Parenting

Because of Sadness

Once again, thanks to John Lasseter, I’ve left a Disney Pixar film- reeling (pardon the pun). I’ve been crying my eyes out for the past hour and forty-two minutes and I’m not sure if it’s because (a) I could never, EVER, EVER conceive of anything more clever than Inside Out if my life depended on

I Funny Valentine

  I can picture it like it was yesterday. I returned home from receiving (but most definitely not processing) J.R.’s autism diagnosis to find a package at my door. With my infant car seat carrier weighing on one arm (ouch) and my three-year old tugging hard at the other (ugh), the Abercrombie shopping bag would

New Year, Same Kid

If you’re a mom like me with young kids at home, you can’t even think about New Year’s Resolutions until the sweet sound of the school (late) bell chimes. Today, Tuesday, was my January 2nd, having spent all of my January 1st attempting this new-fangled activity people call “exercising.” I blogged today because the few areas of

Louse-y Parenting

  Last weekend was supposed to be mine.  Every drop of it.  My charity was honored at a wonderful women's event on Friday night, and I knew how spent I'd feel afterward: a chick like me needs to work hard at presenting her best self, believe me! For this reason, I packed the rest of my

Why Me?

We all have those moments (ok sometimes minutes or hours or days) when we ask ourselves “Why me?”  Sometimes the question comes in the form of “@*%& WHY ME???!!!!!!!” and I totally get that.  My most recent “Why me?” moment? Only my kid would wake up thirty minutes before we were to have our holiday

This Is How We Do It

I am constantly asked this question:  Kristi, just how do you do it? My gut reaction is to snap back with something like Do what? You following me? I swear that wasn’t me who let her shopping cart roll off and dent the side of that Range Rover.  Second, I fear the is person quizzing me

No Words

Naoki Higashida If I count how many times someone has offered me a book about autism or a mom’s "journey" to cure her child’s autism, I can count how many times I’ve wanted to punch someone in the face. There, I said it.  Many have even read the book in advance in an

Wait for it…

On a scale of 1-10? Worst possible wait. Last weekend my son J.R. broke his arm in two places.   He lost his footing climbing on the playground, and the result was deformity that looked like a lightning bolt jutting from his elbow down.  Needless to say, I was FREAKING THE FUCK OUT.  I

Around The World

You may have heard of the popular poem entitled “Welcome to Holland,” by Emily Perl Kingsley.  “Welcome to Holland” cleverly compares what parents experience raising a disabled child to an unexpected switch in travel plans. They’ve planned, packed, and longed for one destination yet for reasons unexplained, end up in another.  The poem is meant

Ain’t Love Grand?

I will never forget the day I first learned about autism. Bob and Suzanne Wright were on the Today Show to announce the advocacy group they freshly created in hopes to help families struggling with a puzzling disorder. They spoke about the beautiful, bright, charismatic grandson they knew one day, and the anxious, sad, withdrawn one they