Tag Archives: community

November 2, 2012

Our 2nd Halloween with Magpie!

By Bobbie

Hercules and his Pegasus
Halloween 2012

Magpie did much better with trick-or-treating this year than she did last year.  I’m sure it’s because she has been with us for longer than just a couple of days unlike last year when we were in the middle of training in Ohio with er.  This summer Deeds decided that he wanted to be Hercules and then proceeded to say what everyone else would also be from the movie.  Little sister was Meg, Magpie was Pegasus, mommy was a Muse and poor daddy got stuck as Hades.  By the end of the summer, thanks to ebay we had all the costumes set and it was really fun.  Granted no one really knew who we were but the kids didn’t mind explaining to them.

In Halloween’s past we have learned that Deeds loves the holiday but it can be incredibly overstimulating for him.  His favorite thing to do was to make sure people shut the door so he could then ring the door bell and even if it was obvious no one was home we couldn’t keep him from continuing to go up and ring the door bell of each and every house.  This year was a bit different.  We went with some of his cousins and soon our group got separated.  Deeds, Magpie and I headed off with the older cousins while daddy and Gwen hung back with the younger.

At first it was great, lots of fun and laughter as the boys ran from house to house but soon Deeds would lag behind and then start to melt-down when he realized the boys were already at the next house.  Even when they stopped to wait for him he was getting pretty upset.  Finally I figured out that it was because once at the door people were often letting the kids just pick out their own candy.  This became quite time consuming for Deeds because he would put a lot of thought into which piece he was going to pick and heaven forbid they then told him to take another.

At one point apparently Deeds wasn’t a fan of any of the candy in the bowl and I overheard him saying “Do you have any candies?  I just really don’t like any of these kinds in here.”  I quickly stepped in and tried to explain to him that it’s not polite to say and you should just take a piece anyway and say thank you.  We intentionally go trick-or-treating in grandma’s neighborhood where they all know Deeds and Magpie just in case situations like this arise.  Thankfully they were quite nice to my little dude and he was soon racing off to the next door.

As Deeds gets older we see some amazing progress in how he is doing but then there are times where the more autistic tenancies come to the surface.  Holidays have become a bit of a dance for us and while we never know exactly how something is going to go from year to year we are thankful for an amazing supportive family (including his fantastic cousins) that always rolls with the punches and helps us out.

All the boys were excited they were “Hero’s”

2 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Autism, Holiday, Magpie, Service Dog

June 16, 2012

Rally Support and Love

By Bobbie

Can you even imagine being told that your 9-year-old child needs an operation to literally cut apart the two halves of his brain.  The surgery will help to stop debilitating seizure activity but that a lot of the outcome from the procedure is unknown such as how his language, mobility and even personality will be effected.

I have a dear friend who helped us with getting Magpie going through this right now.

Gina, over at Special Happens is giving her son Jackson his best chance in life and I want to do everything I can to help her help him.  She is an amazing woman, full of support and love for those around her and I feel blessed to be able to return that love and hope some of you can help me.

Over the course of the next months the family will need a lot of assistance with travel and medical expenses so if you can donate please head over to do so HERE.  I know times are tough, but we know first hand know how much even the donations of a simple dollar can help add up and bring tremendous encouragement in times of darkness!

For those of you unable to donate there is an awesome project going on to flood Jackson with cards from around the world.   Grab your kids and have a fun evening with crayons and stickers making homemade banners and cards (Jackson loves trains, rainbows and balloons).  Have no kids?  No problem, who doesn’t love a postcard!  Got a pet or an awesome service dog like Magpie, take a cute pic and send that to him.  Lets let little Jackson (and his family) know that each card represents a prayer or thoughts of love for them during this time in their lives.

Cards/care packages/ letters:

Special Happens / St. Aubin Family
 9609 S. University Blvd., #630303
 Littleton, CO 80163

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Autism, Epilepsy, Heros, Hospital, Mild Cerebral palsy (CP), Seizures

April 9, 2012

Neon Trees Love for Autism

By Bobbie

Saturday night we got the opportunity to go to a benefit concert put on by the Neon Trees for Deeds autism school.  One of the 36 students at this amazing school happens to be the son of the bass guitar player in the band.  How amazing that they would take the time out of their busy schedule to come and put on this concert, especially since they are promoting their second album that hits stores on the 17th!

