The scene: McDonald's. My husband just picked me up from the airport (I went to the Blissdom conference in Nashville), and we're eager to down lunch. We walk in, and Max makes a beeline for a corner table he likes to sit at. Max has this thing about tables at restaurants: At the handful of ones we go to, he has a specific favorite table. For him, familiarity breeds comfort; new places, with their hustle and bustle, unnerve him.

Problem: A dad and his little girl are seated at the table. Max goes right up to them, gestures at the table and says "MAX!" loudly. I run up to him and grab him. I notice another dad, seated at the adjacent table with his two kids, staring.

"No, Max, they're at that table. We can't sit here today," I say. I apologize to the dad and daughter. Then I pick him up and carry him to the counter where my husband is ordering food.

Max squirms and whines. I put him down and before I know it, he is making a mad dash for that table again. Only the dad and daughter have gotten up and moved to another table.

They smile at us, kindly, as Max victoriously takes a seat at his table. I mouth "Thank you."

The dad seated at the next table shoots me a look. I am not sure what this look means, but it seems to say, "You shouldn't be giving in to your kid like that." Or maybe that is my own guilty conscience at play, I'm not sure. Because I really do have qualms about what's just happened.

I don't want Max to grow up to be a spoiled kid who thinks the world will just cater to him. At the same time, he does have special needs and there has to be some flexibility. If that guy hadn't switched tables, we probably would have had to take the kids to the car and eat there because.

This sort of situation is something that stumps me again and again and again. And boy, I would really welcome your thoughts.

Ellen blogs daily at To The Max

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

~Pablo Picasso

Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven't heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back…

Recycled crayons! By no means an original idea — instructions for recycling your used crayons abound throughout the internet, but we finally got around to giving this project a try ourselves.

A couple of used 10 cent mini muffin pans from a local thrift shop and we were in business!

And I have to tell you — This was one fun project!

Want the easy instructions?

Just unwrap and snap your used crayons into 1 inch chunks, pop them in a mini muffin tin, bake at 275 for 8-12 minutes, cool, stick them into the freezer for 5-10 minutes then pop them out of the pan. The pan cleans up easily by re-heating it in the oven and then wiping it down with a paper towel (I would not recommend using pans that you use for baking though — pick a couple up at a second-hand store to use just for crafts like this one).

Note: Brand name Crayola crayons work best. With off-brand crayons, the colors tend to separate from the wax and leave a thick layer of un-colored paraffin in the top layer.

What are you waiting for? Go give it a try!

What has your little artist been up to this week? Link up and share!

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Find out more about Michelle
Meet Michelle here each Monday for Magic Marker Monday
Questions? Please feel free to email Michelle at childlif[at]gmail[dot]com or come and visit her at In The Life of a Child

My yellow labrador Callie likes me, but she doesn't love me. She'll cuddle with anyone in the family but me, and it really bothers me.

We think it's because I am the one who puts drops and ointment in her right ear when a recurring infection starts bothering her. My husband, Peter, suggested that she might love me if someone else had "ear duty," but I know my dog. She has a good memory. She cowers when I walk into the kitchen, the place where I first administered the ear drops 3 years ago. There is no point in making her nervous about anyone else in the family.

Callie before ear drops

Our last dog, a black lab named  Katie, followed me everywhere. She look naps with me an looked after me when I was sick or sad. When Matthew had a meltdown and I cried, she licked me sypatetically. When my mother died, Katie was the first one to comfort me. Katie loved me.

I'd been thinking about getting another dog–a black lab puppy–until I read this article in the New York Times.

You all see the parallel, of course.

So I am going to accept Callie for who she is. And if a nice black lab find me someday, that will be just fine.

Laura

www.laurashumaker.com

The following is a reprint from my personal blog from almost two years ago, and I am still struggling to find appropriate dental and orthodontic care for my daughter with special needs. Have any of you run into something similar – medical professionals who feel your child with special needs has less of a need for orthodontic care?

Ashley had a dentist appointment this morning. The dentist is one she has seen for several years, and one who touts himself as a dentist for children with special needs. Until today, Dr. Karl had done an adequate job of caring for Ashley’s teeth even though his manner was a little brusque and rushed. But today things did not go so well. In fact, they went horribly wrong.

