Leaving the therapists office Monday, tears still in my eyes, I was left feeling raw and vulnerable while experiencing an overwhelming amount of mom guilt. Her words crashing through my head on repeat:

“You need to ask his psychologist when enough is enough and he needs committed to the children’s psych ward. It also sounds like it’s time for him to be on medication…”

I feel unprepared to face my reality. The reality that it might be time to consider putting Finn on medication. The reality that after describing the amount of abuse Finn has put me through this week, my own therapist mentioned committing him. Though she wasn’t talking about him being committed today, she did say she noticed that the amount of virtirol and violence towards me was increasing at an alarming rate, so knowing the signs of when a child needs psychiatric intervention is important.

Really though, it feels like the reality is that I’m not enough. That I’ve somehow failed some magic parenting test. I sit in my car and just break down. Huge heaving sobs as the mom guilt cripples me. Oh the mom guilt. Then there is the guilt that I said my deepest fear out loud: “I worry that we’re going to lose Finn like we lost Fredric’s father.”

So I sit in my car, torturing myself. Repeating my fears and self-perceived shortcomings. Allowing the waves of grief and guilt to drown me, before I muster up the courage to call the pediatrician and let them know we need a consult.

I barely hold it together as I describe what I’m calling about. As I hang up, my voice cracking, I muster up the energy to call my best friend Ellie. And I breakdown again. Not even her soothing voice and wise words break all the way through my misery.

I turn to Facebook support groups, but before I can even post, all I see are my fears coming true in others experiences. “I had to call the police on my child and lock myself in my room for safety” “I just had them committed into the children’s psych ward for the 3rd time” and so on. I start sobbing again, terrified that this is my future with Finn. That we are fighting a losing battle, no matter how much therapy and interventions we use.

I know I need more help, so I reach out to a group of local girlfriends to see whose shoulder I can cry on. Amanda invites me over, and I sit on her bed and release all my fears and worries in a torrent of tears and grief. She listens patiently and firmly puts me in my place, telling me everything I need to hear, even though I feel unworthy of the compliments and reassurances.

I leave Amanda’s, eyes swollen and sore, to pick up Finn. He’s in great spirits and I immediately feel better… until we go to the park. At the park, when I tell Finn it’s time to leave he starts berating me and then starts kicking me. I can feel the stares and judgement. I head to yet another girlfriends house, because it’s obvious that I still need support pulling myself out of the black hole of grief that has sucked me in.

She reiterates what both Amanda and Ellie have said, except this time it starts to sink in past my grief. It’s almost as if they talked about me before arriving and decided on a script. I lament “I just thought I had MORE TIME…” Her response is finally what started snapping me out of it:

As a parent we always think we have more time”

It just resonated with me… it was so simple, but so true. Still somewhat doubtful, I decide to let her comforting words be the truth, despite still feeling unworthy of them. I slowly try to let myself heal some, feeling thankful for my tribe.

This. This right here is the struggle of a parent with a child with DMDD. This is what it looks like when we break. I’m slowly picking up the pieces that my emotional rollercoaster left in its wake, but today I feel stronger. I have a plan. I’ve only cried once, when I told his OT that it looked like we were going down the medicinal path. Yet, as I write this, I know I’ll get through it, just like I get through everything else, one day, one hour, one minute at a time.

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When most people think of skateboarding, their first thoughts are usually something along the lines of misfit teens, punk rock, or maybe even guys like Tony Hawk. What they don’t think about, is just how amazing skateboarding is for kids who need occupational therapy. Kids like Everett, who are on the autism spectrum. Kids like Finn, who need help with impulse control. So today I’m going to highlight the awesome benefits of skateboarding for kids with special needs.

Surprising Benefits of Skateboarding

From the time children with autism are toddlers, they are placed into Occupational Therapy which is needed to develop motor, proprioceptive, vestibular skills and more. Skateboarding offers nearly every component of Occupational Therapy, which is why many of these children “crave” to skateboard. It stimulates parts of their brain that trigger focus, hand-eye coordination, and more. Here are just a few of the health benefits:

