Our kids' special powers

It started with purple, Max's new favorite color in the whole wide world. He assembled a bag of purple treasures.


Soon, our house was decked out in purple...


...down to the kitchen sponge.


Max now has three purple cars, two purple shirts, one pair of purple socks, one purple hat, one purple snow coaster and a purple partridge in a pear tree (OK, not really, unless we can track one down on ebay).

Lately, something funny's been happening. People around Max are getting sucked into his purple spell.


Our babysitter, Linette, and Max's occupational therapist, Nafeesa, started wearing purple tops.


Belle, a sweet teenager who reads this blog, saw this tree and snapped a photo because it reminded her of Max.


His teacher made him a purple horse.

[I bought purple underwear, but you'll just have to use your imagination.]


Another reader, Anji, excitedly informed me about The Purple Store—an entire store filled with purple stuff.


My friend Lauren came to visit and surrendered her purple sweater.

And reader Kate wrote to tell me that if I had another girl, I should name her Violet.

In a recent post a parent wrote that her child, like Max, has "special powers," and the words have stuck with me ever since. Our kids really do have special powers—powers to overcome physical difficulties, powers to change people's perceptions of kids with special needs, powers to spark people's excitement with their own excitement.

Whatever challenges our kids may face, their spirit shines through.