And I will share this story with as many people as I possibly can.

Deborah can be found writing here at 5MFSN every Wednesday, and can also be found at Pipecleaner Dreams.

IVIG day and port day.

She looks tiny in that huge infusion chair.

Always courageous though  - they had to reaccess her four times yesterday, before the silly thing would flush and she didn't even cry.

I think if it were me, I would be howling.

Got something to share?
Why don't you join in this Special Exposure Wednesday.

Please remember your comment love at each link you visit.

Also blogging at Three Ring Circus

• I have moments of absolutely insane worry that include things like, "If terrorists blow up our state, where am I going to get seizure medication?"

• I sneak omega-3 oil into Max's Wheatina and wheat germ into his chocolate pudding and when he looks suspicious I make it like everything is OK.

• I cannot stand it when I say, "He has cerebral palsy" and the other mom tilts her head and goes "Awwwww."

• I turn into the most obnoxiously pushy person on the entire planet when it comes to getting stuff Max needs, like appointments with busy doctors. Once, a lab messed up a blood draw and I called the office to complain and made them send a nurse to the house to redo it.

• I have been given several good memoirs having to do with kids who have disabilities and I never feel like reading them in my spare time because, well, that's my real life and I'm all about escapism.

• Sometimes I get resentful that I'm the one who deals with the doctors and therapists, never my husband, until I get a grip and realize how hands-on he is with the kids in other ways.

• I do more stuff for Max than I probably should and really need to step back and let him gain independence.

• I get a kick out of it when Max does naughty stuff, like when he purposefully pushed over a bottle of hot sauce the other night at dinner, because it's such an every-kid thing to do.

Ellen blogs daily at To The Max.

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

~Pablo Picasso

Welcome to Magic Marker Monday! If you haven't heard about Magic Marker Monday yet, click here and then hurry right back…

In celebration of my kiddos love of the Sunday Funnies (and an inexplicable yet persistent Peanuts obsession), I decided to let them entertain themselves by doodling their own comic strips this week.

Want to give it a try?

It's super easy!

We found some great free printable comic strip templates at donnayoung.org. All you have to do is click on the template you want, print it, then hand it over to your pint-sized cartoonist and watch the magic happen!

Happy doodling!

What has your little artist been up to this week? Link up and share!

Want the Magic Marker Monday button code? Click Here!

Find out more about Michelle
Meet Michelle here each Monday for Magic Marker Monday
Questions? Please feel free to email Michelle at childlif[at]gmail[dot]com or come and visit her at In The Life of a Child

Parents of children with special needs know the heartache and frustration that often accompanies trying to provide their child with the services and care needed for their child to lead a healthy and productive life.

Yumi Kubo is one example.

Yumi Kubo, is the mother of a 15-year-old autistic son, and the founder and CEO of Spectrum Vision. She has created a communication application on the iPhone and iPod Touch called "Voice4u".

Because her son is autistic and needed support with speaking, she purchased an augmentative and alternative communication device through her insurance. It took 6 months, and a lawyer to convince her insurance company to provide this device.

During that time, the therapists' assessment was more than $1,000, (PLUS the $1,000 paid to an attorney to negotiate with the insurance company.)

This communication system was extremely hard to learn, not to mention how heavy and large and almost impossible it was to carry it around.

But the real kicker came when, after all of this, teachers and therapists explained to Yumi that the device was not fit for her son and he would never use it.

Can you feel the frustration yet?

Next, Yumi decided to purchase a communication application for the iPhone.

Unfortunately, this application had too many different functions which made it too hard for her son to use. ( $190 lost in a second!) The speech therapist who had 25 years of experience couldn't use it, and Yumi's engineers and her co-founder who has a Ph.D. from Stanford weren't able to use it either.

Finally Yumi decided to take the issue into her own hands. She spoke with engineers, therapists, doctors and teachers, and all of these people were able to help her create Voice4u.

Voice4u.

Thinking at first that it would be a personal application just for her son, Yumi soon realized that people around the world with disabilities should use Voice4u too, since they all need the support.

And thus Voice4u begun it's worldwide journey.

