Friends make the world go 'round!

Tribute in the weekend brochure

I am more than blessed in life to surround myself with amazing girlfriends; through my childhood, high school, college and motherhood, I have shared laughter and tears with them all. Facebook has given me the luxury of staying connected with strong, compassionate, smart women all through the years and for that I feel thankful.

So imagine my heart being touched by this beautiful tribute to both Molly and me at this past weekends Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival here in Colorado Springs. The ladies from my book club (wine club): Anita, Carla, Jennifer, Tyra, Lisa and Karen as well as two other friends Sonya and Kathy sponsored the autism film "How to Dance in Ohio" in our name. If you have not seen it yet, it is playing on HBO and will teach you so much about our lives. Even I learned from the film and have more compassion for those that are verbal and who struggle with high anxiety and social deficits.

The editor of the film was in attendance and answered our questions afterwards. She said that the film maker wanted to have an autism film that wasn't like most of the others. She didn't want all the stats and figures of the autism epidemic showcased and she wanted the voices of the kids portrayed instead of the parents, which are mostly showcased in the other films. They wanted to portray equally the number of males and females but ultimately the boys only wanted to play on their video games and didn't talk very much (ha!). So they only used the girls footage since they were more insightful into their feelings and emotions which made it more entertaining for the viewers.

I hope that legislatures, teachers, therapists, friends, families and neighbors can all see this film as you will leave feeling touched by these people and their challenges. And in the end, hopefully there is more compassion and understanding for this challenging disability.

In the meantime, THANK YOU to all of my dear friends who continue to support us and touch our hearts while we raise our sweet Molly.

Did she REALLY say a full sentence?

I have spent the last hour going through each and every button on Molly's "talker" that I kept home with me today to update and add photos. Plus I wanted time to REALLY peruse the iPad mini device to see if Molly in fact wrote an entire sentence, UNPROMPTED mind you, on her device on Friday.

I got this text photo from Bailey who works with Molly one or two days a week.

The lighting is not clear but in the top left corner you can make out the sentence that Molly used "Please: turn on the music". Bailey was occupied with another client and Molly came over and said that!

I'm telling you people this is a MIRACLE!! Molly is my one word kid.  She hardly uses verbs much less "on" and "the"! Look, she even started the sentence politely! And for her to initiate with a person that was ignoring her is another huge milestone that her teachers have worked on with her for a long time! She self advocated for something that she wanted and that is a BIG step for kids on the autism spectrum. It's all coming together.

I'm realizing that I have never shown you a picture of her talker, have I? Touch Chat is a communication app that you can now download onto an iPad. She loves it as she looks like the other kids using her iPad AND she can watch videos, listen to music, peruse FB, etc all in one place! Technology for a non verbal kid is such a gift in this day and age!

Each button on that top row will lead you to other pages that you can customize. So on her "people" button we have various groups: family, speech therapy friends, school friends, teachers.. all with a picture of the actual person and their name. The device speaks it when you push that button. The "Question" page links over to who, what, where, when , why etc. We've also added lots of social questions like "What is your name?" "How old are you?" "Do you have any pets?" etc. The other 80 icons are similar in that they link to other pages with endless opportunities to customize.

A truly efficient communicator could get all of their needs met with this device. Molly has the technology at her disposal it's her apraxia and sequencing challenges that limit her from filling us in on all her wants, needs and thoughts. But never say never, right?

I asked both Molly's teacher and speech therapist if there was a pre programmed key on her device that says "Please turn on the music". They both said "not that I know of". And I can now vouch for that since I have touched every button and can't find one that would have made that easy for Molly to say. Even though I can't get her to replicate it at home....it looks like she in fact said it. And I'm so excited!!

I just hope she doesn't say "Please stop writing about me" next. :)

Girlfriend can hike!

I get such a kick out of hiking with Molly. She is all business. From the moment the car door slams at the trail head, she is out the door and immediately 30 yards ahead of me..... and the distance just grows. She has a little strut as she motors along. Hiking in the beauty of Colorado brings her so much joy.

She mostly hikes with her dad and Tucker our yellow lab. They have explored many trails and know Red Rock Canyon like the back of their hands. I, on the other hand, know one route in the canyon that we access from the top of our neighborhood and I typically don't venture from the tried and true. So this week tested me a bit. Molly and I went out on two occasions and both times I let her lead. We'd get to a fork in the road and she would slow down and wait for me to catch up. She'd look at me expectantly to tell her which way to go. Since I had NO clue, I told her to pick and off we went to the right. It was a pretty day, the weather was good, we had no pressing commitments to get home to, so I relaxed into our adventure. I didn't know where we were going. I didn't know how far we were going or how long it would take. Typically I'm a bit of a control freak and LOVE knowing those details but decided to just go with the flow. I had my phone if we got too lost and Brooke had to come and get us wherever we ended up.

Garden of the Gods in the distance

We hiked up. We hiked down. She skipped trails that went off to the left, and others that veered off to the right. She seemed to know where she was going so I kept plodding along behind her. Tucker ran ahead sniffing, exploring and peeing. They were having a good time. I was breathing hard. Molly makes a constant noise that I'm sure baffles folks that encounter us on the trail. I compensate with a friendly "hello" when they finally get to me. Molly pulls off the trail to the right when she spots a fast mountain biker heading our way. She could teach a class on hiking etiquette if she could talk.

After our big 1 1/2 hour hike, I thought "Aha!! I have figured out an awesome job for Molly." It would take a particularly flexible clientele that would hire her but I think that they would be very satisfied with their workout. She is fast. She will get you back to your car. She will not talk to you and bother you; only lead you at a good clip. You will have NO idea where you are going or how long you will be gone, but that is part of the adventure! And because it's Red Rock Canyon, you will not be disappointed with the spectacular beauty that surrounds you. Just don't stop and look for too long or you will lose sight of your leader!

So today, we hiked again and I was curious to see if Molly was like me and would go on the exact.same.route. Lo and behold.....she didn't!! We got to the fork in the road, she turned to look at me for guidance, I told her to pick and she pointed LEFT (instead of right) and we did the prior hike backwards. I can't wait to see what we do next time!!

The icing on the cake for her is that she has lost 20 lbs in the last year with all her hiking. So maybe I should be hiking with her more.....

Here are a few pictures of Molly hiking through the years:

She loves hiking in all weather conditions

She likes the steep hikes that I hate...so her dad takes her on those

Stunning scenery by our house, isn't it?

She loves these socks

We started hiking with the kids as soon as they could walk