You probably know them best from this hit:

I wasn’t sure how he would do with a rock concert but we decided if we were going to go we were going to give it our all.  We got there early and they had seats set aside for Deeds school.  We chose to sit in the front on the side so that if things went wrong we could quickly get out of the auditorium and it gave Magpie a place to lay down.  Before the concert Deeds and some of his other friends had a lot of fun bouncing around dancing while waiting for things to get started.  The only clean pair of jeans I had for Deeds were WAY too big for him so sadly he spent most of the time trying to hold them on.  I’m surprised he didn’t just take them off and bring them to me.  Once the bands actually started to play Deeds wasn’t so sure how he felt about it so I was glad we had the iPad and ear phones for him.

Not sure what I was thinking but after the openers when the Neon Trees got on the stage all the teenagers rushed the stage and of course it sent me scrambling to move Magpie and Deeds behind a row so they wouldn’t get stepped on.  Poor Mag’s wasn’t visible at all thanks to being a black dog.  I should have known it would happen, I just haven’t been to a concert in such a long time it slipped my mind.  It actually made it a lot of fun because then the band could feed off the excitement of the crowd.

Deeds and Magpie hanging out before the concert.

Deeds playing the iPad during all the commotion of the concert

A few songs into the Neon Trees set Deeds noticed some of his friends were dancing on the side of the stage so he headed over.  The rest of the show he had a lot of fun spinning, flapping, and dancing with the other kids with autism.  At one point I hopped up there to sit next to and block a big speaker and it was at that point I realized why the kids loved it up there.  They could feel the stage just pounding with the music.  Deeds came and snatched my phone from my hands and went to take pictures of the band.  Here is his first attempt:

One of the band’s crew that was standing there chuckled at poor Deeds trying to snap a picture and only getting his hand so he helped my little man take this shot.

Neon Trees

It was really sweet to watch this stranger help my little guy.  I guess Deeds decided he was a good guy because he then watched the band next to him for a while and then went and got his iPad and sat on the stage behind him playing.

Deeds watching the Neon Trees from just off the stage.

Just chilling during the concert

The concert ended up being sold out and I am just so happy for Deeds school!  At the very end Deeds got to go dance on stage while they played Animal.  He was SO excited, sporting his new shirt from the concert and kept bouncing around.  I got a video but since I was RIGHT in front of a speaker the sound is terrible so I suggest just muting your speakers.  He is the little guy with the buzzed head jumping around.

After the concert we got a chance to meet the band.  They were signing some of the other kids shirts but Deeds didn’t want them to draw on his new shirt so he had me give them his favorite autism one he wore before he changed.  They had a lot of fun signing the shirt and Deeds was grinning so big the entire time!  He even let Tyler, the lead singer rub his arm and talk to him.  Such a good night.  Deeds has been asking for their songs all weekend and LOVES their upbeat music.  He knows all the words to their new single already and we’ve caught him repeating it to himself multiple times.  I must admit daddy and I like the music too and we’ll be buying that new CD when it comes out in a week.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Neon Trees.

Neon Trees, thank you.  Awesome memories, and I can’t believe my little guy had so much fun at your concert.  Your fans were respectful to us and our little kiddo and you are our new hero’s!  Thank you, thank you.  Hoping the Karma train hits you with this next album, you guys deserve it.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Autism, Fun, Fund Raising, Heros, In Public

March 6, 2012

Digging the Dinosaurs

By Bobbie

One of Deeds favorite places to go is the local Museum of Ancient Life.  We have a family pass to the museum, gardens and animal farm so that we can go often.  In the past few weeks we’ve gone so many times the employees know who we are.  It was overwhelming the first few times with Magpie since there are a lot of kids there and it can be hard to keep her on task because they constantly come pet her.  We have turned it into a training for her so that when we go to Disneyland she will be prepared.

Having Magpie there we’ve been able to do things while at the museum that we’ve skipped over with Deeds.  There is a tunnel that is dark and just full of little lights all the way around you, I love it and think it’s pretty awesome but the one time we insisted Deeds go through it he freaked out.  There is also a room towards the end that shocks you a bit the first time because you turn the corner and a HUGE shark is right there.  We often just hurry past that room as well.  I don’t blame the kids for being freaked out.  My mother won’t even go into that room so it’s understandably frightening.

Waiting for daddy and sister before we head inside.

The last two times we went having Magpie with Deeds made him ready to try all the things we usually skip.  He would want to “show” Magpie things.  We did the star tunnel a few times and when we came to the shark he walked right up with Magpie and then asked for pictures.  Even sister got in on the action.  He also did it again so he could show his new sock monkey the shark.  He won’t go up to it without Magpie, but with her he is so much more comfortable!  This is what we’ve wanted for him, to help him become more and more independent, so blessed that Magpie is doing that for him.

Deeds and Magpie checking out the shark.

 

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in In Public, Magpie, Service Dog

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