For me, Santa Clause represents the beautiful
childlike magic of believing in things you cannot see.
How perfect!

Join me on 12seconds.tv [Because anything longer is boring.]

Anna is the light of my life and Anna has autism. I took a break from my graphic design career for three years in order to work with her and my life has never been the same (in a good way!)

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The first word Anna ever said to me was “sandwich!”

She wasn’t speaking and would sort of just wander around the classroom. I worked with her every day with books, counting ducks, asking questions about pictures and identifying objects.

She never spoke to me.

As a matter of fact, she’d be walking in one direction and if I went over to her, she’d turn and walk the other way, like a magnet repelling its identical pole. I felt pretty bad about that. Until the day the Anna’s physical therapist Christina told me it was actually a good sign.

She said Anna knew that if I was there, she’d have to communicate or something would be required of her and she walked away because she wanted to stay in her own little world and not face the challenge of me.

That made a whole buncha sense (and felt better). Even so, a small child running from you wasn’t exactly the ideal work situation!

Still, I knew that she was capable of great things so I’d read books with her anyway and keep trying to make contact. Each day I’d get Anna off of the bus, ask her to look up and talk to her about the weather, “Look up in the sky … I see blue sky … It’s sunny!”

I’d talk to her about what we were doing each step of the way so she could hear how sentences were put together, how ideas were expressed and how things were described. “What am I doing? I’m tying shoes.”

Never any response or sign of recognition.

One book had pictures of food objects all over the page so I’d point and ask, “What do you see?” No reply. I’d tell Anna, “I see sandwich … fries … apple … muffin …” pointing to each.

No response.

One day I went to get Anna from the bus as usual. I stood on the sidewalk and the doors opened. Anna appeared at the top of the stairs and as the attendant was putting on her backpack, Anna looked directly into my eyes and exclaimed, “Sandwich!”

I was floored, stunned for a second, and then I recovered replying, “Yes, yes, sandwich!”

Funny how a thing like that can make your whole day.

From then on, our conversations went something like this …

Anna: “Sandwich!”
Me: “Sandwich!”
Anna: “Fries!”
Me: “Fries!”
Anna: “Apple!”
Me: “Apple!”

(Pause as Anna’s eyes searched an imaginary page in her mind, deep in thought… )

Me: “What else is in that book?”
Anna: “Muffin!”
Me: “Muffin!”

(Another pause)

Me: “Burger!”
Anna: “Burger!”

When Anna would communicate this to others, they would often reply, “No, silly, you can’t have a sandwich now, it’s not lunch time!” and I’d tell them, “No, no, she’s telling you about a book she read.”

When we ran programs, I’d get all excited and happy if Anna got something right, I’d exclaim, “YAAAY!” and hold out my hands palms up. Anna would put her hands on top of mine and give me this gleeful look, like she was so delighted that *I * was so delighted. If she got an answer wrong, she’d look at me and ask, “yaay?”

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Carly: “ANNA is the CUTEST KID in the WHOLE school!”
Molly: “She’s cuter than a TEDDY BEAR!”

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Find out more about autism and what you can do to help children who have this puzzling disorder at Anna Rose.

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Share on Facebook :: Photo by Anna’s sister Maria, a loving, supportive and precious girl as well as a kick-butt photographer!

It’s Works-for-Me Wednesday: Backwards Day, where WE ask YOU the questions! And just in time … I need some answers!

I make mothers bracelets but recently I added a medical ID band to my lineup and am trying to figure out if I should invest in a whole stash of these. If so, I’d need to decide which sizes and colors would sell best. To date, I’ve sold only pinks.

So it’s time for a poll! 

Which of these would your child or teen … or YOU … wear?
[ See the options here ]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

When Rocks in My Dryer asks about favorite online shopping … well, what’s a girl to do but point-point-point enthusiastically in the direction of the loveliest Valentine’s Day jewelry EVER with the BIGGEST HEART in the world? If you don’t know what I’m talkin’ bout, you obviously haven’t been hanging out with me enough. (Drop me a line, stranger!)

 

20% of the profits go to programs which support communication and understanding for children with autism and round about now there’s a little Valentine’s sale goin’ on too, which kicks up the “go ahead, do it!” factor just a hair.

Ok so I’m just a tad bit late posting my Surfers Healing vid. Kinda like Christmas in July only in reverse. Blame it on a long-needed technology break.

I made the video the very night we got back from the beach but after all that gleeful work the final export crashed and burned, as techie things oft do, so I needed a little breathing space. Happily I am no longer in the corporate world so I can afford myself such luxuries as wiggle room and breathing space. Aaaaah, the joys of not being strapped to a laptop nine to five.

(… or to be more precise, nine to five AM-the-next-morning, as my friends would be more than happy to remind me).

So five months later and voila! I’m all refreshed and ready to unveil Anna’s nearly-celluloid debut! Enjoy!

Surfer’s Healing is a wonderful free surf camp for children with autism.

Surfers Healing was founded by Israel and Danielle Paskowitz. Their son, Isaiah, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Like many children with autism, he often suffered from sensory overload– simple sensations could overwhelm him. The ocean was the one place where he seemed to find respite.

A former competitive surfer, Israel hit upon an idea–with Isaiah on the front of his surfboard, and Izzy steering from the back, the two spent the day surfing together. Surfing had a profound impact on Isaiah. Israel and Danielle decided they wanted to share this unique therapy with other children. They began to host day camps at the beach where children with autism and their families could be exposed to a completely new experience.

1. motion ::  gym … dance … tennis … walk … personal home movement (only I know what that is!

2. connect in person with intelligent life form ::  see a friend … go somewhere … do something out in the delicious world

3. drink drink drink  ::  3 sporty curvy 23 oz bottles of refreshing yummy water with fiber in one of ‘em

4. thank challenge for the gift it is on the verge of bringing into my life

5. wake with “thank you” for there is always something to say that to

6. compliment someone / bless someone / love the unlovable

7. dance to life with music that makes me happy to be in this world and which makes me want to skip and play

8. be inspired by an Abraham-Hicks card

9. one load of laundry

10. five minutes of hot-spot prevention  

Hmm … which of these gems can I commit to truly and deeply and love and hug and frolic with oh so joyfully? There are actually a lot of them which I would like to fully commit to. I already do some of them daily, like 5 and 7. What a big diff those make in my morning, like night and day, right?   

Which ones would benefit me the most intensely and impactfully? I see I just made up that word because Outlook is underlining it, yaay me for making up a cool word! I’d say 10 and 6 and hmm let’s throw 3 into the mix just for fun!