Category: Uncategorized
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Five
On your birthday this year, I felt myself grieve as much as I celebrated. Your life is different. It seems simple to say but there is nothing simple about the experience. We continue the steady journey through time but the milestones that mark your climb are set only by you. There is no need to…
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Strength + Vulnerability
I am not afraid to share my struggles. I’m not afraid to talk about my anxiety disorder or depression or how hard it is to be a mom while managing mental illness. I will tell you all about my radiantly joy-filled autistic daughter and the waves of grief I feel for parts of life that…
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Staying calm
Learning to stay calm while your child is having a meltdown is both challenging and essential. Self-regulation is key– we can’t co-regulate with our children unless we are in control of ourselves. It was clear from the beginning that Lily is a person who feels things deeply and reacts to stress with the same intensity.…
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A beautiful thing.
If I am out somewhere with Annabelle, I’m wearing her talker around my waist. I want to be sure she can get to it any time she’s ready to talk. Today, for the first time ever, I saw another parent doing the same thing. Lily noticed first. She was full of joy as she ran…
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Connection.
It all comes back to connection. Humans are wired to seek safety and we feel our best when connected to others. How we connect is different for every person and these needs change each day. It can take a long time for AB to show that she is connected to someone but, once she does…
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Start by Starting.
So often, my brain is busy with to-do lists or trying to plan how to meet my goals or the best way to care for my family. I feel like I am always thinking, consumed by ideas that bounce around inside my head like a ping-pong ball. I move through the day feeling like there…
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It’s okay to feel both.
Life with AB includes a lot of looking and watching. She loves to climb and jump and run but then she needs her moment away. She spends as much time on the picnic tables or climbing the stairs than she does on the playground—sometimes she simply prefers it. For me, it can feel a little…
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Actually, you can.
What is that hard thing that you hold inside yourself— the thing that feels too big and impossible? The one thing that you know— if you could make it happen, it might just change everything? I’ve had so many goals that I let slide past me because I didn’t feel like there was any way…
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Communication
Annabelle was diagnosed with #autism a few days before turning two. For me, this wasn’t a surprise. AB has a rare genetic disorder of her #pten gene which often causes ASD, among many other things. What did surprise me was when, shortly after her second birthday, the sounds she had been making seemed to disappear. Essentially, she was quiet…
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Health + Calm
In the past, I wasn’t preparing for the challenges of my day or my greater parenting journey. I was guided by an internal chaos, instead of making purposeful choices about how to deal with stress. Any attempt at finding a calm center was reactive, not proactive. Instead of imagining self care as sitting in a…
Kelly SY Rock 