Finding Ninee » Sharing our parenting and special needs stories with heart and humor.

Yesterday, Tucker’s backpack came home with an official Helmet Authorization Form.  I guess the little kids get access to tricycles and Big Wheels during gym, but are not allowed to participate unless they’re wearing a helmet.  As parents, we must choose whether to provide a helmet, utilize a school one or choose the third option […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • Henriette - Hmmm…Shouldn’t the person driving the car smoke a cigaret? 😉
    My mom smoked in the car. All the time. Yuk!October 1, 2012 – 2:58 pmReplyCancel

  • admin - H, I can’t believe I left that part out! My dad used to smoke cigars in the car with all of us in it. Amazing we never crashed when the ashes fell on his lap and he had to swat them off. Talk about a different world!October 1, 2012 – 4:18 pmReplyCancel

  • Sara - It’s not the height from the ground that is the problem, it’s the speed with which they can ride the tricycle: high speed into fixed object = Bad. (Sure, some kids barely get moving on the things, but SOME kids…..some kids tear holy hell outta those things). But somehow we all survived. Made us tougher. I, too, had a ridiculously dangerous hand-made go-cart that I would ride down a hill that, at the time, felt like it was practically a 90-degree angle, straight down. No brakes, just feet and the ever-popular if-you-think-you’re-going-to-crash-lean-hard-and-fall-over technique. I, too, am nostalgic for the carefree youth that WE had…..still, it’s all in the name of safety, right? (I wonder how many seatbelt-less kids died in car wrecks back then; we sure could pack’m in, couldn’t we?)

    p.s. I’m pretty sure that’s me on the floor behind the driver. I ALWAYS got the floor (my siblings were MEAN). Thanks for including me in the pic! 😉October 2, 2012 – 10:35 amReplyCancel

  • admin - Sara, that is you. And Julie’s there too, trying to tell Grandma that somebody hurt her. “My eye! My eye!” Good point about high speed into fixed object = Bad. I didn’t think of it that way.October 2, 2012 – 10:44 amReplyCancel

  • Momito - I remember all of those activities! I wonder how you all survived???? I was a terrible mother I guess. You kids had a lot of fun!November 17, 2012 – 1:07 amReplyCancel

    • admin - Ha Momito! You were not! And we had TONS of fun!!November 17, 2012 – 4:03 pmReplyCancel

  • MJM - “Helmet Head”…love the title…very funny and oh so suiting. I agree with you about not using the school’s helmet…sweat, dirt and lice…ewww grodie. Did you at least get him one with flames or something else cool on it…or did you just go all plain jane on him?April 16, 2013 – 12:54 amReplyCancel

    • Kristi - Could you GET ANY COOLER? I think not. And yeah, he rocks a Cars helmet at school with Lightning McQueen AND Mater on it. Doesn’t get much better than that when you’re three. 😉April 16, 2013 – 7:43 amReplyCancel

It’s Friday morning and Tucker does not want to go to school.  Who can blame him?  We were enjoying a long game of Ze Chase Monster (I chase him around the room wearing a blanket over my head.  Then, I capture him in the blanket, swing him around and throw him onto the couch pillows.  […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • henriette - I loved the first post! And I still look at the cartoon just for giggles…I demand at least one weekly cartoon!!! Michelle B once described her couch as a petri dish, which is pretty much the state MY couch is in. There you go- now share with us what is living in your couch, we already know about the rugs! 🙂

    I’m expecting a detailed post on Monday with a couch cartoon!September 28, 2012 – 6:54 pmReplyCancel

  • admin - Uh oh…pressure! Petri Dish Couch would make a good one though…hmmm…
    And I freaking love the bad dog cartoon. I’m not even sure why but I was laughing like a loon.September 28, 2012 – 7:13 pmReplyCancel

  • henriette - Cause it’s hilarious?!! I think I might have to print and frame it! 🙂September 28, 2012 – 7:34 pmReplyCancel

  • admin - Huge Like!September 28, 2012 – 8:19 pmReplyCancel

  • Mommy is a Napkin | Finding Ninee - […] Well, pretty much every morning.  Some days he gets cereal and fruit.  Oh, and that one day, he had Oreos.  But, whatever, today was a hot breakfast day.  While I was slaving in the kitchen, my adorable […]November 2, 2012 – 12:23 pmReplyCancel

