The Autism-Friendly Holiday Season

Today I am honored to be guest posting over at Shelley's blog, I'm Still Standing.





Shelley is an amazing wife and a mother of two little girls, one of which has special needs.  She is also known as "The Playground Fairy" for her work and unwavering dedication to build fully inclusive playgrounds for children of ALL abilities!

Her amazing success stories can be found on her other blog, Confessions of the Playground Princess.




Shelley asked me some time ago if I would be interested in writing her a guest post about autism and preparing for the holidays and I of course wrote one right away and sent it over to her wrapped in a big red bow procrastinated like a big-dog and waited for the last possible second to get it to her.

If you'd like to read it for yourself you'll have to scoot on over to Shelley's place. 

I hope you'll think about poking around a bit over there.  She is just chock-full of the awesome!

Thankfulness

For each new morning with its light, 
For rest and shelter of the night, 
For health and food, for love and friends, 
For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Godspeed sweet boy

Early this morning one of my Twitter and blogging friends was enduring the unspeakable pain of helping his wife deliver their son into this world much too soon.  Their tiny baby boy slipped from the hands of his loving parents into those of God.

Today those of us who know and love Ian for his sense of humor and his unyielding support of other bloggers in their time of need are in turn lifting our hearts and prayers for he and his family.

If you are the praying kind of person I would humbly ask that you please place Ian and his wife on your hearts and your lips today and in the days and months ahead.

Thank you.

Ch..Ch...Ch...Changes!

No, I am NOT changing the name of my blog again.

That would just be cruel and unusual punishment to those of you who have been with me since the beginning.

What I am working on right now is a new page of my blog called Autism Resources. Under this tab (located under my snazzy Banshee blog header) you will find various resources for those who may have questions about where to find picture exchange communication systems (PECS), supplemental learning and teaching resources, safety forms and emergency preparedness, and much more.

This will be a work in progress over the coming week and I would love it if you shared with me some of your favorite resources and go-to articles. If you have one you would like to recommend please leave me a comment below.

I am also looking into expanding ExtremeParenthood.com into more than just my personal blog. I would like to mold it into a place where parents can come when they have questions about autism and need a real-life answer from someone who has been there and done that. This is why I added the Formspring widget to my sidebar. In that widget you can ask me anything (even something silly or off the wall) and if you're shy you can even ask me anonymously. I promise to answer all the questions as they arrive in a monthly or weekly blog Q&A update.

In addition, I want to be a resource where parents can turn when their child is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. I envision my blog becoming a first point of contact that will encourage and assist parents in making informed decisions for their child(ren). I do NOT want to make the mistake of many autism organizations that use fear to scare parents within an inch of their lives about their child's future. In my opinion, compassion and genuine helpfulness go much farther than fear-mongering and scare tactics.

So, stay tuned because things are about to get a whole lot better here at Extreme Parenthood.

Port Discovery supports Special Kids with Discovery Days

Every Spring and Fall Port Discovery closes its doors for two days to the general public and instead they open them wide to Maryland families with special needs children.

Last spring the Trouble Brothers, their Dad, and I were lucky enough to be able to attend Port Discovery's Discovery Day and we had the most amazing time!

Sam gave Port Discovery 2 thumbs up!

The boys and their Dad read books in The Oasis Room.

The Oasis Room is the perfect quiet nook to relax when the noise and distractions of the rest of the museum get too much for children with special needs.

This room also features a special room just for nursing mothers!

The Water Works exhibit was by far the favorite of our family.  

I loved that the exhibit offers Crocs shoes and raincoats for the kids to wear to protect their regular shoes and clothing!

November 17th and 18th is the Fall 2010 Discovery Days and Port Discovery is hoping Maryland families will bring their special needs child(ren) and experience their museum and all it has to offer children of all abilities.

Each Discovery Day is limited to 250 people and pre-registration is required.  Special needs children enrolled in a Maryland public school will receive free admission to the museum and their accompanying parent may attend for the low price of $7.00!

**As a special promotion to ensure as many special needs children as possible are included Port Discovery has expanded its registration to include special needs children from outside Maryland and is offering a special  $7 admission price for those attendees.  This is a huge savings over the regular admission of $12.95 per person!**

If you would like your special needs child(ren) to be registered for next week's Discovery Days please call 410-864-2666 and select option 1.

I promise you will be glad you did!

Russell Crowe and the humble banshee

On Monday morning I was watching The Today Show while one of my favorite actors, Russell Crowe, was being interviewed by Matt Lauer.

I was very surprised to learn during that segment that Russell Crowe is a Tweeter.




Later that night after a couple glasses of really good red wine I decided to send a tweet out to @RussellCrowe.

 and then I decided to tweet him again mentioning that a tweet back from him would be the best birthday gift this humble banshee could ever receive.

I turned off my computer last night and went to sleep dreaming of Robin Hood asking me nicely to be his village's personal banshee.

When I woke up this morning I found this:

*Swoon*

I'd love to hear who your Twitter crush is and have they ever tweeted you back?

Why does 35 freak me out?!

Today at 8:18 central time it will be my 35th birthday.

THREE...FIVE.

As in, the age my mom was when I thought she was OLD.

But looking at it from the other side I feel like I just left high school and I still don't have a damn clue what I want to be when I grow up!

November 6, 1975

Damn, I'm cute

My 16th Birthday

Damn, what is up with those BANGS?

Right here is where I would share my 21st birthday photo with me drinking

massive amounts of alcohol surrounded by throngs of friends but the sad

truth is everyone stood me up on my birthday so I went to a friend's house and 

helped her roommate study for his Firemen's exam.

True freaking story!

 My 25th Birthday

Damn, just d.a.m.n.

My 33rd Birthday

Divorced, living in an apartment and happier than ever!

This weekend I am spending my birthday with my dad and my awesome hubby Mike (@xtremestepdad) where we plan on watching lots of movies, eating obscene amounts of food, drinking good wine and going to my favorite Mexican restaurant in Alexandria, VA.

Damn, sometimes its good to be old.

Autism ShoutOut loud and proud

Today marks the day thousands across the world are participating in the Communication Shutdown by going silent and turning off their Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts.

At the same time there are those of us who will be stepping into the spotlight to encourage, educate, and answer questions of those who want to learn more about autism. Our hope is that in doing so our combined voices will shatter stereotypes about autism and those affected by it.

There are many others on Twitter who will be joining me in the Autism ShoutOut.  You can follow these hashtags to see what we are saying:

#AutismShoutOut
#ASDay
#TalkAboutAutism

We welcome your re-tweets and we'd love it if you joined in on the conversation!

In addition, there are many bloggers who are writing posts today in support of the Autism ShoutOut and ASDay.

If you have written a blog post for today's Autism ShoutOut please link it up so we can visit each other and leave comments of encouragement.