• Coordination – Skateboarding improves hand, eye, leg and feet coordination. When skateboarding, you need to alter your movements so you skate smoothly and accurately.
• Pain Tolerance – Other sports improve your pain tolerance, but learning how to skateboard includes constantly falling, tripping, cutting your knees and elbows, etc. Believe it or not, this helps to improve your tolerance and build up resilience.
• Stress Relief – Stresses consume people, even kids, all the time. Skateboarding is an avenue to relieve some of those stresses or frustrations.
• Precision – Skateboarding takes a lot of precision to master. You are constantly adjusting weight from one direction to another, switching your speed, and, when good enough, perfecting tricks.
• Reflexes – This one ties together with coordination. When falling or stopping quickly, you need to have quick reflexes to brace yourself or prevent a collision from happening. You learn quickly that running into a railing is not ideal.
• Patience/Behavior Management– Skateboarding, like other sports, requires an immense amount of patience. You will not be the next Tony Hawk after your first time on the board. Falling countless times, missing that tricky bend, and hitting that awesome trick will test your patience time after time. When a skateboarder is having a bad day, annoyed with the world, feels like he could punch through a brick wall what does he do? He skateboards. Same as kids with autism, when their impulse control is almost lost, their anxiety is through the roof, and the screaming and crying is about to begin, break out the skateboard and you’ll find that it helps them work through their current behaviors.
• Social Development- skateboarding allows those who struggle with normal social interaction interact with peers on the level the individual feels most comfortable with.

Skateboarding offers many components similar to occupational therapy such as focusing on motor, vestibular and proprioceptive skills. Saturday skateboarding lessons are quickly becoming one of the boys favorite things to do. Both boys have a weak core and crave high impact activities. Everett has poor motor planning and balance issues, while Finn has poor impulse control and anger issues. Skateboarding is helping tremendously with both. Learning self/impulse control and behavior management is a huge part in why I decided to start the boys with lessons. And perhaps, most importantly, it’s also pretty freaking fun!

Skateboarding has had such a amazing impact on kids with autism that there are several nonprofits that have been created to help connect and introduce skateboarding to those the spectrum. There are even studies that have popped up specifically to research the correlation of brain activity and heart rate between autism and skateboarding. It’s even been approved as an acceptable form of occupational therapy in several states.

Hopefully, with these studies and nonprofits, skateboarding will no longer be looked at as a rebellious pasttime by those who don’t understand it and more funding would be available for using skateboarding as a therapy rather that funding just another information autism organization out there.

I know that right now, the boys have found an outlet they both love and I couldn’t be happier with their awesome teacher and their continued progress. I hope they continue to find joy in skateboarding and that the benefits continue to carryover into other aspects of their lives.

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What is occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy (OT) treatment focuses on helping people with a physical, sensory, or cognitive disability be as independent as possible in all areas of their lives. OT can help kids with various needs improve their cognitive, physical, sensory, and motor skills and enhance their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.

Everett’s Therapy Routine

Everett receives OT 1 hour every Monday from Boost Kids (Shea). Shea has also helps him with feeding therapy and yoga. In addition to Boost Kids, he also receives 1.5 hours a week in therapy services from the local school system (speech, special ed, and OT).

A lot of what Everett’s therapy looks like is play. Which is pretty awesome, because a child’s most important job is playing after all. Everett needs extra help learning the appropriate skills and social interaction techniques to interact with other people.

Shea almost always starts Everett off with an obstacle course. This is one of Everett’s favorite things to do. He even pretends to make them at home (sometimes we do our own), or if we’re taking too long to start his session, he starts the course on his own! He loves his routines!

After the obstacle course they work on a variety of things from cutting skills to catching balls. They typically spend time working at the table (with things like drawing) and time working on more physical tasks. The physical tasks usually hit on a variety of areas, for example she’ll use a peanut ball and have him stretch to grab a puzzle piece with one hand and find it’s appropriate spot. She has him rotate his hands to work on motor planning, build muscle strength, and obviously the puzzle helps with more cognitive areas. Something you may not realize is that children with autism often have poor muscle tone, which leads to issues with balance in addition to limiting their fine/ gross motor skills. This is why the physical activities she provides are so important.

These types of activities that hone Everett’s fine and gross motor skills are really helping him to catch up to his peers.

When we started with therapy, Everett had issues with things like cutting, jumping, crab walking, and blowing bubbles. It wasn’t that he was incapable of learning it, he just lacked the motor planning capabilities. Over the last year he has grown leaps and bounds. He’s even crab walking on his own!

Shea just tested him for his yearly evaluation last week. He’s in a much higher percentile and scoring almost average in some categories! I’m so proud of him and his progress. Here are a few photos from his testing process. I loved being able to watch his skills and reasoning process.

