My little cute kid winning, cover model! ;-)

Joshua is in the Connections "The Special Needs Kids Directory" Fall edition!!!! There is a great story about him and Angelman Syndrome on page 16!!!!

He is on the cover, and there is a FANTASTIC picture of he and his big sissy, Caylee, on page 18 with the article! 

Thanks Connections!

Water boy...

Love this picture! It never ceases to amaze me how much JOY Joshua gets, from just a splash of water! I could watch him play in it all day, every day.

Emma Eberhart: A story of acceptance and sportsmanship

Hipperbibs: Where Drool Is COOL!

My friend Susan, created the Hipperbib (click to visit site).

The creation of the Hipper Bib was designed for my son Ian.

Ian is 5 years old and is diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome which causes Ian to drool.  After searching for special needs bibs, drool bibs, and fashionable bibs, I decided to come up with a unique bib that had all of these features. I wanted a bib that would compliment his clothing and in turn would not draw attention to the fact that he was wearing a bib therefore, maintaining his since of dignity. 

Here is a slideshow that Susan created, with all of her BEAUTIFUL Hipperbib models!

Colin Farrell To Give Celebrity Support To Charity Gala

Colin Farrell To Give Celebrity Support To Charity Gala

The Pretty Simple World of Angelman

Pre-Order the 2011 Calendar of Angels!

The 2011 Calendar of Angels!!!

"Containing over 220 beautiful, smiling faces and inspirational messages, the 2011 ASF Calendar of Angels is the perfect holiday gift to inspire, delight and spread awareness about Angelman Syndrome. Expected shipping date is mid-November. The cost of each calendar is $10 plus shipping and handling. All proceeds benefit the Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

The ASF wishes to extend our gratitude to all of our Angelman families for sharing and contributing your beautiful photos and messages that are included in the 2011 Calendar of Angels. We also extend a huge thank you to John Heinzmann, father to Andrew (AS+), for his passion and devotion for all of his time and hard work in designing the calendar and coordinating the printing and logistics of the 2011 Calendar of Angels. Thank you all for making the 2011 Calendar of Angels a tremendous success!"

~Quote from the ASF

Hear What I Am Doing

HEAR WHAT I AM DOING


Please, mom,
hear what I am doing;
see what I am saying.
The world is a crazy, confusing, scary place for me.
I can’t do the things other kids do—my body doesn’t work right.

But inside, I’m just like other kids—I need to be loved and appreciated;

I need to belong, to fit in;

I need to contribute, to be useful;

I need to be heard and understood;

I desperately want you to be proud of me.

I want to tell you my needs, my feelings, my thoughts, but they get

trapped inside me because I can't get my mouth to say the words

There gets so much piled up inside me
that sometimes it just blows up everywhere
And I know you're disappointed in me
and you get angry at me
And somehow its all my fault.
My actions speak so loudly, you can’t see what I am saying.
Yet, my actions are my saying.
My body says what my mouth can't.
I act out my feelings,
but often the acting out is such a problem that my feelings go unnoticed.
But I have no other way of telling you my feelings.

I want to cooperate, to succeed, to contribute, to feel good about
myself, but to do that I must be heard.

Please, mom, hear what I am doing;

see what I am saying.

Author: Carolyn Hunsinger
Reprinted by permissionof the author

The Gift of Words

The Gift of Words: by Ursula Cranmer, AS mom
"This was made as a film-making project together with Diversity Peer Support Network."

FUNNY Family!

Video of Joshua cracking up because his daddy put some glasses on, he doesn't wear glasses, and Joshua finds it HILARIOUS! Sissy joins in too!

M.....More!

Joshua is now consistently using his m sound for more! Sometimes it even sounds like the word more! I truly could watch him do this all day long, it's so exciting! :-)

Love one another!~Yvonne

Daddy catching our Angel...

GREAT idea for a water play table!

Water table, from I Make Stuff.

I just LOVE this idea! We could actually make it to fit Joshua's very tall height, a reason I have not bought any of the pre-school water tables! Going to get Hubby busy this week, while he is on vacation! ;-) I will definitely implement her idea of the hole at the bottom, with a water stopper, for easy draining and changing of the water.

Love one another!~Yvonne

Teaching the Alphabet

I love these fun play-dough mats that you can print out (the link is a pdf file). (Here are more ABC activities from the same site, Alphabet Resources) I love that it has a colorful picture of an object that begins with each letter, AND the upper and lower case of each letter! So many things only have one or the other of the letter case. You would want to print these on cardstock, and laminate the pages, and then your could have your child/children roll their play-dough into long snakes (a great fine motor activity) and lay them into the outlines of the letters. You could also use vis-a-vis markers or maybe something like these, Crayola 8ct Dry Erase Crayons Large Size, to work on tracing skills also. I found the link to these pages at this blog, it's a very cool Montessori style teaching blog. I love the Montessori way of teaching pre-schoolers. I love that it incorporates so many motor skills activities that the pre-school age needs to work on.

My son Joshua, who is 6, and has Angelman Syndrome, struggles with large and fine motor skills. I can find so many ideas, in the Montessori teaching style, that I can use to work on those skills with him. I need to do ALL activities with him using HOH (hand over hand), it takes a lot of repetition for his brain and hands to get on the same page. He KNOWS exactly what he wants his hands to do, but his arms and hands just don't cooperate with his brain. It is super frustrating for him, but he works SO hard, and doesn't give up! He is a such a fighter and I am always inspired by him, and he doesn't give up just because it's hard, but he keeps on trying over and over, AND he does it with the best attitude! I can, and do, learn a lot from him everyday about perseverance, and doing it with a happy heart! He is such a living example to me daily of Philippians 4:13: I can do ALL things through HIM who strengthens me.

Love one another!~Yvonne

Joshua and the Motorcycle

You haven't seen a kid who loves motorcycles until you've seen MY kid who loves motorcycles!!!



We are forever trying to find motorcycles when we are out driving around. We actually go for drives on the weekends, just to find them. This one kept us truly amused on our trip home from Galveston yesterday! It passed us once and Joshua squealed with delight. Well, we've always wanted to get his reponse on video, so...Hubby takes off weaving through traffic after this motorcycle, with Caylee and I cheering him on. It was quite the chase! We finally got past him, so that he could again pass us, and we could roll Joshua's window down and wait for the response! :-) It was GREAT, and so much fun. Some days when it's nice out there are so many out for drives, and he is such an ecstatic little boy! Of course, we enjoy his response just as much as he enjoys the motorcycles!!

It's the little things in life, ya know?

Love one another!~Yvonne