Living With a Child Who Has Anxiety

New Video! I know, it’s been a while. I want to talk about living with a child who has anxiety, rigidity and unsafe behaviors. What that feels like for the parents. And how it controls everything. Imagine having a person in your home who’s hyper focused on unsafe behaviors. Who doesn’t understand social norms. Who can’t hit reset when you tell them to stop. Their behaviors are relentless. They don’t take a break. They are hyper-focused. They want to escape from your home. If you turn your back for a…

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New Video: Moving and Cyber Bullying

Hello friends! I am so excited to do a quick video this morning. I’m going to cover two topics. Moving and Slander/Cyber Bullying. Both topics are equally interesting and I recommend you watch through the whole video. As many of you know, our family is moving once again. Many of you have asked questions about how Cooper handles moving and how we prepare him for a positive transition. This is Cooper’s fifth move. He is surprisingly resilient and handles the transitions very well. As his parents, we also do everything…

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My Autistic Son Learning to Spell

Two months ago I knew that my son knew all of his letters. I knew he loved the alphabet with a passion. But I didn’t know what else to do with it. He struggled to pay attention. To focus. To sit and learn. He showed no desire to read or write. But, and there is always a but in our world, I started imagining a world where he could type to me and have a conversation through text. What would he say to me if he could? And before I…

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First Kisses from My Autistic Son

For years I longed for kisses and hugs from my autistic son. But, it never came. He’d gladly receive affection and even ate it up and yes, I was thankful for that. But before autism I just assumed affection came naturally. I had no idea that teaching a child to ‘give’ affection could be a challenge. Or even a skill that needed to be taught. On top of not willingly showing affection, Cooper simply didn’t know how to actually kiss or hug. Due to his Apraxia, his lips are unable…

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Breaking My Silence After My Viral Video

It’s time for me to break my silence. I recently had a video go viral. It was originally shared by Today Show. When all was said and done the video has nearly 20 million views.  You can see it here. First, welcome to all of my new followers. Nearly 20,000 of you on Facebook and thousands more visited this website and found me on Instagram. I am so happy to have you here. I want you to know this a tight community where we celebrate the unique joys and struggles…

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The Moment No One Talks About in Special Needs Parenting

Remember that time The Today Show created and shared a video about me? I sure do. My world was turned upside down. When all was said and done the video was viewed nearly 20 million times between two different Today sites. Thousands and thousands of comments and reactions. Mostly positive. Some negative. Which is to be expected I guess when you are reaching that volume of people. So many encouraging and positive messages though. I’m still shocked and surprised about the backlash. I’ve decided to be more private with my…

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Ear Infections, A CT Scan, and Autism

My Super Cooper had some rough ear pain last night. It was the first time in his life he has ever cried out screaming and crying. My kid is tough. Jamie and I practically levitated out of our chairs at the intensity of his screams. When your kid is nonverbal you start to understand cries and noises. This was real. For a brief second I was scared to look in his room. By the sound of his screams I couldn’t really imagine what had happened. He was laying in bed…

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Autism, Isolation and Inclusion

I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart and very real in our autism world…isolation. I remember it started when my son was very young. Back in those days though, we thought he was just a challenging toddler. Autism wasn’t even in our vocabulary yet. We’d joke that he couldn’t sit still or about how busy he was and dream about the days when we could actually leave the house again. We thought by age 4 and 5 he would for sure be able to…

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Building Your Special Needs Mom Tribe

How do you build your mom tribe? What a question right? Making friends after 30 feels impossible. And then add in a child with special needs and it feels even more impossible. You can’t leave your house. You are perceptually exhausted. No one you know has a child with special needs. It feels like you can’t relate to anyone anymore. I get it. Take a listen as I discuss why it is hard to find friendships and maintain them when you have a child with special needs and how I…

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Autism and Sleep Struggles

The number one question I am most commonly asked is…does your son with autism sleep? And if he does, give us your secrets. The answer is yes. He sleeps now. But he didn’t for nearly six years. Cooper did not sleep through the night until he was 4.5 years old. As a newborn he slept 6-8 hours in a 24 hour period and never slept longer than a 45 minute period. The sleep deprivation was torture. Around age 4.5 Cooper started sleeping but woke up before 4 am for a…

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