Emma’s school has a sibling group that meets every other week. The neuro-typical siblings meet for an hour, eat pizza, play games in the gym and generally just hang out for an hour or at least I think that’s what they do. Nic, who turns twelve in another few months, has no interest in... Read more →
Rick Meets Meredith
It was eight years ago this week that I started dating my husband. That’s 56 years in dog years, or 12 percent of Bernie Madoff’s life sentence. Either way, it seems fitting.In the time that we’ve been together, Ri Copyright 2012 The Aspen Times. All rights reserved. This material... Read more →
Rick Meets Meredith
It was eight years ago this week that I started dating my husband. That’s 56 years in dog years, or 12 percent of Bernie Madoff’s life sentence. Either way, it seems fitting.In the time that we’ve been together, Ri Copyright 2012 The Aspen Times. All rights reserved. This material... Read more →
Andrea Beard: Dear Diary
Wow! Have I everbeen off track lately. I can’t believehow long I have gone without posting. Needless to say, my world has been a little crazy and time hasn’texactly been on my side, but I still wish I had made more effort these last fewweeks. God knows I have the material,what... Read more →
Autism: What They Don’t Tell You
Here are some things you will not find in your research on autism: You will not learn how this diagnosis will effect your marriage or other members of your family. You will not be told how it may fundamentally alter your perceptions of what is “normal”, how it may change your view of human beings,... Read more →
Andrea Beard: WTF Mom!
Whether it’s a high-pitched scream or a series of ah, ah,ah’s, it’s evident that the baby is ready to talk! Trey, who turned ten months old today, isclearly trying to tell us something. Ihear the poor guy scream out incoherent noises to me all day while Itry to decipher exactly what... Read more →
Autism: Emma’s New Food, Day 3
I didn’t have time yesterday to go into Emma’s response to being told she could no longer have her usual breakfast of the past six years – cheerios with milk and 2 slices of whole wheat toast with butter and raspberry jam or her weekend breakfast of pancakes (mix from William’s & Sonoma)... Read more →
Autism: ‘Helping Our Children Find Happiness’
A follower of this blog wrote the following response to yesterday’s post. I posted it here as it beautifully sums up exactly what my husband, Richard and I also feel and why we work as hard as we do with Emma. “I think maybe this is what most parents or carers of children with autism aspire to.... Read more →
Andrea Beard: Friday Funnies #9
Happy Friday Everyone! Hope your weekend forecast is looking better than mine. Guess we’ll be headed to the movies! We took the boys on a long camping trip to Moab, Utahlast weekend. Moab is about 3 and halfhours from our house. About threeminutes in to the drive my son asks,... Read more →
A Written Conversation – Autism
Yesterday afternoon, Emma said, “These kids do not want to eat bugs.” Then she squinted her eyes and laughed, making her shoulders shake up and down. It was a creative version of some of the work we’ve been doing during her literacy program. We’ve been working on sentences... Read more →