Category: Ariana’s Posts

  • A Little Community Safety Creativity

    This summer has been serving up extra helpings of heat that just seem to keep coming. My patience has long past its fill of this weather, but these extra toasty temps just keep stretching up and on far higher than I want every time I look at the forecast. I have for many months felt…

  • Mask Tolerance and Tactile Defensiveness

    We are working on so many therapy targets right now I honestly struggled a bit to decide which one to lead in with this week. I decided that what made the most inherent sense to discuss is the work we are doing towards helping Tony gain increased tolerance for wearing a mask, as our ability…

  • “Rumor Has It”

    For several years now I have been hearing so many stories about habilitation therapy in Arizona. “Rumor has it,” some families of older kiddos who lost their habilitation (hab) therapists and couldn’t find a replacement quickly had their authorized hab hours taken away from them. Which then makes it much harder to find a replacement,…

  • September Gratitude & Some Viewing

    To Miss J, Who has been Tony’s fabulous DDD Support Services Coordinator since the summer of 2018. Our very first meeting, you listened to what I told you our son needed and did your best to make it happen. I know the approval of specific services is not in your hands, but I am extremely…

  • Judging the Parents Shouldn’t be a Spectator Sport

    Many years ago, I had a friend with advanced degrees and the kindest heart. This person needed significant support with activities of daily living. I know the level of support required because I was trusted enough as a friend to be asked to help provide those services more than two decades ago so that the…

  • What These Eyes See

    When Tony and I have gone out into public spaces, eyes are almost always upon us. The eyes of those who saw our screaming son rip an earring out of my ear when I was putting him on my shoulders outside of a local Safeway a few years ago, and mutely watched as I squatted,…

  • On Ability, Access, and Representation

    Sometimes talking to anyone can be a tricky thing. I feel like an apology just as readily needs to grace my lips as anything else I could possibly say, because often when I have personally given offense, it was most certainly not intentional. What one person in a group finds offensive another does not, and…

  • August Gratitude & Some Reading

    Bob The person to whom this note is dedicated can no longer read it with mortal eyes, but he was given these words in person from me privately some time ago. I share them with you now as a brief commemoration for how a moment of thoughtfulness from him touched my life personally. I have…

  • A Brief Note to My Subscribers

    This past week, there was a non-COVID related death in our extended family. I will be taking the next two weeks off from posting and writing to provide extra support to my children as they process this loss, and to avoid vying for the time/attention of those in our family who will also be providing…

  • Me, Myself, And My Mental Health

    Historically, I dread my own personal dental visits. I am Novocaine resistant, and I have had far too many dentists that never managed to get me numbed down enough to stave off a miserable experience for anything that needed to be taken care of. My most recent dentist (who sadly just moved to another state),…