September 2012 - Praying for Parker

10 tips for dealing with chronic illness.

Let’s face it. For those of us who have kids with special needs AND chronic illness, there are some days you need a mental health moment. Or a zillion. Just keepin’ it real. Lori Rappaport, PhD., has put together 10 tips to help...

Published Mon, Sep 24 2012 9:05 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Holding On Tight To My Faith, medically fragile children, Life With Special Needs, Frequent Flyin' ar the PCMC, Lori Rappaport

A Paper Plate Pumpkin Craft

Some days you just have to tell yourself that the mess really is worth it. Parker and I picked the first pumpkin of the season today. Then we worked with paint, glue, and paper products trying to pay homage to the freshly snatched orange...

Published Fri, Sep 21 2012 6:58 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Special Needs Homeschooling, Art Activities, paper plate pumpkin craft

In Theory: ‘Adult’ medications and medically fragile kids.

Up to Primary’s we went today. Again. We met with the ENT and talked about our experiment to see if Parker’s reflux issues have come back. There was no blue in his trach nose, so it’s looking as though that isn’t...

Published Thu, Sep 20 2012 7:13 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Holding On Tight To My Faith, down syndrome, botox, Frequent Flyin' ar the PCMC, epiglottal fold over

Why would I change him?

Years ago I received a Christmas card from a friend who had a son with Down syndrome. In that card she wrote, “If there was a cure for Down syndrome we’d pour it down the drain.” Pretty amazing considering when this friend’s...

Published Wed, Sep 19 2012 7:30 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: down syndrome, Life With Special Needs, Perfect just the way he is

All the proof in God I need is in this kid

Years ago I received a Christmas card from a friend who had a son with Down syndrome. In that card she wrote, “If there was a cure for Down syndrome we’d pour it down the drain.” Pretty amazing considering when this friend’s...

Published Wed, Sep 19 2012 7:30 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: down syndrome, Life With Special Needs, Perfect just the way he is

How I finally got my kid to hold a pencil.

My Mission, whether I wanted to accept it or not, was to convince Parker to hold a pencil. Or a crayon. Or a marker. Hey. I’m not picky. I tried everything. Pencil grips. Taping a super light grit of sandpaper around crayons to give...

Published Wed, Sep 19 2012 10:33 AM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Special Needs Homeschooling, Stuff We LOVE!, ABLEWARE, how to hold a pencil

Aspiration pneumonia, blue food dye and one Brave Hero

We took Parker down again for his blood work yesterday. To make things a little more exciting we added on a chest x-ray too. Any night now and we are going to look over and discover Parker glowing in the dark. The blood work came back looking...

Published Tue, Sep 18 2012 6:19 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: down syndrome, aspiration, aspiration pneumonia, Life With Special Needs, Frequent Flyin' ar the PCMC

Abortion and Down Syndrome: So, exactly who’s quality of life are we talking about here?

I recently came across a message board created for those who chose to terminate a pregnancy for either medical reasons or a poor prenatal diagnosis. Down syndrome falls under a reason to abort because of poor prenatal diagnosis. Yeah, I...

Published Mon, Sep 17 2012 8:49 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Advocacy, A life worth living.

Worrying about zebras: Medically fragile children and special needs

It was a heart breaking sight. A Brave Hero with coban and a cotton ball snugly wedged inside each elbow cranny. Twice they poked him. Twice they failed. The kid simply refused to bleed. We walked out of the hospital Reed, Parker and I,...

Published Sat, Sep 15 2012 9:35 AM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Holding On Tight To My Faith, brave hero, Frequent Flyin' ar the PCMC, Parker Hodson

The Week in Pictures: Garden Edition

This summer has flown by. A hot blur of days where I mostly felt I was trying to play catch up while running in place. This year’s garden? Pretty much left on it’s own. It’s hard to try to unravel the new mysteries going...

Published Fri, Sep 14 2012 1:47 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Life With Special Needs

People first language…..or the day my head exploded.

We took Parker to his first visit with an audiologist. We talked hearing aids. Did you know that they are now taking little bitty hearing aids, attaching them to a cute little headband and placing that over a kid’s head instead of putting...

Published Wed, Sep 12 2012 6:53 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Advocacy, pocketalker, people first language

Integrating Shapes and Sensory into Art: A Sunflower Craft

I’m a big believer in using examples from real life when teaching Parker. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of our everyday objects to use in Parker’s speech therapy. I love using pictures of the real deals when introducing...

Published Wed, Sep 12 2012 9:00 AM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Special Needs Homeschooling, Art Activities, sensory art

I don’t care what the rhyme says, words DO hurt.

I don’t care what the rhyme says, words do hurt. Especially a word, when used, demeans another human being. Take the r-word for example. A word that rolls off of so many tongues so easily, so carelessly, so thinking it’s funny...

Published Fri, Sep 07 2012 7:48 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: end the r-word, r-word counter

Sticks and stones….I don’t care what the rhyme says, words DO hurt.

Sticks and stones……I don’t care what the rhyme says, words do hurt. Especially a word, when used, demeans another human being. Take the r-word for example. A word that rolls off of so many tongues so easily, so carelessly...

Published Fri, Sep 07 2012 7:48 PM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: end the r-word, r-word counter

And just like that, my prayer was answered.

They say that answers to prayer comes in all different forms and fashions. Yesterday was a testament to that. We have yet to discover exactly what Parker can hear. Can he hear me when I read a book to him? Can he hear when I sing to him...

Published Fri, Sep 07 2012 7:59 AM by Praying For Parker

Filed under: Holding On Tight To My Faith, answers to prayers, hearing loss