Unpacking: A Visit to the ER and an Unexpected Hospital Stay
We’re not even out of the hospital yet and there’s already so much to unpack… figuratively of course. I haven’t begun to process the trauma we experienced during our 6 hours in the ER and the overwhelming, unfamiliar scientific terms swirling around in my head. It’s...
The Power of Twenty-Four Hours
Mike and I had a night away last night thanks to our village who kept our boys. We don’t do it often, but are always reminded of why it’s important. When we were younger, I don’t think either of us realized the power of twenty-four hours. We’ve both been burning the...
Dear Administrator: Fragile, Handle with Care
Dear Administrator: Let’s pretend for a minute that you ordered a crystal vase online. Delicate but hardy, elegant with some jagged edges. Something that can be admired for its beauty and then a second later lay shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor with one...
Door Dash Dairy Queen
What’s a word to describe the MOST exhausted? Whatever you come up with, that’s me in this very moment. And honestly, my kids too. We’re all burned out from two weeks of virtual learning. It has been a wild ride. We aren’t typical learners, thus we don’t do...
We Celebrate Victories. Big or Small, We Celebrate Them All.
I realized I don’t share as much about Max on the blog as I do about Fletcher - largely because so many of our universal strategies are most often used with Fletcher. Max is no less of a presence at our family, though. He does everything on his own terms - always...
Mondays are for Meltdowns and Mama Hugs
“Mama?” Fletcher said in a tiny voice as he finally settled into his third chair for virtual learning this morning. He ditched the dining room table and the portable tv table and opted for using a hardcover book as his writing surface for the morning so he could sit...
Sensory Strategies to Support Virtual Learning
Like most of the country, COVID transmission rates in our community are scary high. So with one day to pivot, we returned from winter break to virtual learning. (We learned last year that we don’t call it school because Fletcher needs to differentiate between...
How We Turned Pandemic Panic Into Our Sensory Sanctuary
Like most, we were in complete survival mode from March of 2020 until August of that year. And then something in me flipped. I went from straight survival to complete panic. I couldn’t begin to imagine how we’d survive a pandemic winter without ready access to our...
Holidarity
It's early December and here we are… in that really tricky time between holidays (and both of our boys have December birthdays, too!). Several weeks that are packed with an abundance of things to celebrate and yet riddled with anticipation, excitement, sugar highs,...
Taking a Break from OT: “I think my body needed it.”
Fletcher has gone to occupational therapy once a week for almost 3 years with the exception of a few months in the very beginning of the pandemic. OT has been a crucial part of our weekly routine and something he has both needed and benefitted from (and if we’re...