Love begins with imagination. [1] My imagination took off the first moment I met him. It was the first class of graduate school. I heard him raving about a play he had just seen. So, I naturally did what all twenty-two year olds do – suffered through two hours of a play that was…
We have an “Aunt Eleanor Box”. It is filled with accumulated goodies that can be used for a variety of celebratory needs. Last minute invite to a child’s birthday party, here’s a Melissa and Doug puzzle. Forgot it was Cousin Helga’s anniversary – here’s a candle. It’s not that the items or the person are…
Several years ago, I found myself standing in the center of the Piazza de la Repubblica surrounded by hundreds of people laughing hysterically. My husband and I had paid about $50 dollars to stand among these people. We used a little of our acting skills to giggle at appropriate times or shake our heads knowingly,…
The first time I remember it happening to me, I was reading a book by a community pool. My infant twins were blissfully asleep in the shade and my daughter was safely swimming with my husband. I was, in fact, relaxed. I looked up when I heard laughter coming from the baby pool, five feet…
The first time I set foot in Texas was to meet my “even though we aren’t dating, I am in love with your son and I hope one day you will be my future” in laws. We had just arrived from a delayed flight from Newark and had been informed that our luggage may have…
Math is not my forte. Showtunes. Buying baskets. Eating cookies. Yes. Math, not so much. So perhaps I am reading this evaluation incorrectly. Receptive Language below 1 Expressive Language below 1 Overall Language Ability Score below 1 So, out of all the other adorable infants being evaluated, perhaps she came in first place? No? Below…
Tell my mom. This is my daughter’s new favorite phrase. It’s a beautifully constructed sentence, especially for a child labeled as “non verbal” and effortlessly shares her overwhelming pride in her achievements. She tells her speech therapist to tell my mom about the letter P sound she made this morning. She tells her occupational therapist to tell my mom about the snowman she made out of rice.…
When I was a little girl, I heard a story about prayer. I can’t remember if it was directly taught to me in Hebrew school or something I just picked up. In the story, a small child did not yet know how to pray, yet she knew the letters of the alphabet. So she would simply recite the…
I had a long day. A really long day. I have been having a lot of them lately. The kind of days where you can’t believe you are wearing the same outfit you grabbed from the laundry pile at 5am, because that felt like a week ago. And you aren’t really sure if it was…
I have never been very competitive. When I was in middle school, I remember stealing the soccer ball away from my opponent, who happened to be my science partner, then stopping to ask if she was “okay”. I would always let my friends cheat when playing checkers and I voted against myself in school elections…
I am so sorry to hear your news. I wanted to send my condolences. I can’t imagine what you must be going through. I have experienced much loss in my life, but these words were not spoken during shiva or after a funeral. I heard all of these statements, repeatedly, within the first six months…
My daughter was recently invited to a birthday party at one of those inflatable lands of bounce. As a result of her rare diagnosis, which includes hypotonia, this tends to be a place she spends more time giggling than bouncing, but nonetheless she has a wonderful time. For this particular challenge, she was determined to…