The beauty that is Voice4u includes:

• A very modest and VERY affordable price tag of @29.99. Yumi is passionate in her belief that no parent should be unable to help their child communicate because of giant price tags.

• It is simple enough that 3 year olds can (and are!) using it.

• You can add up to ONE THOUSAND of your OWN icons and sentences for your child to use.

• The Voice4u website walks you through each and every step of how to use Voice4u via short vlogs. GREAT news for those of us who have less than stellar tech skills.

Parker and I have replaced his PECS with Voice4u. I wasn't really thrilled with the whole PECS program, because, really having to add yet another big and bulky binder whenever we went anywhere….sucked.

We uploaded OUR VERY OWN PICTURES of our VERY OWN ITEMS onto our iTouch. Hello amazing. When Parker touches the picture he wants he hears my voice saying the name of what the picture represented.

Totally kicking the trash of digging through pages of downloaded pictures of items not easily recognizable by a kid with Down syndrome.

And remember….PECS provide visuals only.

Yumi has generously offered to give one of our readers a free Voice4U application. All you need to do to enter is to watch this short demo video of how Voice4u works and then come back and leave a comment telling one thing you learned about Voice4u.

If you would like extra entries:

• Follow Voice4u on Twitter.

• Hang out with Voice4u on Facebook.

Because I choose to blog with integrity: This is indeed a sponsored post. The revenue from this post went directly into Parker's Medical Fund. Parker also received a free Voice4u application to try out. We love it. Please be advised that if this product would have not been fantastic there would have been absolutely no way I would have offered up this post or giveaway. Oh, and today's breakfast included a grape spritzer and a piece of toast with organic almond butter I bummed off of Parker.

You can also find Tammy and Parker blogging over at Praying For Parker and on Twitter where they are known as ParkerMama.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a police car pull into my driveway. Matthew was 13 years old, and had wandered from home to a bike trail down the street. Passersby noticed him cutting a large branch with a small but threatening pruning saw and called the police. Luckily, the officer that showed up at the scene was one who had given a talk at Matthew’s special class just weeks before, so he knew what he was dealing with.

But as Matthew got older, he got bigger and more aggressive, and could be really scary. Visits from the police became more frequent. One day when he was 15, a minor disagreement after school escalated into a full blown meltdown, and Matthew day he took off on his brother’s skateboard in a rage. I jumped in my car to search for him and found him in the parking lot of our neighborhood school surrounded by three police cars; lights blazing. It was a good thing that I got there when I did. These officers did not know Matthew and they didn’t understand his behavior and I was too much of a wreck to explain it rationally.

The next day, I put together a flyer with Matthew’s picture that explained autism, how it affected Matthew in particular, and circulated it around my neighborhood. I dropped off a stack at the police station, too, and while I thought the flyer was informative, it came across to many as a warning: “In case you see this boy flipping out, be careful!”

I did a little research and found out about Dennis Debbaudt, a professional investigator and law enforcement trainer who was the first to address the interactions between law enforcement and people with autism in his 1994 report Avoiding Unfortunate Situations.

He was also the father of a young man who has autism. If anyone got it, it was Dennis.

Today, Dennis provides autism training and resources for law enforcement, emergency first responders, parents, educators, care providers, and the autism community. His training video, Autism & Law Enforcement Roll Call Briefing is in use by the Department of Homeland Security and hundreds of police agencies throughout the country. The video provides a quick and engaging education in autism that helps increase safety for both officers and individuals with autism.

Dennis has downloadable resources and forms for parents and professionals on his website. My personal favorite is the Autism Emergency Contact Form. Many law enforcement, fire rescue, and emergency 911 call centers are willing and able to record and red flag information from this form into their data base. When a call comes from families that participate in the red flag program, 911 operators can alert the first responder before they arrive with key information that can improve the response.

By the way, Dennis is an engaging speaker with a good sense of humor and is such a nice guy.

Check out his website Autism Risk Management here.

Laura

www.laurashumaker.com

This video from D-PAN (Deaf Professional Arts Network) says it all…

Deborah can be found writing here at 5MFSN every Wednesday, and can also be found at Pipecleaner Dreams.