Mama's alarm ringsat 6:15 each morning(if kids aren't up yet). Mama smacks the clock.Nine minutes later, it rings.She tries to get up. Mama's out of bedby 6:30 each morning,asleep on her feet. Mama checks e-mail.The light of the monitorhelps open her eyes. She checks the backpacks,lays out the clothes, pours the milk,gets breakfast ready. At [...]
Posts under ‘feeding difficulties’
Riding the Vomit Comet
My son got off the bus yesterday, walked into the house and covered his mouth with his hands. I thought maybe a wiggly tooth had come out, but when pressed to tell Mama what was wrong, the response was the dreaded, "I think I'm going to throw up." Twelve hours, several loads of laundry and [...]
I’ve Been Tagged
Actually, I've been tagged twice, in two different memes. Mrs. SP over at Such Simple Pleasures has asked me to tell you all 7 random things about myself, and Ingrid at Boricua in Texas has asked me to tell you 26 things about myself in alphabetical order. With apologies to Ingrid, I'm going to do [...]
A Halloween Miracle
Now I know, Halloween isn't usually a holiday one associates with miracles. But maybe it's the holiday on which miracles happen for heathens like me, or maybe it's just that miracles can happen at any time on any day, without any special occasions at all. I suppose sometimes miracles just happen. A miracle happened at [...]
Vaccines Did Not Cause my Son’s Autism
Almost inevitably, when I mention to someone unfamiliar with autism that my son is autistic, they begin talking about vaccines. Sometimes they proudly tell me how they have not had their own children vaccinated. Sometimes they go off on a screed against scientists, drug companies, government agencies or the establishment in general. If they do [...]
Second San Diego Reader Piece
The second of my two pieces was published in the San Diego Reader yesterday. Again, it's a slightly revamped version of that old fan favorite: My Son Doesn't Eat. So, go ahead: pop over and take a look at the San Diego Reader. And if you are visiting me for the first time from the [...]
Mama, Tell Me What I’m Thinking
When my son was having a hard time learning to speak, I used to wonder if part of the problem was that I was so good at reading his mind. We would be playing, and he would start to cry, and out of nowhere, I would think, "he wants different shoes" or "he wants that [...]
Diagnosis
When my son was two, he wasn't speaking, at least not in the traditional sense. He could make, to a limited extent, the initial sounds of words: "ba" for anything from ball to butterfly or "kah" for anything from car to kitchen. This could have made understanding him confusing, except that he didn't use the [...]
My Son Doesn’t Eat
Featured in the San Diego Reader My son has never eaten like a typical child. People, who are trying to be understanding and kind-hearted, will say, "Oh, I know just what you mean. My child is so picky too!" And every time I hear those words, I feel like I'm watching myself in a scene [...]
