Tag: Autism

  • Where Stress & Caregiving Collide

    I had a series of revelations recently about what some of my more significant stressors are and how they are impacting my health. The contrast was made by comparing some blood pressure readings, interestingly enough. A couple of months ago I needed to take Tony in to a follow up I had with my allergist…

  • Gonna Pin The Positive…

    My body was humming cheerily this morning after jogging nearly 20 minutes of our outing to practice tricycle skills. I just finished my second cup of coffee, and it makes me think about how much I have to be grateful for even when things are busy. Two long years it has taken to build up…

  • When Hope Blooms Happy Moments

    A happy moment can bloom more quickly than expected from the seeds of hope. In my gut, I felt like Arrowhead was the place we needed to do our crowd work with Tony on March 31st. I noticed as we were pulling in that the Funbox park was up and functional, and I told Andy…

  • The Dirt King Rides Again

    A few years ago, before the start of the pandemic, Miss Emily and I were trying to work with Tony to improve his tricycling skills during a habilitative therapy session. At that time, we were still experiencing easily a dozen or more attempts from him to run off per any type of outing. There was…

  • Something New, Something Zoo

    Friends, Family, & Loved Ones: I am going to be taking the next month off from writing here. I am stressed. I am overwhelmed. There’s a lot going on, and we’re once again needing to support a more beefed up therapy schedule as our son’s new ABA provider has begun services this week. There are…

  • Picturing The Path Of Increasing A Few Functional Skills In Public Spaces

    My loved ones, I am going to keep this week’s post pretty short. I’ve been eating stress for breakfast, lunch, and dinner lately and I’d like to go regurgitate a workout and hunt through the internal wreckage for some glimmer of inner peace outside of the glittery shimmers gracing my eyelids. Even when that’s how…

  • Why We Can’t Walk Around All Sensory Differences, In My Opinion

    A couple of weeks ago, there was a carnival being held on the ballpark field of the elementary school near our house. I think part of optimizing efficacy for what we are trying to help our son achieve is being aware of events occurring in our neighborhood and integrating them into his therapy work. And…

  • No Such Thing As Therapy-Free Sick Days

    Even when all of the scheduled therapy sessions have to be officially canceled for an illness. Tony woke up one day this week with a cough sounding like a seal bark, and as a mom who nursed Hannah through several bouts of croup when she was little, I felt pretty confident that I recognized what…

  • Finding Ways To Turn The Volume Down

    Tony was struggling for a while with accidentally holding down the side volume buttons on his kindle for too long, which would mute his device. His brain takes longer to get his muscles to learn how to replicate motions he sees (it is not a matter of understanding, his brain knows what it wants the…

  • Dear Governor Hobbs and Arizona State Legislators: Can We (Maybe) Talk About The Budget?

    I read about it on ABC 15. I read about it on FOX 10. Governor Hobbs vetoed the proposed budget. So, cool. I’m not hear to discuss any one party’s views about it. To me, what it means is that while many of our state legislators and our newly elected governor don’t agree on what…