I don't buy organic fruit but I buy organic gummy bears (they taste better).

I shop at Whole Foods, but only for our junk food.

I vaccinate my kids.

I won't allow my kids to eat artificial colors, artificial flavors, nor artificial preservatives.

I expect my kids will climb high, sometimes fall, and even break a bone (I didn't take my 8 year old in for his broken toe for two months telling him all the while to, "walk normally, it's fine" only to find out it was broken at the growth plate - I know, Best Mom Award!

I am full of contradictions. My kids are too. That's what makes them so cool. They are 2E. They're exceptional. And not in just two ways but in many more.

Pick a side. I hated that when I was a kid. I never understood why everyone couldn't just get along, find a compromise or, better yet, see the other's side or just agree to disagree. I'm tired now, as an adult, of being accosted by people in various arenas of my world wanting me to take their side. Because, taking their side means I can't see the other side, I'm not allowed to see more than one side according to others. And if I do see it and acknowledge it, I am a traitor to their cause.

Why does everything need a cause? Since when did parenting have finite rules? The best advice I ever received when I was pregnant for the first time was from my elders. Simply stated, "listen to everyone's advice and do what is best for your family." After all, you are the only one walking in your shoes. Who’s to say what works for one will definitively work for another?

I thought I understood that when I gave birth to my son. His babyhood was uneventful. He was fairly easy compared to what I heard from some of my friends about their babies' sleepless nights, colicky cries and terrible twos. He was so easy that we got pregnant quickly and surprisingly I gave birth to our daughter exactly 362 days later. Her due date was April Fool's Day, appropriately. But, in her race with her Irish twin, she was born on St. Patty's Day.

Somewhere around age two and a half, we were told by the preschool teacher our son was different. He couldn't sit still at circle time. Really? Are any two and a half year olds willing to sit for circle time? I didn't know. I was a first time parent. What is “normal?” Apparently the majority of two and half year olds are able to sit still for at least five minutes. And, worse (in their eyes), he refused to put the train tracks together in a circle. He insisted on a curvy, swervey track with a dead end at either end. Is it so wrong that at that age he wanted to pave his own way, show his creativity and be an energetic boy? We changed preschools. That was the first time I was told he was defiant and different than other kids, but not the last.

There are so many reasons we started to look into what was going on with our son. No one had answers. In preschool I started asking everyone I could think of; school professionals, social workers, gifted educators, friends, what was with my son. There was nothing wrong with him but still, something was very different about him. As so, I started my journey. Testing. Told by the Director of Special Education that, “every mom thinks their kid is gifted.” More testing. Therapists. Who was right, which observations mattered? More therapists, more testing. Finally, we thought we had it figured out only to find out that though we know so much, it is always a moving target. It? What’s it anyway? We’ve learned our family’s story will not be the same as anyone else’s. And, we have learned that is ok. We will be ok, no matter where our story takes us.