Throwing stones with deception pass bridge in background
James scaring me

Photo shoot on a lovely warm spring day

Doing is perfected silly face
Looking extra cute
This is what I got when I asked him to post
He is digging that daisy
His first attempts at blowing a dandelion clock (he got big smiles doing this)

Milo climbing!

Yesterday Milo had a playdate at his friend Finley's house. He wanted to climb her bunk bed, in order to go down the slide attached to her bed (good motivation!) so I helped him the first few times, but after that he really got the hang of climbing the small ladder. Considering he hadn't really done this before, it was a big deal! Then later at OT, he did loads of hang down circles on a hanging swing, and then dropping onto the cushions on the floor.
Today at the park I encouraged him to climb up a slanted climber, with wooden blocks to put your feet and a rope to hold onto. He needed help once from me, and once he did it the first time, he went down the slide and went back and did it again and again and again!
It is exciting stuff for this kid, and means his motor planning is really improving!

Bike finally!

So Milo finally got back his bike again today. He has hardly been on it since we purchased it in October (the weather has been that bad) but here he is peddling well and getting used to steering.. I saw getting used to steering, because shortly after I took this photo he fell off.. ouch. The brave little chap though did get persuaded to get back on though (after having a snack!)
We took a break from biking to look for shells at the beach, and throw stones in the water. This was the amazing view today of the Olympic mountains. It was as warm as a day in April or May!

Beautiful day in Seattle & locks off finally!

Swinging with Hazel and Carlie


... and later that day, ice cream after getting his long hair cut off!

Milo with a buddy

Here is Milo on his third playdate with his little friend Finley. He needs lots of practice at peer interaction and is doing pretty well so far!

Better month for Mr M!

So Milo is back into his routine this month of school and therapies. As the new year went by, it seemed that Milo turned a corner in his development. He came out of the fog of Christmas and this month has been a much more regulated, engaged, affectionate little boy, with quite the sense of humour.
We have some days where his repetitive play and numbers take over a bit, but this month he has really started to initiate pretend play alot more. This is a big deal in his development, and for the DIR model that we are doing with him, this means he is coming into level 5.
He is currently doing lots of back and forth's of communication using quite a few gestures. He has also started saying "I love you" to me in the past week! Considering we have only been using the DIR model for about 6-8 months, this progress is not too shabby and really testimony to how great of an intervention DIR/Floortime is.
The next step for Milo is to be around typical kids a lot more, so he can start practicing more at social peer interaction.
So all in all, a good start to the year!