Raising a child with Asperger’s Syndrome, I’ve learned to take nothing for granted and I’ve found myself grateful for experiences which might be commonplace for my friends raising neurotypical kids.
This past weekend, my niece was in town playing in a volleyball tournament at the Dallas Convention Center. Ethan was thrilled to have an excuse to ride the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Train into downtown. I was excited, but also a little hesitant, because we would be in a new environment with potentially challenging sensory input and no car to “escape” to if things took a turn for the worse.
As it turns out, Ethan did beautifully during our day trip into Dallas and even made a new friend!

Angie attended her annual "College Girls Weekend" this past weekend and that meant a Potter Boys Weekend for me and #1 and #2. This would be our last official Potter Boys Weekend since we will be having our first daughter in May. Next year....Potter Boys and a Girl Weekend!
I had three main goals for the weekend:
1) be positive ~ I wanted to do something that would allow each boy to shine and feel proud about what they created
2) be educational ~ I wanted the boys to learn things that would be valuable (not just today) for the rest of their lives

The twisted joy of watching America's Funniest Home Videos, the new Bobb'e show, and the genius of despair.com brings viewers back time and time again. Is it sharing in the universal language of "suffering caused by stupidity" at someone's expense, is it the calm we get from thanking our lucky stars it was not us caught on tape doing the same thing, or is it just plain fun to enjoy a good laugh now and then that brings us back?

The other night, we risked taking Isabella to another basketball game that Madeline was cheering at. The last one was a minor fiasco; everything was too crowded and way too loud. The buzzers, the cheering, the whistles, … I didn’t like it either. Isabella hated it.
But Isabella was in a different place now, and this time we came armed with a secret weapon. The Nintendo DS. Sometimes that thing’s a lifesaver. Isabella has had a love/obsession relationship with it for a while now. Sometimes she likes to play it; sometimes she must play it.

How to select, use, and make file folder games (a hands-on learning strategy) for students with Autism. Presented by Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. of http://www.PositivelyAutism.com

Picture perfect memory. This is often said in moments of surprise when someone is able to recall a situation or event in perfect detail.