Owen was excited about going bowling this morning, only it wasn’t Saturday. I have a calendar hanging with our schedule, but he still doesn’t understand how it works. It’s much easier for him to grasp the days of the week when he is in school. Time seems to be making more sense for Owen now. I try to reference it as often as I can and what it means to our schedule. He doesn’t talk about the wrong days of weeks as often as he used to. He would repeat the advertisements for the Disney channel, in his words, saying that it was Tuesday when it was any day of the week. I always had to think through what day it actually was. We set timers for everything and he will tell me that something is going to take “twELF minute” and then we can do something. He references two, twelve, and twenty minutes, but he doesn’t necessarily understand the difference on how long they take compared to a task we are doing. We stopped at a light and Owen said, “twenty minute and de light will be green”. Every light now he talks about what color it is and how long it will take us to go through it. However, the meltdown light isn’t causing as many meltdowns as it did, instead he only screams for ten minutes after we go through it, no matter if we have to sit at it or not. I’m still prepared for the meltdown; as prepared as you can be. It’s incredibly hard to watch your child scream and be upset at something you can’t control. It’s also very emotional for me waiting for the screams to happen. I’m trying a new approach with stoplights. He wants them green, so I’m having him count through them, explaining to him that sixty seconds equals one minute. And then I breathe. I see growth, I hear it, and I can tell he is taking the whole world in. My happiness comes from his smile. Sometimes when we look at the big picture we still don’t see the little, beautiful steps that got us there. Be proud of where you’ve come from. Know that each step is progress, even on days you may not feel like you are making any. The big picture is out there, waiting for you to hang it from the moon and the stars. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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