Tag: disability

Milestone Alert: Hands and Knees!

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On Friday, I was sitting at Solly’s final occupational therapy appointment of the week and I witnessed something amazing and entirely unexpected. Roughly two minutes after I hit publish on my last blog post, I looked up from my computer to see Solly, who was laying on his tummy, push his booty back over his knees and rise up into a quadruped position. This is a milestone that he’d never, ever achieved before, and here he was, exactly 8 weeks after an incredibly invasive surgery, placing a check mark next to a brand new milestone. I grabbed my camera and caught him in action for his next round, and here’s what I saw:

What a warrior!

It’s my hope that this milestone will help move Solly forward to more independence – more independent play, the ability to better interact with his environment, and perhaps even more gross motor milestones. Whether or not this is the case, we will continue to advocate to make all environments as accessible and inclusive as possible for Solly and his peers. In the meantime, we’re gonna celebrate the heck out of this major milestone!

Here are some other photos of Solly working so hard this past week:

I’ll continue to post progress updates on his rehabilitation here and on Instagram. Thank you to all for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers as Solly went through this surgery and for continuing to follow our journey.

Am I Doing Enough?

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I have a confession to make.

I always feel like I could be doing more.

More therapy at a clinic. More therapy at home. More education. More appointments with new specialists. More hands-on time with both kids. More creative projects. More time spent working on speech and learning. More, more, more.

I spend so much time writing to-do lists and daily schedules so I can squeeze as much as possible into each and every day. Because I made the decision to take on Solly’s education this year, I’m working tirelessly to get him caught up with what his peers are doing, to make sure he doesn’t start his public school experience, whenever that will be, more behind than he already is. My entire life right now, every waking moment of every day, revolves around Solly’s care and education. And being a good Mama to Bea. And taking care of all the household everything. img_5573

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Navigating Special Education During COVID

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This photo has nothing to do with this post, but might be a glimpse of what our Fall will look like!

There have been certain points in our experience with Solly where I sit down in tears on my couch and scream, “It shouldn’t have to be this hard!” Usually this is a statement reserved for fights with insurance companies for refusing to cover durable medical equipment or procedures, disagreements with doctors who want to stick a label on him and tell me what he can’t or won’t be able to do, or conversations with random, ignorant strangers who feel my son should be placed in an institution (for the record, this last type of conversation happens very infrequently – most conversations with strangers are kind and often uplifting – but when they do happen, man, it stings.)

Lately, I’ve been fretting and losing sleep over another topic: school.

Life is difficult for everyone these days. There’s so much uncertainty in the air, conflicting messages about how to stay safe and what you should or shouldn’t do during a global pandemic, and on top of everything else, kids are heading back to school. Continue reading →