BT (Before Tucker), my good friend Julie made a comment along the lines of “Well, ya, but he’s just a dog.”  I can’t remember the nature of the conversation but it obviously had something to do with her kids and her dog, her dog being the lesser being.  I was horrified and insulted on his […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • Henriette - Ha ha ha, hilarious! I have no carpets or rugs in my house. Except one; a white rug I bought for Olivia’s room. In Norway! I was this close to have to pay 150$ in over weight…. Two days after rug is down, what does dog do? Yes, he picks the white rug as his destination to throw up his indigestible grass on! Ugh!!!September 27, 2012 – 11:21 amReplyCancel

  • admin - UGH! Figures! What is it with these animals that they have to make cleaning up their puke and poop the hardest it can be? And yours? On white? OUCH. Ironically, the only reason we have any rugs in the first place is because Chief has a hard time walking on the floors because of his arthritis. Way to reward me, dog! Crap all over the rugs we have just for your use!September 27, 2012 – 12:45 pmReplyCancel

  • Mark - That’s rough but I am sure Chiefs good attributes outweigh the bad:) Besides, I haven’t met one dog owner who hasn’t cleaned up everything you have described and can relate that at times my beast ticks me off. However, at the end of the day it’s nice to have/know my Roxy sleeping at the end of the bed snoring. hahaSeptember 27, 2012 – 12:57 pmReplyCancel

  • Cathy - Great article, candid! And I see you still have your artistic flair. Chief is just priming you for Tucker’s teenage years. Patience comes with trials, Mama.September 27, 2012 – 1:27 pmReplyCancel

  • admin - Thanks, Cathy! I’m so glad you’re reading this. And, wait. You mean Tucker’s going to start wiping his ass on the floor when he’s a teenager? Great. 😉September 27, 2012 – 2:23 pmReplyCancel

  • Chloe - Ha ha! LOL
    This is the funniest, best written blog I’ve seen in forever. I love the picture and especially of your hunched over smiling dog wiping his bum on the carpet. This is really good. Thank you for sharing.September 27, 2012 – 9:38 pmReplyCancel

  • Love&Giggles - When we moved into the new house or should I say our first home and the first time the kids get their very own room and get to decorate how they please, Tinasha decides Elijah’s room is her personal bathroom. This is a dog who has been craping outside for eight years. Poor Elijah. We finally got Tinasha to stop. but GEEZ and Thank God!!!September 28, 2012 – 6:26 pmReplyCancel

  • admin - Maybe Tinasha was decorating the way she pleased? That sucks though! Poor Elijah indeed! 🙂September 29, 2012 – 10:19 amReplyCancel

  • Nina - Hahahahaha after this post, I am almost positive you are a fly on my wall and writing about my household…This was wonderful, I actually woke my husband up and read it to him.September 29, 2012 – 11:39 amReplyCancel

  • admin - Thanks Nina! I love that you woke your husband up to read it to him! Yay! I guess all of us relegate our mutts to second class citizens once the babies come into our lives. 🙂September 29, 2012 – 6:11 pmReplyCancel

  • Pissed at Pup Deux | Finding Ninee - […] of you may have read the post in which I expressed annoyance with my (used to be much more loved) dog Chief.  He fell into […]October 30, 2012 – 7:38 pmReplyCancel

When Tucker was 18 months old and ate his boogers, I didn’t really worry about it.  I mean, pretty much every kid does this, right?  But when he was almost three and ate his boogers without any embarrassment, I realized that this might be a problem later, like in school, so I started to tell […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • Chadwig - I wouldn’t worry about the booger thing. I think the best method is to tell them that they are free to eat their boogers all day long but they must do it in private–suggest the bathroom. If they’re full of snot suggest to them often to go to the bathroom and blow their nose.

