One of my fondest memories of childhood has to be the many family celebrations we shared with our extended family. Christmas, Easter, weddings and graduations were always celebrated with my aunt, uncle and cousins. My mom and aunt are sisters and my dad and uncle are brothers -two sisters married two brothers. My cousins and I grew up together. We were more like siblings than first cousins. Weddings were my favorite because we danced and laughed until our legs hurt and our ears were … [Read more...]
Fitting In
I remember in elementary school there were four pretty girls that always stayed together. They were THE group. They were the POPULAR girls and every girl wanted to be part of their inner circle. I remember thinking at that time what it would feel like to hang out with them. I didn’t have many friends in elementary school because I was the kid that was picked on. My thick curly black hair and my skinny frame made me an easy target. Seeing them every day always made me think about what it … [Read more...]
Fostering independence with autism
Lately, Emilio has been asserting his independence more and more, which is absolutely amazing and I’m truly grateful to see the tremendous strides he has taken to get to where he is today. He now takes care of setting the dinner table on his own without prompting. He’ll clear his place and put away his items. He’s not always consistent but it really doesn’t matter because getting to this stage is huge! We’re also working very hard on many areas that are still challenging for him such as … [Read more...]