Yoga for Children with Special Needs

Dec 11, 2012 by

My boys have been taking yoga in some way since they were babies. We were lucky enough that our child care center offered it as part of the curriculum so even infants were visited by a trained yoga professional. I also took a park and rec yoga class many years ago that I absolutely loved. It really relaxed me and provided me with a nice quiet space to clear my head…before I truly needed one.

For a few years I’ve been looking for a parent/child class to take with Max. We both run at a high level of stress and anxiety and I wanted a way for us to connect and  was also looking for techniques to help us both take a minute to regroup and change focus when needed. He really responded to the class at daycare and I felt he needed more. Enter blogger extraordinaire Dena Fleno. She sent me an article about Lucy Rosenblatt and the yoga classes she runs for children with special needs. I contacted Lucy right away and Max and I started attending class the very next week.  Read more...

Wisdom Wednesday

Sep 5, 2012 by

Teaching my boys about girls as an ambassador for my gender

Having two sons and no daughters has changed how I see my role as a mother in some ways. I always thought it would be tough to be a mom of a girl, since I’d be her first role model of what it is to be a woman. That’s a lot of responsibility. She’d look to me for clues about how to dress, behave, respond to society, interact with friends, date…In some ways, while I would have loved to have had daughter, I felt like I kind of dodged a bullet, so to speak. I had the job of being a good mother, but the role-modeling was more my husband’s job than mine.

Then, the other day, I realized I was very wrong.  Read more...

My Doctor Used the “R” Word

Aug 21, 2012 by

We finally decided on a pediatrician and had our first appointment. We really liked her. She was cheerful, the boys connected with her and her words even got Ben to try eating a vegetable. She agreed with Max’s treatment plan and even called specialists for us to make sure we saw the exact doctors she wanted us to see in a timely manner. She took notes on Max’s file and asked us a lot of questions.

There was an issue with a prescription she wrote so I had to go back into the office. As I was waiting, the doctor came into the hallway so the office manager could explain the situation. She had written the script so it read that we only needed 1 pill vs. 1 month’s worth of pills. The doctor was told that the pharmacy wouldn’t fill it that way. They wanted a corrected script. That’s when I heard the words “That is so retarded, just call them and tell them to fill it.” Do you hear the sound of tires screeching? I did. Wait. What did she just say?  Read more...

Wisdom Wednesday

Jul 18, 2012 by

Harvesting more than vegetables from your summer garden

Having a large, bountiful vegetable garden is something I’ve always wanted to do. However, in the past 5 or so years, I have gotten married, moved twice, given birth twice, and begun and completed graduate school. Needless to say, I’ve never had the time for gardening. This summer was the first summer in over 5 years that I found myself with children of manageable ages (re: no newborn babies!), no graduate school, no pregnancy, and no plans to move. I declared it “the summer of the vegetables”.  Read more...

New Fears and Issues

Jul 17, 2012 by

Our Wisdom Wednesday blogger, Sarah Bernhardson put out a cry for help on Facebook recently. Her preschool-aged son, previously a great sleeper, was now giving her a run for her money at bedtime and it was wreaking havoc on her household. I could totally relate as we experienced the same type of thing with Max a few years ago and it lasted 6 months. 6 whole months of taking over an hour to get to bed at night, then waking up in the middle of the night, then waking up for the day at 5:00 a.m. (sometimes even during the 4:00 a.m. hour). It was awful. It was heartbreaking and it nearly set me over the edge.  Before that, he had been an early riser but at least he went to bed easily at night and slept all the way through.  Read more...

Wisdom Wednesday

Jul 11, 2012 by

The phrase that ended the whining, pleading and begging in the store…

If you’re reading this blog, there’s probably a good chance you have gone, or someday will be going, shopping with a preschooler. I don’t know a single parent who hasn’t, at least occasionally, endured nerve-grating begging in the store for things you just didn’t set out to buy: play-dough, sugary cereal, chapsticks, batteries…you name it, my older son had probably begged for it. Nothing derails my thought process and meal planning while in the grocery store more than a little voice repeating “But whhhhhy? I neeeeeeeed it! Pleaaaaase! PLEASE!!”. I once spent an entire Target run with the baby in the cart and my older son walking next to the me, loudly moaning “Why don’t you like anything I pick out?!? YOU NEVER BUY ME ANYTHING!”. Both untrue, but nonetheless making me feel like a mean mom and garnering well-deserved grouchy looks from the other shoppers (sorry, if you were one of them and you remember this episode).  Read more...

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