Amanda Stanton

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Amanda Stanton Special Needs Parenting (Autism, CP & Moebius Syndrome), Kid Travel Tips & Mom Self Care

Grady and Abby have visited several colleges on their own while Zoe and I stayed home, mostly because they were farther ...
04/11/2025

Grady and Abby have visited several colleges on their own while Zoe and I stayed home, mostly because they were farther away than a couple of hours. This was is 2.5 hours away (each way), so still a bit of a drive for one day, but not too bad, and we thought Zoe would enjoy getting to see one of Abby’s top picks. I know that I did.

Now when she mentions something about the trip, she starts off, “when I went to college…” And I love it.

Zoe likely won’t go to college, not anytime soon, anyway, and I’m glad she got to live vicariously through Abby a little.

Happy Halloween! 👻 We had a fun Halloween trick-or-treating with friends and then going to their house for dinner. I’m g...
02/11/2025

Happy Halloween! 👻

We had a fun Halloween trick-or-treating with friends and then going to their house for dinner. I’m glad Abby made it to Zoo Boo with us since she decided to stay in and get a few things done instead of going out with us on Halloween. But she was productive; she got to work on several things that she needed to get finished.

Zoe loved being Frank the Firetruck (from Car City), and she’s already talking about possible costumes for next year.

Trick-or-treating at the zoo 👻
01/11/2025

Trick-or-treating at the zoo 👻

We love fall, but the weeks leading up to Christmas is Zoe’s favorite time of year, so she’s been listening to Christmas...
31/10/2025

We love fall, but the weeks leading up to Christmas is Zoe’s favorite time of year, so she’s been listening to Christmas music off and on (for most of the year 😅).

She’s also helping me look through her festive, Christmasy clothes from last year, deciding what will still fit this year, because pretty soon she will expect to look like it’s Christmas EVERY SINGLE DAY until it actually comes. I usually try to hold her off until after Thanksgiving, but we will see. 🎄

It was a gorgeous day to be outside, and we liked getting to hang out with Grady’s work friends for a few hours.
31/10/2025

It was a gorgeous day to be outside, and we liked getting to hang out with Grady’s work friends for a few hours.

✨ 2 DATES in 2 WEEKS! ✨ Who are we??
27/10/2025

✨ 2 DATES in 2 WEEKS! ✨ Who are we??

Zoe’s very into season and holiday-themed things right now, but school, not so much. She helped me decorate our house fo...
23/10/2025

Zoe’s very into season and holiday-themed things right now, but school, not so much. She helped me decorate our house for fall a few weeks ago, and I had the idea to try to tie that into a school day. I found an English lesson themed around Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin for her to do, and I helped her find a cute, fall-colored outfit for the day. After her lesson (which she enjoyed and VERBALLY PARTICIPATED in 😍), we baked scones and took turns reading a Halloween story (one of the longer ones we don’t typically prefer for bedtime).

Her new self-propelled wheelchair was delivered, which we are super excited about. Until now, she’s always had the stroller-styled ones, and they’ve worked really well for us until recently. She really needs one she can get into and out of on her own and that will give her a little more independence when we’re out and about.

🎉 Zoe’s weekly day out 🎉 It started sporadically but quickly became a very regular part of our week. Zoe REALLY LIKES ha...
22/10/2025

🎉 Zoe’s weekly day out 🎉

It started sporadically but quickly became a very regular part of our week. Zoe REALLY LIKES habits, routines, knowing what to expect, especially when it’s something she likes.

Since we’ve started this, she has declared that it’s not a day that she can have a doctor appointment, or anything similar, scheduled “because it’s a shopping day.” We learned that hard way, when this weekly tradition was very new. It was a quick appointment that had already been scheduled, and there was plenty of time after to do all the things she wanted to do. But she lost her mind, and we had no idea why. Later that day, she told us. “Appointments don’t belong on that day.” Previously, it had been a day that worked well for appointments and she had several planned over the next few months. The next day I rescheduled them all for a different day of the week.

She tolerates a few non-shopping places that day, but not many. The library is acceptable and also the planetarium, but I think she usually wants a store trip after the planetarium. Right now, she’s making the rounds to all of the stores that have a large Christmas display. 🎄

One of the ways I’ve been able to motivate Zoe in school lately and help us have a good day has been to theme our day. I...
16/10/2025

One of the ways I’ve been able to motivate Zoe in school lately and help us have a good day has been to theme our day.

If I can establish one thing for us to do that appeals to her, then I can use that to come up with a theme for the day. Today it was Alice in Wonderland, and it culminated with a tea party.

When I was in college learning to be a teacher, creating a thematic unit was, to me, one of the most fun things that we did. And getting to do this with Zoe now, reminds me how much I enjoyed planning themed days when Abby was little. Zoe didn’t seem to care much back then, so I’m glad she’s getting to experience them now.

On the weekends, Grady takes Zoe out for the afternoon, usually to a store, but sometimes the library or arcade. I’ve st...
15/10/2025

On the weekends, Grady takes Zoe out for the afternoon, usually to a store, but sometimes the library or arcade. I’ve started tagging along and we’ll go to Sam’s club for lunch and to let her look around while I pick up a few things. And then we’ll go our separate ways for a few hours.

For a couple of weeks, Abby’s car wasn’t operational and we were waiting on a part so I rode with Grady and Zoe instead of meeting them there. Honestly I preferred that because I didn’t have to drive. 👸🏻

You don’t realize how seldom they’ll ride with you after they get a drivers license until it’s been literal MONTHS since...
14/10/2025

You don’t realize how seldom they’ll ride with you after they get a drivers license until it’s been literal MONTHS since you’ve been in a car together.

10/10/2025

Zoe’s door has been the same for a long time, other than a few additions here and there. She’s loved butterflies since she was tiny and we put them on her door over 10 years ago.

She doesn’t typically like change, so I was surprised when she showed me these sunflower decals on Amazon and said she was redecorating her door with them. But we got started. I think shes signaling to us that she’s growing up a bit. ❤️

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