Beach Yoga

I took the kids to the beach. Of course, they had a blast.  The funny thing was they started doing yoga in the sand. First it was my two children and before I knew it there was about a half a dozen other kids all doing yoga and immitating the poses along with them. The leader was my 9 year old son who has autism!  What an awesome sight to see.   I do love living near the beach but I didn't always.

Read more about this at Jersey Moms Blog

A sad time, again.

... And then, there was one.



Bye Bye to my sweet Happy cat. The grey one in this picture that Alex drew just the other day and I printed and put on my fridge.











RIP Happy the cat













On all days, my birthday. My sweet lap cat of just 5 1/2 years old passed in the night quite suddenly and completely out of the blue.


Happy was named by Alex who at the time barely spoke and when he saw the sweet little kitten (who I tried to name Nemo) he would point (a milestone) and say "Happy cat Happy cat" - so he was named Happy. He was a crazy kitten who grew into a really sweet, affectionate, snuggly adult cat.



I feel beyond sad, myself, and for the kids. This has largely been a year of loss for them. First, Grandpa, my dad, passed away. Then, our beloved dog Josie who we had to put down after 13 faithful years crossed the rainbow bridge. And now, the very sudden and mysterious passing of Happy. Alex hasn't said much about it today, he is processing it. My daughter is devastated as this was "her favorite cat". I feel sick, and empty, and sad. I'm having a hard time with this. Its just been too much death around here. Happy was a huge source of comfort and joy for me every day and now he is gone too. I'm feeling a bit lost.

There is definitely an emptiness among us as we miss our Happy. Our time with him was way too short.

Happy Birthday to me

These are a few of my favorite things...

A drawing from Alex with a sweet love note....

Flowers, my shih-tzu Pooh Bear, and Ice cream

The card that Alex made me...

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's day!!!

Brick SEPTA Blue Claws Game

Friday night we took the kids to the Lakewood Blue Claws game. It was the annual Brick SEPTA baseball outing and in the past, we've always skipped it. A few years ago Alex had a bad meltdown at the stadium when we were there for one of the POAC walks, and efforts to bring him back there had been pretty stressful. However, since we had such a nice time at the POAC walk this year and he seemed completely non-fazed by the stadium I thought we'd try the game. Also, since the tickets were really discounted (thanks SEPTA and POAC) it wouldn't be as big of a deal if we did have to leave, at least financially.

Knowing that there were fireworks after the game, I thought it might not be a bad idea to bring 'the headphones' to block the noise out. Alex has enjoyed fireworks when we've gone to Disney but I thought we'd be closer to them at the stadium and the noise level would be too loud. I was also a bit worried about all the noise of the game, loudspeaker, etc. Well, as my luck would have it... I couldn't find the headphones.. Oh crap! Then, Daddy got home from work close to the time we had to leave - thanks to Friday night shore traffic... So, we didn't bring headphones and I was nervous that it would be a big mistake.

Well, as it turned out. Alex proved us wrong. He enjoyed the game and being in the stadium. He clapped and cheered. He got a kick out of the silly entertainment which included a Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese race and the Invision Eyeball Race. He was excited when the mascot Buster came out, and when they did the chicken dance - oh and he liked the Blue Claws dance team (haha!). Both kids enjoyed seeing friends and enjoyed italian ices in plastic baseball hats. Belle got her face painted and Alex and Daddy got matching baseball hats. When it came to fireworks time the show was great and there was no need at all for headphones! It was a great night out as a family from start to finish.

No headphones required :)

Best Day at the Beach - Long Branch NJ

Wow Wow Wow.

Alex attended a very special event yesterday in Long Branch, New Jersey at the 7 Presidents Oceanfront 'park'. The Best Day Foundation made it all happen.

So, we packed up the coolers and got our suits and sunblock on and off to the beach we went. We were happy that my little brother, the kids uncle - was with us for a fun day at the beach. We got there at 9:30 and checked in. Essentially we handed Alex off to a volunteer who stayed with him the entire time and kept him entertained.

We were able to enjoy the beach as well as watch the events and enjoy, we relaxed. Imagine that. Belle absolutely loved it!














The kids began by learning a bit about beach safety and doing some stretching. They then did a really cool obstacle course that had been dug into the sand. I wish I had gotten a good picture of it. There was a special guest of the day, Spiderman - who arrived by helicopter and did a special water landing.











Alex got to surf, body board, enjoy the beach. He had such a great helper, Katie, who made his day absolutely perfect!
























Read more about Autism & Surfing with Alex!

Challenge: Learning to Ride a Bike

Alex, at 9 years old - still cannot ride a bike. He's been riding a bike with training wheels for a long time but when most of the kids in the neighborhood lost their training wheels he still needed them. So, he switched to riding a scooter, which he loves. For a few summers the bike pretty much stayed in the garage and he put miles on the scooter. In the meantime, he outgrew his bike. We had a new 20" bike ready for him that just needed a bit of adjusting - and training wheels.

This weekend my little brother came to visit and we had him put the training wheels on the bike, but up off the ground significantly so that Alex isn't relying on them the way he did with the other bike - giving him no real reason to learn to balance.

This summer Alex is going to go to a weeklong program called Lose the Training Wheels sponsored by UNYFEAT. The goal is that by the end of the week long program, he will be training wheels free.

In the meantime - we are practicing!

Allergy Skin Testing

So, off Alex and I went for his full allergy workup - skin testing.

The fool that I was, I forgot to bring his Wall-E plush which he asked for once the testing got underway. He uses it for 'coping' under stressful situations. The Nintendo DS battery was 'on red' and so that meant - I gave him my HTC android phone to play with. He did well under stressful circumstances and instead of returning to school after the 2 hours or so of appointment I opted to have him stay home with me (or rather.. run errands all day with me) and have a 'mommy day'.

They skin tested him for an assortment of allergens and included milk and wheat - even though in Alex, his issues with those foods are not allergies but intolerances and digestion issues and I knew that but the doctor said they might as well just do the tests anyways.

Peanuts, however - are an allergy. Thankfully it is 'just' a mild allergy - but an allergy nonetheless.