Changes

The theme of the last few weeks of our lives has been "changes". Two big things have happened: Patrick has started walking and Hartley has started preschool. 

And I've got to be honest, I am so genuinely excited about both. 

I am absolutely loving watching Patrick do his little baby dinosaur walk around the house. I love his wobbly steps and watching him light up with pride. And somehow this seems to have shifted the sibling dynamic. It feels like it's made them closer, like Hartley is viewing Patrick more like an equal as opposed to a baby. Of course, she's still bossing him around big sister style though!

If I'm out with Patrick without Hartley, people assume he's my first and only, and they give me the whole, "walking is a game changer" spiel. I'll admit, I've been guilty of telling this to first time moms who haven't gotten there yet because it is a fact of life! But with Patrick, it was a good time to start walking. Hartley took her first steps at 10 months; she was a very early walker. And I did not want a repeat of that! But with Hartley now learning to follow directions a little bit better, and having several hours of day of solely wrangling Patrick, his learning to walk actually came at the perfect time for us.

Hartley starting preschool has also been another happy change. The road we traveled the past 7-8 months had been hard and stressful. Both Brian and I are relieved to have received a diagnosis for her and have a plan in place for the next year that is already set into motion. I think because our situation is a little different, I was actually not a sobbing mess about "my baby growing up" when the time to start school arrived. That first day I was mainly just very excited and of course a little nervous for what she would think.

It turns out, our girl loves preschool. She happily holds my hand each day as we walk to drop off. When she sees her teachers she greets them with a hug or goes to hold their hand. It's such a huge relief. She really has transitioned beautifully.

Each day I pick her up and she's happy and tired. Usually there's evidence of the school lunch she tried somewhere on her face and some paint from art center on her clothes. It's an adorable sight. She gets a report everyday; it often reads the same. Every day she's received a smiley for behavior. Every day she's played with friends. She always at least tries her school lunch. I may eventually pack her lunch but I actually decided this would be a fun way to get her to try new foods and so far it's been great.

Her first week of school was Apple theme so they did Apple themed activities, and this week is pumpkin theme. She checked out her first library book. She picked one about the Chinese New Year that hadn't been checked out in years, and it definitely made Brian and I laugh when we saw her silly book choice when it came home in her backpack. 

I also don't want to get too ahead of myself but I swear this preschool is already "helping". Since starting she's been more focused. It's hard to describe and it's not like she's completely done some miraculous 180 but she's more engaged. 

Something I'm learning about children on the autism spectrum (and this is a generalization so I realize it doesn't fit everyone) is that their development is less linear than typically developing children. They tend to have more of a mixture of developments and regressions. This is completely true of Hartley. We can have good weeks followed by a bad week where she's kind of "off" for lack of a better word. But since starting school, we have stayed in an upswing, which is absolutely fantastic. I don't want to get ahead of myself but I just have to say I am so happy with the school system's decision for her to attend this preschool. I really feel like early intervention will be our golden ticket, and I'm so happy that we're moving in the right direction.

Sometimes I think when big changes happen we have the tendency to mourn the past, especially when it comes to our children growing. But right now, I'm just so happy to see both of my children growing and moving forward. While a 1 year old and 2 year old are pretty tiring ages (ok, honestly, exhausting ages), they are also pretty magical. I'm very excited to see what lies ahead for my crazy TODDLERS! That's right, I think now that Patty is walking, I'm a real, bonafide mom of two toddlers!