    Snot a big deal.September 26, 2012 – 11:39 amReplyCancel

  • Love&Giggles - Hahahahahaha!! Made me giggle. I told the kids that there are bugs in boogers and if you eat enough of them they will eat your insides. I scare the kids all the time with things like this but it ALWAYS woks!!!September 26, 2012 – 3:59 pmReplyCancel

Of course I hate it when Tucker gets ill.  What parent on the planet would not take every runny nose, cough, bump and belly ache on herself to relieve her child of it?  As there is to just about everything, there’s a plus side to my normally extremely active three-year-old boy not feeling 100%.  I […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • admin - So when I said I’d gladly take Tucker’s sickness away from him, I meant that I’d take it so that he does not have it. Not that I get it once he’s well. Duh.September 25, 2012 – 10:52 pmReplyCancel

  • Love&Giggles - I love the cuddles too! And how they know that nobody takes better care of them than Momma!September 26, 2012 – 4:08 pmReplyCancel

  • Sick Monkey | Finding Ninee - […] that he does indeed have a temperature.  So, we’ve been lying around today snuggling (I get the best snuggles ever when my little man is ill), reading books, and enjoying a Kipper marathon.  Well, Tucker enjoyed […]October 16, 2012 – 2:32 pmReplyCancel

  • This Boy is Mine | Finding Ninee - […] He is mine.  He isn’t feeling well.  Again.  He has a fever.  Maybe because he’s sick (sick boy loves his mom), or because of the article in Huff Post, or because I just finally got over myself, as we were […]November 19, 2012 – 11:41 pmReplyCancel

The day I birthed this blog, I clapped my hands in a room by myself, so excited to have two live posts, along with “The Blogess” section and a banner image that took me hours. Since then, I’ve remained crazily excited about Finding Ninee but strangely hesitant to share it with more than a few […]

View full post »

by Kristi Campbell

Whatcha think, peeps?
email a friend

  • Sara - Giving up the dreams one has for one’s child is a very hard, very mature thing to do. It’s so crucial though, to give the child room to become who the child wants to be. …My pseudo step-son is on-the-spectrum, but not autistic. The thought (hope?) has always been that he’ll catch up, that his emotional development will eventually catch up with his physical or chronological development. He’s 21 now and he’s still not quite there. He’s made big progress since I met him, but he’s still not there. The thing is, his age seems to always be in flux. There are times when he’s so mature (maybe 20) and other times when he seems closer to 14. But I think that’s how he figures it out: by trying really really hard to be Responsible or Mature, and then regressing back as a relief from the effort. I’m confident he’ll get there, but it will definitely be in his own time.September 24, 2012 – 11:03 pmReplyCancel

  • Nina - This is wonderfully brave and optimistic and more than that, you are right! It matters!! Write it, link it, share it!September 25, 2012 – 2:32 amReplyCancel

  • Kevin - Kristi,
    I remember clearly the hopes and aspirations I had for my infant son- that he’d be so many things, all the promise this world could hold in his big, blue eyes. Now, twenty years later, I’ve had to learn that what they generalize as the “broad-spectrum autism scale” is vague and has a myriad of definitions. My boy (now grown, but often still very young socially) is almost “mainstream” which is another way psychology and society can label kids like him as “challenged”. As if life isn’t perplexing enough.
    While he no longer lives with me full time, spending part of each week with his mom now, I struggle nearly daily with managing my expectations of, and dreams for him. I have had to surrender, and let go of them time, and time and time again: to let him be who he is and work his path out for himself. Yet in some ways I still hold on to them tenaciously… for how can a parent ever not long for the success and acceptance of their child in a big screwy world?
    But celebrate his achievements, encourage him over and over, exercising patience whenever you can, ’cause in the case of my son (and many others like him) their “wiring” is different enough that it can take much longer for some concepts to sink in when to compared to mainstream kids.
    – Thing to remember always: These kids aren’t defective, or any less than other kids, they are just a little different. It takes love, patience, and perseverance.
    – I know you have all of those.
    This is just a scratch in the surface of this huge topic, a brief flutter of pages with volumes of material around and in between each line. Let me know if can lend assistance or clarity – anytime.September 26, 2012 – 10:28 pmReplyCancel

    • admin - I’m sure I’ll need your assistance and clarity many times. I’m just not sure how, yet. Thank you for a great post.September 26, 2012 – 11:01 pmReplyCancel

« Older posts Newer posts »

N e v e r   m i s s   a   n e w   p o s t !