Feeding Therapy

Here are a few photos from our feeding sessions.

When we do a feeding session, it’s always 30 minutes feeding and 30 minutes yoga. Feeding Everett is a challenge. He doesn’t eat most meats, veggies, and carbs. His diet is mostly hummus, guacamole, and fruit. We discontinued feeding therapy in the fall because we thought he was doing better and he was going to therapy right after school/lunch, so getting him to eat right away was tricky. Unfortunately, it’s starting to get worse again, so it’s looking like we’ll be starting up again soon.

Yoga

Boost Kids also offers children’s yoga classes. This is such a awesome thing. Yoga helps Everett strengthen his muscles, work on breathing skills, and he LOVES it! Every once in awhile, Everett will even request yoga during a regular OT session. Shea is awesome about accommodating his requests. One of the reasons why we love going to Shea is that she really goes out of her way to make Everett happy while still helping him achieve his therapy goals.

Yoga is truly one of Everett’s favorite things now. He brings his yoga pose knowledge home and loves working on various poses at home. His favorite is tree pose!

Home Therapy

The therapy doesn’t stop at those places either, we bring it home with us and utilize it when we can. One of the reasons we love Shea, aka Boost Kids, is that she’s willing to work with me to teach me strategies to use at home. We bring in a lot of equipment, especially from our favorite sensory shop, Fun & Function.

Here are some cool items that Shea has recently helped us with (all items can be found at Fun & Function):

Here is a weighted knot ball. Everett fell in love with this at Fun & Function HQ, and I asked Shea how to best use it for Everett. She showed me how to give him a workout with it, by having him lift it up and down a couple times and by throwing it back and forth. She also used it as a weighted lap pad while he did situps. She also suggested letting him hold it during screentime.

One of our favorites, is this compression roller. It almost instantly calms Everett down and it’s so fun to look at. In addition to rolling it across his body, he also rolls it across the floor when he does “push ups.”

Another favorite is this cool marble tracker. Everett likes to twist it into puzzles/knots and solve it. Shea recommended having Everett take lead here, limited only by his imagination!

Here we have sensory twists. This was one of the ones that stumped me. They looked fun and Everett liked squishing them, but I needed some fun activites to use them with. Shea set up little cones and let him bowl with them as well as toss them on the tops of the cones. It was such a fun game and easy to recreate at home, especially for our obstacle courses! She also said it could be a fun item for bathtub sensory integration, but we haven’t tried that yet.

We incorporate a lot into Everett’s home therapy, but we also have a lot of fun too. I try to make the activites fun, sensory friendly, and a learning opportunity. I’d love to talk more about our cool sensory stations and rad therapist, but alas, it’s bedtime and the wee beasties are definitely showing their inner monsters!

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Everett gets 1 hour of therapy with a trained therapist per week. We rotate biweekly between occupational therapy and feeding therapy/yoga. What does that mean? The other 167 hours in the week are ALL ME. Granted, he sleeps for part of that, so lets say approx 100 hrs a week, I’m focusing on what I need to do to balance Everett’s therapeutic needs with everything else, like Finn and my husband. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I lose sight of that bigger picture, but I’m working on stepping back and taking a breath when we get frustrated and overwhelmed.

After a lot of support from family, working with his therapist, and partnering with companies like Fun and Function and Ark Therapeutic, I’ve turned our house into a sensory friendly zone.

Everett’s Daily Routine:

• Wake up
• Eat breakfast
• Get dressed/Sensory Activity
• Go to school or on playdate/adventure (taking lots of sensory breaks if we are out)
• Lunch
• End playdate/ pickup from school
• Head home for nap or head to therapy (after school)
• Wake up
• Sensory activity
• Eat dinner
• Family time
• Bed time routine starts
• Books, books, and more books maybe songs then with luck, sleeping

Our routine isn’t as structured as it probably should be for Everett, but I do what I can to accommodate his needs while still keeping him in normal kid routines. We rarely spend days at home, so I bring Everett’s headphones/mp3 player with us, plan activities around breaks, and try to prepare him as much as possible. I also keep emergency fidgets in my bag (mostly chews from Ark Therapeutic and goodies from Fun and Function).

