Jessica's Birthday

My beautiful baby girl is going to turn 8 in a matter of weeks. I cannot believe my little 3lb 12oz, 34 weeker is going to be another year older.

It feels like this is a big milestone for Jessica and myself. 8 is an age that I can remember from my childhood. Things before that age are a little blurry. Of course I can remember things here and there, but it seems as if 8 is when a child starts forming memories that stay with them for life.

Jessica will remember the period in time that she had to wear a back brace. She will remember having a 3-D Tuxedo Cat birthday cake. She will remember when I took her away for the night on a girls mini-vacation to a small New Hampshire hotel. Jessica will remember the taste of cafeteria pizza on Friday afternoons. She will remember playing with her brother at the park down the street, and how it felt to slide down the twisty slide. Hopefully she will remember all of the good things that come with being 8.

Happy Almost-Birthday Jessica! I love you :-)

Worst Mother in the World

Do any of you have children on the spectrum that frequently complain about sickness because they don't know how else to communicate?

It started when Jessica was learning to speak at about 3 years old. She would complain that she was "itchy" when she was stressed or had a sensory overload.
It slowly moved into other things such as "My hip hurts." "My legs are wobbly." "I have a fever." "I have the strep (strep throat)". "My stomach hurts." "My back hurts."

WELL.......after 4 months or so of Jessica complaining about her back, I noticed that she wasn't always complaining of back pain when things were getting out of control for her. I decided to take her to the pediatrician, and she suggested that we take Jessica to a back specialist to get some xrays.

Fast forward to a week ago: Jessica has spondylolothis
It is a common stress fracture for growing kids. Apparently Jessica had all the symptoms: back pain, tight hamstrings, and a forward leaning posture.


She now has to wear a back brace, that looks super uncomfortable. Although she LOVES the tight t-shirt she has to wear under the brace. Upside!

It's official. I am the worst mother in the world. My kid has a stress fracture, and I didn't do anything about it for a while. I really dislike Autism. Because if not for Autism, I would have take her to the doctor right away.

I do feel a little better about being the worst mother in the world because her teachers admitted to being the worst teachers in the world because they overlooked her complaints as well.

How do you decide when a complaint from a child on the spectrum is real, and when it is just a coping mechanism??

Girl Scouts and Special Needs

If you are reading this blog, and you are a parent or caregiver of a special needs girl please take a minute to fill out this survey!

Click here to take survey

Pity; Party of 1

I just came home from a very cute and entertaining talent show. The kids are all from Jessica's school and range from kindergarten to 2nd grade. They did a great job, and were so cute. Jessica's brother Jack came along with me to root on his classmates. He had a blast.

Now here is where the Pity Party starts. About half way through, I started to get very upset. Jessica will never be one of those girls shakin' their groove thangs to a Hannah Montana song. She won't dress up like a puppy and sing "Who Let the Dogs Out".

Jessica didn't even want to go to watch the show, nevermind be in it. Everytime I broached the subject she ran away from me screaming. I am sorry, but this makes me want to cry. I wish for her to be able to enjoy silly things like watching her friends make fools of themselves at a 2nd grade talent show.

If you want to know where I am tonight, I will be at "Ristorante Depressed". My reservation is under "Pity; party of 1"

Jessica's Audition

Here is the video of Jessica at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

She is auditioning for the part of "Kitty"

Jessica and her "Ear Mops"

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we recently had a wonderful trip to Disney. In planning the trip, I purchased some noise canceling ear phones for Jessica. She can sometimes have issues with loud noise, and I wanted to be prepared and make this trip as perfect as I could. And although she had a couple of meltdowns, she was the best behaved of all 3 of my children

Now that we are home Jessica has taken to wearing the earphones a lot. I think she enjoys the pressure on her ears more than their noise canceling effect. Last night she fell asleep with them on.





I should have known the earphones were going to be a hit because at the beginning of the winter she picked out a lovely pair of Hello Kitty earmuffs. She has a stringent morning routine that includes putting on her Hello Kitty "ear mops" as she calls them, putting on her hat on over the earmuffs, jacket, right glove, left glove, and then her scarf. If something gets in the way of this procedure, it ruins her day. My husband doesn't quite understand this. That is why he is not allowed to help her with this part of the morning!




We drove to Florida, and she wore this get up all the way to South Carolina. I tried to explain to her that it was warm out and she didn't need to be so bundled up. I finally was able to get her to shed her winter clothes when we stopped at South of the Border. The poor kid was a ball of sweat.

I am dreading the change of seasons. If I can get her to lose the hat and gloves it will be a victory!