Miracle League has so much to share and show us for all they offer for our children.
What better way than a video so we can actually see it all first hand!
Read more on Miracle League Video…
Miracle League has so much to share and show us for all they offer for our children.
What better way than a video so we can actually see it all first hand!
Read more on Miracle League Video…
I woke up this morning to posts sharing how many weekends are left until Christmas! Somehow, Thanksgiving has gotten lost but I am not going to let that happen! Thanksgiving is one holiday we should all be sure to make the time to celebrate. There is always something to be thankful for, someone to be thankful for and ways to show our gratitude.
Read more on November Newness!…
You ,The Flu & What To Do[/caption]Fall has arrived in Virginia, and with it comes a typical increase in respiratory illnesses.
This time of year in pediatrics, we come to expect a batting order with croup leading off, followed by RSV, then influenza batting third (please forgive the baseball references, but the Mets are in the playoffs for the first time in 9 years!). Each of these conditions are caused by viruses, which means antibiotics are ineffective in treating them. This discussion will address influenza only.
Read more on You , The Flu & What To Do…
Happy Birthday to my middle child.
Birth order is an interesting thing with much said about how it impacts all we do. For our family, our middle child has had an extra “perk” of having a brother with Autism and an older sister that challenged all that came her way.
Read more on Happy Birthday To My Middle Child….
Female pelvic medicine (or urogynecology) is a subspecialty within obstetrics and gynecology, dedicated to treat women suffering from pelvic floor disorder like urinary incontinence (leaky bladder) and vaginal prolapse (buldging or falling bladder, uterus or rectum)
Read more on VPFW making a difference with Pelvic Disorders…
Many of us will be out this weekend having Halloween fun. With that, may come lots and lots of candy! I know in my home, the kids are over it in a day or two and I am left with a large container to eat! This temptation is sometimes to much for me and I have been known to sit and eat 6 pieces in one sitting!
Read more on Halloween Candy BuyBack Program…
The McShin Foundation’s mission is to deliver a message of hope to recovering addicts and alcoholics and to facilitate their journey to a healthier life.
Founded in 2004, The McShin Foundation is Virginia’s leading non-profit, full-service Recovery Community Organization (RCO), committed to serving individuals and families in their fight against Substance Use Disorders. While providing the tools for recovering individuals to create positive lifestyles, we aim to spread the word of recovery and educate families, communities, and government regarding SUDs as well as reduce the stigma attached to them. The McShin Foundation is a great alternative for drug and alcohol treatment, drug and alcohol rehab, and drug and alcohol detox we continue to have the most affordable detox, recovery and sober living residences in the country, we are the Nation’s Leading Recovery Community Center.
Read more on The McShin Foundation. Help for those with Chemical Dependency…
World Pediatric Project has brought two young girls from Barbados who suffer from Blount’s Disease to receive surgery at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital by Dr. Sharps.
This is such an amazing story! Watch here for the girls progress post-surgery.
Read more on 2 girls from Barbados receive treatment in Richmond/ World Pediatric Project…
This is Cindy Szymonik. You may remember me from my previous blog posts discussing my two wonderful sons who are on opposing ends of the autism spectrum. For the past 15 years, I have been coming to terms with raising my boys in a world where they just don’t quite fit in, most of the time. And it follows that if your child doesn’t quite fit in to typical society, by proxy you yourself do not exactly fit in as a parent either. This phenomena used to be a source of great concern for me. How could I make them ‘fit’? How could I get them to enjoy the things that I myself enjoyed as a child? And MOST importantly (lol), when they were young, how could I find another mom to have some coffee with when the boys and I kept kind of getting edged out of playgroups?
The answer came to me slowly over time. I wasn’t going to. This is the fork in the road where my opinions often vary from those held by other special needs parents. Please remember that I am only presenting my approach and opinions gleaned from living with my particular kids. Your approach may well be different. But it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. (Just kidding). And actually I have become quite at peace with it. Some (not by any means ALL) of the situations that used to make me wish the earth would open up and swallow me because I was so horrendously embarrassed that we weren’t fitting in have become downright funny, now that I look at them with a different perspective.
A few months ago I was sitting in a kickoff meeting for parents for a teen religious education program. Everyone was pleasantly discussing the challenges they faced with their teens, nodding and commiserating with each other. I grew conspicuously quiet, and all of the sudden I had this weird visual that I was sitting in a puppy obedience training class. Everyone there had a puppy, but there I sat with a chicken. I like my chicken, don’t get me wrong, and wouldn’t trade him for a puppy, but the issues that were being discussed were COMPLETELY unlike the issues I was facing with my teen. Some of their issues were harder, some easier, but they were definitely NOT the same. It is sometimes hard for me to be objective since I am not, and never will be, the mother of a neuro-typical child. But it became clear pretty quickly that they were figuratively walking around that block while I was out in a barnyard spreading feed somewhere. Concerns of dating, sports competitions, popularity, and poor grades are not even on my radar. In some ways this is a good thing. But all the banter really didn’t bother me now. Years ago I would have probably felt sad and wished we were encountering some ‘normal’ problems too. But sitting there then it suddenly occurred to me that this was really quite funny. I felt like an ‘imposter parent’, who snuck into a meeting where I didn’t belong.
Read more on Raising Your Chicken in a Puppy World…
Hello, Internet. For those who haven’t been reading my articles, last month I foolishly posted an article about my impressions of high school before actually going to high school. I claimed that high school would be overall more fun and interesting. However, upon the first day of high school, I was wracked with anxiety and stress from its seriousness… for about a day. High school’s actually pretty nice, despite all the work, and the rules make perfect sense. I’d just taken it a bit too seriously.
A lot of things have happened since I started high school. For example, I’ve joined two new clubs: the Computer Club and the Robotics Club. In the Computer Club, I joined a subgroup whose focus was game design and was caught off guard when the discussion immediately turned to what game we would immediately start to create. I asked about why we were immediately starting, and apparently the Computer Club teaches by experience. We also started quickly in Robotics Club. I had initially joined Robotics to meet with my new friend, but it turned out that he was in a different one; I’m still going to attend, though, because I really want to program (and control) a robot. Our team is named “Blue Cheese”, a concatenation (I learned this word while learning Python) of one of our school colors and the concept of “cheesing”, or putting holes in a robot’s metal beams to decrease their weight. I also manned a spot on our section of this year’s Makerfest.
My curricular activities have been interesting as well. As per my M.O., I’ve taken all advanced courses, and this year I’m attending Theater (because theater is a wonderful storytelling medium!… and also because I couldn’t take Creative Writing as an elective. Also, I’m taking it instead of P.E. because P.E. is horrible.). Also, I’m taking two classes associated with my Specialty Center: AP Computer Science Principles and Adv. English 9. I’ve noticed that the classes seem to be paying more attention to critical thinking than they used to – that is to say, World History II, a follow-up to some of the most rote-memorization-heavy classes in school, starts with the teacher discussing the fact that all of history is interpretation based on scattered evidence and proposing an alternate theory of the first events that I learned about from World History I.
All in all, I enjoy this new school. It’s a nice change of pace from Middle School, and so far I haven’t been tormented by the rest of the school for being a Freshman. I can only think of two problems off the top of my head: Math needs more critical thinking (if that’s even possible, it’d fit the theme of “more critical thinking” quite nicely), and the library needs more serial manga. I mean, when I looked at their “Manga and Graphic Novels” section, all I saw in terms of serial manga was two different volumes of Naruto that I’d already read. That said, I think this school is excellent, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the year. I will update as events occur. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be seeing you!
Read more on Cole’s Corner. Hello High School…