While we are out, I try to use the local environment as our sensory playground. We are fortunate to have many Kulture City kits at various places we frequent around town that we love utilizing. If you’re not familiar with Kulture City I highly suggest checking them out. They focus on providing organizations with tools to become sensory inclusive and they have an amazing app.

I also have Everett do crazy walks while we wait at places or give him challenges, like running ahead and seeing how quickly he can hop back and give me a high five. I take him to places at times when it isn’t crowded and during times that he can truly interact with his environment.

At home it’s a whole nother ballgame. We have a shelf of sensory activities that I cycle through on a daily basis.

We utilize a mix of homemade activities (slime, bubbles, painting etc), purchased items (swings, scooter board, hopper balls, etc), and music.

Our current favorite places for purchasing items are:

• Fun and Function
• Ark Therapeutic
• Sensor-bility
• Hearthsong
• Legacy Learning Academy

We use most of their products every week. I like to incorporate and mix things up. My favorite thing lately, is to set up mini obstacle courses. I do both indoor and outdoor, and although I try to make them slightly different each time, I tend to stick to certain things in each area. For example, our Hearthsong swing is outside, so of course that is always going to be part of the outdoor obstacle course. I also prefer to use our sensory bins outside due to the fact that they can be quite messy and Finn has a tendency to end up with little pieces of rice and beans! Indoors I almost always use our scooter from Fun and Function. We have the perfect length hallway to use it and it’s a lot safer than the road and easier to navigate than in the grass. I also tend to use our Legacy Learning Academy stuff inside, simply because I don’t want to loose pieces to our sets, and some require a table for writing. Other than that, I try to mix up our obstacle courses. I toss in fun stuff like puzzles, our hopper ball, a tunnel, a water mat, ball bouncing, and timed challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t have any obstacle course photos, but I will share a few photos of the various items we do utilize.

For sensory bins, I like to mix up different items, textures, and skill levels. I have made several of my own, but recently, Sensor-bility sent us one of theirs to try out. It was a bug kit that used a green rice base. I really liked it because it came with so much fun stuff. Everett spent almost an hour exploring all the different bugs and playing with all the various pieces that came in it! For the ones I make on my own, I use a dried rice and bean mixture or a dyed macaroni base. I then decide on a theme–for example, maybe our focus this week is on animals, so I select various animals and tailor the obstacle course around that. I hide animals in a mixture, then he has to pick an animal, do that animals walk to the bin, find the animal and make that animals sound until he deposits the animal in a color coded cupcake pan. Everett loves the fun challenges and I get to engage him on multiple levels.

I used to think it would be so hard and challenging to do all these activities, and I will be the first to admit I don’t always have it in me to do obstacle courses or special activities every day. His first therapist once told me “I bet you are doing more therapy at home than you realize” and she asked me a bit about our daily routine. She pointed out the simple things I did for Everett without even realizing it had therapeutic benefits. For example, when we are watching tv, I use a weighted lap pad or vest and a chew for Everett. When we are in the car, I keep a big bag of twizzlers in my console. (we call them chew sticks), and give Everett a fun way to give him oral input. When we are at the playground, him running around and climbing is sensory work too. He wears his Fun and Function dino cape when we go out and his body sock to hide in when he is overwhelmed. I give him back scratches and rubs and big squeezy hugs. I give him warnings about transitions and tell him a lot about what we are doing. All of those things help keep Everett level.

I’m no Autism/SPD saint. Everett still has frequent meltdowns (especially over potty training and sharing with his brother and sleeping and and and), but I do my best and really, that’s all anyone can ask, right?

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• Weighted Lizard
• Marble Maze Fidget
• Calm Down Jar
• Dino Cape

From Ark Therapeutic:

• 2 chewlery Necklaces

From Various places (mostly Amazon):

• Body Sock
• Sensory Brush
• Various Fidgets

• Crazy Aarons Thinking Putty

• Homemade Sensory Slime

• CozyPhones & MP3 Player loaded up with both Sensory oriented and fun music .

• General Info on Sensory Integration and Activities

Not Pictured/Still Have To Buy:

• Resistance Bands
• Blanket
• Weighted Lap Pad
• Rewards/Charts
• List of Items in Box

I’m considering also decorating the box in a fun way, but that will depend on time.
Hopefully this will be enough to give him the headstart he needs to integrate well with his peers!

