Proud Moments: Evan, Ken, and Kailee

PROUD MOMENTS™

This article starts a new column entitled Proud Moments. Proud Moments can be any time that you have been extremely proud of your child with special needs. It can be when they are giving it their all or reaching a milestone. You may feel you can only share your excitement or enthusiasm with someone that will really understand. We certainly understand. We are encouraging you to please share a proud moment with us for this next issue!

Science Fair Proud Moment!

Just wanted to share my news!  Evan won 1st place in his category at the elementary school science fair.  It’s a huge accomplishment for him. No doubt everyone knows the parents help out with the projects and the boards, but Evan watered all the plants himself, kept the data, recorded the measurements and helped write the reports and create the tables.  I did the computer work and laid out the board, but he picked all the colors and had ideas about the general design.  I’m really proud of him.  He was so excited, he started break dancing on the media center floor.  It was quite the sight.

~Thanks for letting me share! Marcia

Sabrina’s Daddy… So Proud he’s ours

No one deserves a great Father’s Day more than Ken. Ken really is the best daddy that Sabrina could ever hope for. Most mornings he gets up with her and feeds her breakfast so that he can have some “Sabrina time” before going to work and to school. He makes sure that she’s ready for the day by picking out a “cute outfit” (which usually actually DOES look cute), and making sure that her “pretties” (her pigtails or clips in her hair) are done up. Ken is known at Sabrina’s daycare and her therapy clinic as having a pretty sharp eye for “cute outfits”. Regina, her preschool/daycare teacher, looks forward to me being out of town so that she can see what Ken will put together for her.

Ken tries so hard to keep up with the TONS of things we’re supposed to do at home with Sabrina. It’s due to his persistence with Sabrina’s feeding (“bite, bite, Sabrina… good job!!!!!”) that she’s made so much progress in that area. He encourages her to run, climb, and slide at the park, and is now working on getting her to kick and throw balls in the backyard. He has spent more time with her on that darn Therapy Ball than most other fathers would have the time or patience for. He facinates her with his life-like animal sounds and a mean game of “You Can’t Get Me!” He is so protective of his little girl and is always on the lookout for anything that may resemble a cut, scratch, infection, rash, earache, or sore gums due to teething. And he’s highly tolerant of my latest ideas about how we’re going to get organized. He just looks at my freakish spreadsheets, lists, and grids that I produce on an almost daily basis and nods with interest as I tell him the latest way that we’re going to make sure that all of Sabrina’s therapies are taken care of or that all of the chores are going to get done. He is so much better than I am at just letting go, having fun, and enjoying Sabrina. I have a lot to learn from him. He works full-time and is getting his MBA at night, and still manages to make sure that we’re both taken care of and happy. What more can 2 girls ask for?

~ Nelia Nunes

Success at 3 a.m.

Both my husband and I feel so blessed that by having a special needs child, it has truly made us appreciate every moment of our children’s lives.  We all look forward to their first steps and first words. And, for most, that comes easily with time.  However, for those of us who have children with challenges, those moments come much later…if they come at all.  I have been trying to help my daughter (who is going to be 12 this month) learn to take the initiative to make her own sandwich.  If I stood over her and went step by step with her as to what to do, she would do it.  I felt now it was time that she is getting older I really wanted her to do it all by herself.  I am happy to say our proudest moment came the other day, when, at 3am in the morning I heard a lot of commotion going on in the kitchen. I jumped out of bed thinking “what are the dogs getting into” (we have 2 dogs).  When I went to the kitchen, there was K sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich and drinking Coke (I wasn’t too happy about the drink choice). But, she made her own sandwich and poured her own drink all by herself. To make it even more amazing, she said “Sorry mommy, I was hungry so I made myself something to eat”.

Did we care there was Mayo everywhere on the counter, or that she would have left it out, or that she was drinking Coke at 3am?  NO!!!!!!!! I was thrilled. Tears were in my eyes…she finally did it!!She made her own toast, took all the ingredients she needed out, made herself a sandwich and poured her own drink. I cannot tell you the joy that brought to our lives. I just gave her the biggest hug and told her it was fine and that she did great and we are so proud of her.  I feel we are so blessed because everyday we experience JOY in seeing our daughter achieve goals that come so easily for others. However, for K, she works so hard to do things and when she gets it, it is truly the best feeling in the world. We thank God for every moment and every achievement that K makes. Thank you for asking us to share this moment with your readers and I want to wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.  

~ Proud Parents, Joseph and MIchelle D.

Grandma learns from Helping Hands…

I am a grandmother of a special needs granddaughter, Kailee. When she was 10 years old,  she attended a camp for children with Special Needs. The “Kids Kamp” was the idea of Tom & Chantai Snellgrove who are also the inspiration behind Parenting Special Needs Magazine. The camp was for a week with lots of activities broken into segments that these children could enjoy. During the camp “KK” (that’s what I call her) became friends with a little girl about her age. All of these children had different special needs and this little girl had a disability that made her body and hands shake. One of the fun things the children did before the parents picked them up was to play dress up. KK and her friend were having a great time. When it came time to put dress up things away and put your own things back on, the little girl could not get her shoes on; her disability prevented her from being able to hold still long enough to get her shoes on. KK right away sat down on the floor and began to help her friend get her shoes on. That was such a proud moment for me as KK has weak fine motor skills and her hands did not have the strength or dexterity needed to put on her own shoes…however, that did not stop her from making the effort to help her friend.  That was a proud moment for me and every time I think about that day it delivers a message to me about love and caring.

~Thanks for letting me share. Nana Ann

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