Cadman’s Creatine Crusaders

01/05/2024

📢 Attention friends and family! Now is the time to register for ACD’s 9th annual Walk for Strength, happening June 15.📢

👟💪Join our family in a fun community event and make a meaningful impact in the fight against CCDS! Tomorrow is the final day to register for Team Cadman’s Walk for Strength and be guaranteed a t-shirt by walk day!

➡️ Register now! creatineinfo.org/cadman

13/03/2023

It’s so true, if you’re ever wondering how to interact with someone with disabilities, or how to answer your kids’ questions, just look to the siblings. When a little girl down the street saw us approaching and asked Emma, “Why is he riding in a stroller like a baby?,” Emma responded, “He’s not a baby and he’s in the stroller because he wants to be.” Accurate.

28/11/2022

Check out this new video about Cadman's CTD diagnosis... please take a few minutes to watch and learn about this currently untreatable disorder and our mission to find a treatment! And, tomorrow is ... there are some amazing researchers working on projects aimed at CTD treatments. You can donate to support this research at www.creatineinfo.org/cadman and your donation will be matched up to our goal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVharfIjbfI&list=PL5UTAk2ll_fxypR1Lxh70mLkUofpxef-d&index=6

04/09/2022

The little moments and photos like this, which are actually so big, bring such moments of true pride and joy to my day… Cadman is usually down for a good selfie—seeing his handsome face will make him, and anyone, smile. But to get his photo without selfie mode, it usually needs to be candid or I just have to do something silly to make him laugh (not difficult; he’s pretty easy to entertain and make laugh, one of those awesome parts of his personality that make you just feel good being around him!). This time, I tried taking his photo with Nelson and he immediately jumped up to grab my phone before I could take it. I asked him to sit back down so I could take his photo and he actually listened and did it. AND struck this adorable pose. Heart melted!!! This kid is so adorable my heart just can’t take it sometimes, and these moments of progress and connection are the absolute best. 📸🥰

30/07/2022

Cadman & his wonderful RBT Tessa… she came with us to a beach birthday party and patiently spent 40 minutes working on getting him down the stairs while Emma and I were down on the beach. Cadman has a lot of sensory issues at the beach which thankfully have gotten so much better. Having someone like Tessa join us makes it possible for me to do something like this with both kids on a Friday afternoon. Also, this was Cadman’s last day of summer school yesterday so yay for summer vacation!! ☀️🌊

27/07/2022

Excited for Cadman to get to experience this camp in a couple weeks!

SAN DIEGO (K**I) – The YMCA is hosting summer camps for special needs children to help them build skills, confidence, and character! These camps will help them explore the limits of their imagination with every adventure at the YMCA. This camp is held in partnership with Autism Society of San Dieg...

11/04/2022

One of my favorite things about spring break was ALL the cuddles with Cadman. He was not in the mood for swimming and found all the commotion around the hotel pool to be a little overwhelming so the solution was bringing his iPad, setting it to a low volume (so thankful my husband found the volume control app that locks it at a set max volume!), and just letting Cadman watch/listen to his favorite videos, which also meant poolside cuddles all-day-long!
Meanwhile Dan and I would take turns with his sister Emma while she swam and floated around the lazy river over and over. This was a big step for our family; it’s been a slow steady process of getting Cadman to the point of being able to enjoy being out in public places ever since the whole pandemic thing disrupted his routine and made everything more difficult. Having a successful and fun family hotel stay was a huge blessing and we are so proud of this cuddle bug for how far he’s come! Special shout-out to Cadman’s beloved iPad!

14/03/2022

Happy 7th birthday to Cadman, the boy who makes my world go round! 🥳💙🎈

Cadman’s birthdays have become more fun and relaxed for me each year as I’ve grown into learning to let go of all the expectations and let it be Cadman’s day the way he wants to experience it….. He doesn’t like opening gifts so his sister gets to open them for him, and then he gets to play with them. 🎁 Cadman gets overwhelmed by everyone looking at him and singing “happy birthday” so we just kept singing as he went to hide in the other room but looked back and flashed his sweet sparkling smile as he walked away. 🥳 He won’t blow the candles out so all the kids at the party get to help blow them out. 😙 And I may not have any photos of Cadman blowing out his candles but I do have photos of him with chocolate cake on his face! 🎂 Cadman has little interest in hitting the piñata but loves to grab candy from the ground and eat it. 🍬 He loves balloons and balls and Blippi and cars that go. 🎈🚗 I don’t even know what most other 7 year old boys might be into but I know what Cadman is into and I love celebrating him and everything he loves on this day. 7️⃣🎉

Cadman can now run and jump with his cousins, and help himself to all the party food (LOTS of bacon for the birthday boy today!), and he’s happy. This was not always the case. Birthdays have been pretty hard at times in the past. We’ve come a long way to get to this point and I’m thankful for how much I’ve grown into my role as his mom to just be able to focus on what makes Cadman happy and sit back and enjoy watching him be himself and be happy, even if it doesn’t match up with any typical expectations.

08/03/2022

This rings so true and every word hits home… Cadman’s little sister Emma is amazing and the most incredible sister in every way, and I pray I can do my best to help her navigate this journey that is sure to progress and develop in ways I could never imagine as time goes on.

Somedays I wonder about the day she'll realize how different their relationship is.

Realize most little sisters didn't speak for their almost 7 year old brothers, or explain things to them, at only 3 years old.

Realize her friends did not usually make sure someone was holding their older sibling's hand, when crossing the street.

Realize not all sisters rushed to tell their brothers to take a deep breath or that it would be okay, when they were having a meltdown.

Realize the number of times she was quickly handed off to a family member, while mom or dad had to attend to her brother.

Realize how often she had to leave somewhere early because it was too hard for her brother.

In some ways I fear that day. Will she resent us? Or worse, him?

I hope not.

When that day comes I hope she can see how amazing that she was and is.

That she knows no one ever asked her to do those things, she just did and that is astounding.

When it all becomes too much, I pray she knows that while she is a defender of and a comforter for her brother - that she is just as important and just as loved.

I hope she sees the road she's traveling isn't easy for either of them, but they will both be better people because they have each other.

She is love.

27/02/2022

Sharing via IEP San Diego 💯
I will never give up!