eSpecially Ben

Last night we watched one of the most riveting movies we have seen in a long time. The characters were well developed, the story kept us engaged and the scenery made us feel like we were at home. Are you at the edge of your seat, waiting for a title you can add to your NetFlix queue? Or perhaps you cannot wait and have to run to Redbox for viewing tonight? Ahhhh - I have tricked you a bit, although I speak the truth when I say we loved every minute of our home video. Yes, it was a home video from 2007 and 2008. I had all our Hi8 tapes turned into DVD movies so we could finally watch them. Our original camera broke a few years ago so we lost the ability to see them. Recently, I heard from one of my readers that they had not thought about the benefits of videotaping their child, and I want to share with all of you that it is important to videotape your children, not just for the memories but as a way for your child with special needs to see themselves interacting within their environ

See if you can follow this branch of the family tree:  Ben's paternal great-grandmother's niece sent me this last week in the mail.  Made my day! Special Exposure Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday are featured on sites to promote photography. Join in the fun. Or if you need your photos to be accompanied by lots of words try Wordful Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus .

In January, Ben had a video EEG at the hospital. In a nutshell, Ben was hooked up to 20 wires for 24 hours in a hospital room with little to no nursing assistance. So when we had the "opportunity" to get more information about Ben's seizures, I figured we would try the Ambulatory EEG . New experiences are good, right? Plus, torture at home has got to be better than torture in the hospital. All 20 electrodes took about one hour to apply.   If you have not done an Ambulatory EEG , I hope this will help. Here are photos of the process and some things we did to make the experience tolerable for all of us. 1. Bring help to the doctor's office. Gluing the wires to Ben's head was difficult again - he knew what he was fighting for this time! I also needed the help for the car ride home - Ben could have done a lot of damage to the wires while I drove home. Ben was held down by three of us. 2. Keep your regular routine. Once home, we planned activities f

One googly eye, marker, scissors and green construction paper and you too can have a worm on a leaf at your house. Need some art inspiration for your household?  Check out 5 Minutes for Special Needs every Monday .  And if you have a little artist in your home, link up and share with others.

Today is Purple Day  - an international grassroots effort to promote Epilepsy Awareness. Luckily, I just saw it on About.com's site  while on a very romantic date with my husband. We are at his college's computer lab. He's studying and you can guess what I am doing. We unintentionally "celebrated" with an EEG today. More on that later this week. Wear your favorite purple PJs to bed in support of becoming more aware of this disease.

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Nine months ago, Ben had a brush with fame and we had nothing but our story to prove it. Now the photo has surfaced. Here's Ben with Ace & TJ from the Ace & TJ Radio Show . Their work with Grin Kids is admirable - check it out when you have a moment.