times, a glorious mess.…

  • Health - Parenting - parenting

    This is Who She Will Be #tweens

    January 17, 2013 - By 

    I am always proud of my kids. Every day from the second they joined our home, their tiny hearts beating in sync with mine. I love them beyond measure, like many Moms the world over, and yet, sometimes parenting is dull. It is magical – ephemeral – a little unbelievable – and then it is exhausting. Draining. Bone weary hard work. The older they get, the further and faster they speed away from you. Daily. You can see it when they wake up and walk down to make their own cereal. And it is good and welcome and even a…

  • beauty products - parenting

    When It Takes A Village – Dove #CelebrateMom

    July 16, 2012 - By 

      This post is part of YummyMummyClub.ca’s support of the Dove Celebrate Mom contest.I received compensation as a thank you for my participation.This post reflects my personal opinion about the information provided by the sponsors.You can nominate inspiring moms here: celebratemom.ca In many ways my family is the truth at the heart of that saying It Takes A Village To Raise A Child. It took a village to help us build a family and when we adopted our girls, both as infants, well I knew always that  I would seek to find them strong role models to help guide them…

  • Parenting

    Five Easy and Free Sensory Play Activities for Kids

    January 23, 2012 - By 

    With an increasing number of kids who have sensory processing disorder or sensory issues related to brain injury, concussion or autism, there’s a lot of new knowledge about sensory play and sensory activities. We started reading up on sensory play and sensory processing disorder years ago when Ainsley was first diagnosed.     Depending on whether your child is sensory seeking or sensory avoiding any one, or all of these may appeal to them.   FIVE EASY SENSORY PLAY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS     Fill a sink with warm water and soap suds. Have them wash things. Toys, dolls, dishes.…

  • Adoption Awareness Month
    family - Health - parenting - Parenting

    National Adoption Awareness Month – Our Story Part Three

    November 21, 2011 - By 

    This is the picture of the day we met our daughter over ten years ago now. People often ask me how the process was and when they hear we adopted domestically they are astonished. I often say: Have you seen our beautiful girls? I could never complain about either one of our adoptions. We got two gorgeous daughters, we got to be parents and we found a great community of friends in the process over the last decade and we have found a passion advocating for other families. Part 3: This is part three of my series in honour of…

  • Parenting

    Tooth Fairy Tales and How to Fix the Fails

    July 7, 2010 - By 

    My Payton has had a wobbly tooth for about one month now, so we’ve been anticipating the tooth fairy visit for a while. Her wobbly teeth seem never to be nudged along by prying hands or crunchy foods or anything else for that matter. She is content to let them fall out when they are ready and that’s okay by me. It’s the kind of girl she is. Cautious and happy to just take life as it comes.   Our Tooth Fairy Adventures Anyways, it is the sixth or seventh tooth she has lost. The process should be firmly entrenched…

  • grief_in_adoption
    Parenting

    The End of School Blues: Triggers for Grief in Adoption

    June 7, 2010 - By 

    Let’s take a minute to talk about triggers. We all have them, triggers that sometimes seize us by the heart and drag us back to a memory – good, bad or otherwise. Triggers can be like strange little portals to the past. Sometimes brought on by a smell, a time of year, a feeling, a picture. Triggers for Grief in Adoption are many and they sometimes arrive out of the blue for parents. But for kids in care and adoptees they can be hard to cope with and even harder to communicate clearly to adults. They are visceral and emotional.…

  • family

    The Tooth Fairy movie and some days are like that…

    March 23, 2010 - By 

    This should be the review of the PG-rated movie The Tooth Fairy. But instead it is a post about flexibility. Not the kind that comes from doing pilates or yoga or any of that. The kind that comes from being a parent, especially well known to those parents of children with special needs. Anyways, what started out as noble intentions last week – a family movie with Grandma and me and my sweet kids, home for the March break, turned out to be what I can only guess was a full sensory assault to my little one, who as some…

  • 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…

  • family - Parenting

    Child, Youth, Infant, Toddler? At What Point is a Child a Youth?

    August 4, 2009 - By 

    Is a child a youth or is my youth no longer a child? Sometimes, I think it’s a bit like the chicken and egg question. At what point is a child a youth? I received in the mail the other day confirmation of my daughter Payton’s enrollment in a workshop we’re doing in the United States this coming month. It had details of her conference itinerary and some other basic stuff outlining all the fun things she’ll be doing while Mommy speaks and does a writing workshop at a conference. How Did This Happen? But the thing that jumped out at…