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As the applesauce hits the floor and his shirt, I knew it was coming. After turning off the tv before he was ready, I knew it was coming. After taking a phone call, interupting his music, I knew it was coming. Screaming, crying, kicking, hitting, and pinching.

I stand there and take it all.

I try to tell myself it’s just a phase, he can’t control it, or it’ll be over soon enough, just tough it out. I know that there has to be something better out there. Some magic word or phrase, some As Seen on TV miracle that will make it easier. I know I can’t be alone, but at that moment, when I’m holding back tears, I feel it. Epic, soul crushing loneliness and despair, wondering how my life got to this point. I quickly shove it away, I have a 3ft 6 bomb to diffuse after all.
That bomb? It’s my 3.5 year old Everett. He’s on his 5th meltdown of the day. Each one, progressively worse than the last one, so I know this one is going to be a battle royale. The one that is going to take at least an hour to come down from.
That day? It was a little over a month ago. Since then, I’ve been trying coping strategies nonstop.
Looking at Everett, you wouldn’t know he isn’t your average 3 year old. He makes fart sounds, loves helicopters, and is obsessed with music. You wouldn’t know that behind that sweet smile, he’s seeing the world in a way even I have issues fathoming. His world is full of hidden triggers, just waiting to go off.
The worst part of the triggers? New ones pop up all the time. Take for instance the vacuum cleaner. He used to LOVE LOVE LOVE the vacuum. I couldn’t keep him away from it. Now? I turn it on and he runs away terrified. Every day I’m discovering new triggers. Every. Day.
Welcome to the day in the life of a mom with a kiddo who has sensory processing disorder.

After trying countless methods to diffuse the ticking time bomb in my house, I’m finally feeling more like a professional hostage negotiator and less like the hostage. My head starts spinning when I start trying to list all the (anti)meltdown methods, discipline strategies, and tips I’ve tried. Lucky for you, I’m going to share some of the better ones I’ve found.

Method 1: Divert Divert Divert

Redirection folks. That’s what EVERYONE says first. “Oh your 3 year old is dragging the dog around the house by his tail? Obviously he needs heavy work! Redirect him to start XYZ!”
Pros: it refocuses their attention, and keeps you from having to put him in straight jacket. It also teaches them that the current action is unacceptable and helps them find better outlets. It works great for the long run.
Cons: it’s EXHAUSTING. With Everett constantly testing boundaries, redirection takes a ton of work, especially on the lovely 3.5 hrs a night of sleep I’m averaging.

Time In/Out

“That’s it! You can’t keep throwing blocks at your brother! Time out!” *Cue screaming and crying*
VS
“I see you’re throwing blocks at your brother. Why? Are you not wanting to share or are you wanting mommy’s attention? I think you need some time to reset and then we can address this. Let’s go to your sensory corner and do our reset xyz”
Time out pros: immediate negative consequence and removes them from the situation.
Cons: I feel like it loses it’s effectiveness and you don’t find the root of the problem.
Time In Pros: You take the time to listen to your child and find the root of the issue (children aren’t inherently “bad”), then provide them tools to help reset the balance.
Cons: it takes time and you aren’t always in a situation where you are able to give them the time needed. Also, with Everett still not having a great vocab, I can’t always figure out what the problem was.

Calming Corner

This is one of my faves. I’m actually in the middle of making a super rad one for Everett with the help of a few fantastic companies! The corner is a place where they go to self reset. You limit the outside influences (light, sound, etc) and provide a basket of sensory gear (weighted lap pad, headphones, lacing games, picture books, fidgets, etc).
Pros: it’s a great way for them to self regulate, it can help prevent and minimize meltdowns. It creates a safe place for the kids.
Cons: it can be expensive based on what you get and it can require a decent amount of space.

Breathing/Yoga

We recently started yoga with Everett’s new therapist. It has been AMAZING. I’ll be doing another blog about our experience and tips in more detail later, but here are a 3 breathing techniques:
1. Hot cocoa breath -make your 2 palms into a cup and smell or breathe in deeply like smelling hot cocoa. Then it’s too hot so blow out gently into your palms.
2. Trace the #8 in the sky or on the floor. Breathe in on the way up and out on the way down.
3. Billy Goat Gruff breaths. Open one palm and your fingers are the ‘mountains.’Use your other index finger as the goat trying to get to greener pasture. As your index finger traces up the opposite finger you breathe in and then breathe out as it traces down the finger on the open palm. (5 deep breaths)
There are a couple great kids yoga books you can find, if you’re looking to start yoga at home.
Pros: it gives both you and the kiddo time to calm down, it helps strengthen mind and body, and it teaches the kiddo coping methods for the long run. It’s also fun!
Cons: I’m not a yoga teacher, so sometimes it’s awkward for me to help him. Getting a pro to help with yoga can be expensive.




