I will never own a FitBit. It might destroy me. I have just enough OCD to view each day as an extension of the one before – a staircase descending to self-improvement hell. My nature runs contrary to continual data. After a month, I’d be Forrest Gump-ing it – running across country because my FitBit whispered that I could. I did buy one for my husband though. True to his nature, he let in die …

Summer is here and it’s time to get outside. Which is easier than it sounds if you have a kid with sensory issues. But experience is everything and baby steps are key. Just think of it like easing into the pool. The water’s fine once you get used to it. For tips on how to help your child play and eat outdoors, click the picture to read my new article in Parenting Special Needs Magazine. …

I have a theory. The things we now make with our hands are more ethereal than they once were. We text and send ecards into the universe along with our good vibes. Because of that our thoughts skitter in a way they once did not. Like our hands, they are less grounded. Our fingers are not smudged in the morning from creasing the newspaper just so over breakfast. We read on our phones and order …

I was listening to NPR, as I usually do on my way to pick up my son from preschool before the soundwaves get hijacked by Bubble Guppies DVDs. This is my 15-minute news window, where I fill my head with as many current cultural events as I can before re-entering kid kingdom. I didn’t know what I was getting into that day. That one bout of radio news would send me into a sleepless night …

8 Middle-Grade Mystery Series for Your Kid Detective Years 8 to 12 are golden. These are the elementary years of yore when homework is fun (mostly) and days follow each other in mellow continuity. Hormones lie dormant. Friends come over to play in the backyard until mom calls you for dinner. This is the era I discovered series books. I loved the feel of a book in my hands and a story in my head. …

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. I’m from the south. The Nashville buckle of the Bible belt in all its glory. We smile. We say hi. We hold doors. However, I’m not always part of the collective “we.” Maybe it was my stint in New York, in a city that squints at an unsolicited smile like, “Hey man, whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying.” Or maybe it’s just me. I walk …

Medical professionals come in two molds: the ones with bedside manners and the ones without. When I think over the varied responses of the doctors and specialists we have met as they’ve given us the many diagnoses and predictions for our son, I’m grateful that our first doctor, the one who brought him in to this world, never saw him as anything other than perfect. Click the picture to read our thank you on Her …

Try telling a woman undergoing fertility treatments not to stress. Seriously, do it and see how it goes. But tell a joke, stream some Conan O’Brien while she’s flat on her back in the recovery room and you might get a smile. Using humor to aid in fertility is exactly what a team of researchers decided to do…with surprising results. Click the picture below to read my article in Mom.me on the effects of ‘medical …

Here’s the one security question I still can’t choose: “What was the name of your first pet?” I was 13 that October, right around the time when the weather turns in Tennessee so that I needed a jacket before I left for school that morning. I ran back in to grab the old Patagonia off the hook when I heard the summons from my mother to check Amber’s food bowl before I left. Amber, our …

When we first heard about Zika last summer it sounded too scary to be real, especially for expectant mothers. But is also sounded too far away to reach us. Brazil is not my backyard. But it did reach the U.S. and despite the fact that a year has come and gone, it’s still something I’m choosing to care about and take precautions against. Click on the picture to read my article in Mom.me on how …