The kindness of strangers

Our cat Paisley had a favourite sleeping spot -- smack dab in the middle of the Periwinkle and Ivy on our hilly front garden. Every day I'd come home from work and there's she'd be, sitting in the sun. Her weight had created somewhat of a nest, depressed into the ground, that encompassed her small, silky body and on which no foliage would grow. She lay curled up in the middle of the hill as if it was the most natural thing...

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Boy with Asperger's, 9, handcuffed by police at daycare

I heard an interview on CBC at lunch today about this case. A Toronto child with Asperger's, ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder had a melt-down at a daycare, and was placed in a separate room where he barricaded himself and began throwing furniture and paint around. The boy later said he was being bullied and called names in the lunchroom. The police were called, broke open the door and asked the boy to lie down, which he did. Even though he was now lying on the ground, the boy was handcuffed. I just saw the Canadian...

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A hand to hold

Yesterday Ben and I visited his new high school. It’s a large regular high school known for academics and sports. It has a unit for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. They take some of their classes on the unit and are mainstreamed with interpreters for others. Ben and I had a tour with the principal. Ben saw some classes and took the opportunity to sit down at desks as we were doing a lot of walking! The principal...

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Cloudy thinking: Cognitive therapy tackles it

By Louise Kinross Several years ago I read Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by Dr. David Burns, an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Burns has written a number of bestsellers about how the way we think shapes the way we feel. When people are depressed or anxious, according to this model of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), they have distorted thoughts flooding their minds...

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More from Ian Brown

Another thought-provoking piece from The Boy in the Moon author Ian Brown in today's Globe and Mail: I'm glad I never had to decide whether my strange, lonely boy ought to exist. 'On his good days, Walker is proof of what the imperfect and the fragile have to offer -- a reminder that there are many ways to be human, and that judgment is our least valuable human capacity.'...

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Hi. I'm Happy.

Today I felt panicky about the upcoming school year and our plans to change Ben's school. We haven't been able to do a lot of preparation because staff have been off all summer and only come back next week. Ben and I will visit for the first time on Tuesday and school starts the following week. I went outside to take a walk around Spiral Garden -- the outdoors camp run by practising artists at Holland Bloorview. It was empty, having finished yesterday, but the children's creativity was on full display. I came upon a huge mound of earth that...

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'I don't want any parent to feel alone'

Kate Robson is parent co-ordinator for the Newborn Intensive-Care Unit at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The new 41-bed unit – which opened last year – cares for babies born before 28 weeks as well as newborns with other medical issues. Kate’s ties to Sunnybrook go back six years when her daughter Maggie was born at 25 weeks (photo above) and was an inpatient for over five months. Her position in the unit as a parent supporting...

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'Deselecting' our children

An important piece in the Globe and Mail today: 'Deselecting' our children Here’s a recent Danish headline: “Plans to make Denmark a Down syndrome-free perfect society....

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When Somebody Loved Me

I know I mentioned that Ben loves Jessie, the cowgirl from Toy Story. If left to his own devices, he'll surf the internet to listen to her soulful song, When Somebody Loved Me, over and over and over again. We may hear it in English, or Spanish or Portuguese. He will proclaim his love for Jessie (I love Jessie, he'll sign). Why was Ben so drawn to this song, I wondered. But listening to the lyrics, I think it's somewhat...

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The mental filter

Yesterday our boys went go-kart racing. I had hoped that Ben could drive, but they said the double cars (above) had to have an adult driving. In the single cars, which kids can drive, Ben couldn't reach the pedals. Ben had a blast anyway, and I wondered afterward if it would have made any difference if he had driven himself. But I wanted him to. Recently I've found myself focusing on things Ben will never...

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Buried

It doesn't look very comfortable to me, b...

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Bounce

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Last week of camp

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20 questions

My son Ben's genetic deletion happened as a random error at conception. The way a researcher described it, when my chromosome 8 -- let's call it a green ribbon -- exchanged parts with my husband's chromosome 8, a red ribbon, to produce a striped ribbon, a minute piece was left out. Early on, I found giving detailed histories of my pregnancy painful. Although I'd been told Ben's condition was a random or 'spontaneous' change,...

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Wordless

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The hard part: A teen's experience of grief

I'm delighted to share the story of another BLOOM reader, Rose-Marie Gallagher. Rose-Marie is a special educator and parent to two teenagers, one (above) with significant disabilities. Here, she writes about entering the uncharted territory of her daughter's own grief. Is this something you've experienced? Let us know. Thanks! Louise The hard part: A teen's experience of grief By Rose-Marie Gallagher Grief is a...

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Meet Sonshine, check ignorance at door

I am thrilled to share a new parent voice with you today. Beth Davis, above with her son, is a third-year pharmacy student living in the Bay Area in California. Beth writes about her son, who she refers to as Sonshine, on The Sonshine Chronicle. Check her blog to see Sonshine's new red glasses! Beth writes here about the disconnect between her experience as a mom of a child with a rare syndrome, and the ignorant comments she...

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Is 'normal' overrated?

This post by parent blogger Heather Hamilton really made me sit up and think: Finding 'normal'. In it, Heather, who lost her son Zack, 3, earlier this year, writes about how the world of 'normal' she once longed for is not what she expected it to be (now that she finds herself raising two typical boys): "In fact, the 'normal' life that I had been wishing for, is now here and the grass is not as green as I had expected. In fact,...

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