I have a couple more methods I’ll add in a bit, but right now it’s dinnertime! Be back soon!

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Therapy. Aside from the questions I get about SPD, the other set of questions I get asked the most about are Everett’s therapy.
Most people don’t realize that there is therapy for kids like Everett, so they always ask what exactly it entails and if it will “fix him.”
First and foremost, let’s talk about what “sensory integration therapy” is.

Sensory integration therapy aims to help kids with sensory processing issues by exposing them to sensory stimulation in a structured, repetitive way.

The theory behind it is that over time, the brain will adapt and allow kids to process and react to sensations more efficiently. So no, it will not “fix” Everett, but it will help him integrate better into societal norms.
So I’ve answered the what and why, let’s talk about how therapy works.

A Little Background Info

When Everett first started therapy, he was at a children’s hospital facility. We LOVED it there and our therapist was top notch….however, our insurance kind of sucks and we were paying over $300/session out of pocket until our deductible was met. Our therapist also has a fairly busy schedule and can be tricky to reach.
One day, I was driving through downtown on my way to see my husband. I noticed this cool therapy/yoga studio place a block from my husband’s work and told myself to remember to look it up.
GUESS WHAT?
I promptly forgot the name and even that I was going to look them up. About 4-5 days later, they followed us on Instagram, not even realizing we were local! I promptly contacted their owner and we set up a meeting.
We have been at the new place, Boost Kids, for about a month and I am loving the program she has for him. Every other week we do occupational therapy sessions. On the off weeks, we go in for yoga and feeding therapy. It’s AWESOME!

A Typical Session

When I say “typical” session, that’s kind of misleading. Every session is something different. The end goal, of course is the same, helping Everett to better adapt to his enviroment, but each week it’s a little different.
His therapist sets up obstacle courses, scissors challenges, fine and gross motor skills activities, and so on.

While she is doing his therapy, I’m taking mental notes on how to best apply those techniques at our house.
Thats right, the therapy doesn’t end when we leave her office, we do it all day, every day.

Sensory Diet

A sensory diet has nothing to do with food. It’s a series of physical activities and accommodations specifically tailored for each child to give them the input they need. Once the correct input is given, the child goes back into a “normal” state.
What does getting into a “normal” state mean? For kids who tend to get overstimulated, their sensory diet can help them come down from an overloaded state and feel calm. Or kids who feel or appear sluggish can get into a “normal” state by doing activities that help them feel more alert.
His first therapist gave me a goal for when we first started. She said that we should aim to create a sensory diet that is constantly adjusting to keep Everett even keel. Depending on what activity we do, the effects of it last anywhere from 30 minutes to about 1.5 hrs.
The effects of gentle brushing for example, last about 30 min. The effects of an hour of playing outside (running/climbing/etc), last about 1.5 hrs. This means I’m constantly counting numbers and making schedules for us. This doesn’t mean we are always on the go, we totally chill out and watch tv for a bit, but he will wear his weighted vest or lap pad to get the needed sensory input.
Am I some crazy amazing super mom who manages his therapy with a breeze? Hardly. I just try my hardest to give him what he needs while also maintaining some semblance of sanity.

Progress

When Everett first started therapy, I didn’t know what to expect. I was still pretty unsure about his diagnosis and wasn’t sure how therapy would help.
What I didn’t realize, was just how many signs I was missing. At 3, he still couldn’t jump with 2 feet off the ground. He walked on his toes (for extra input). He could barely figure out how to climb (poor sensory planning). The list goes on and on.[wpvideo zkOYRf7c]
He is slowly progressing, and that’s great! We celebrate victories, like the first time he jumped with 2 feet off the ground, and when he actually catches a ball.
It’s a bit intimidating, realizing that we are literally at the beginning of his journey, and that there is so much more to come. So I take it one day at a time. I celebrate our small milestones and try not to think about the fact it’s going to take YEARS to climb this mountain. Our climb may be long, but at least we are heading in the right direction.
In the words of Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand steps begins with one step.”

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