Dr Stanley Greenspan (1941-April 27th 2010)

Yesterday Dr Stanley Greenspan passed away. He was the Founder and Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders(ICDL) and Founder of DIR/Floortime. This developmental approach has been key to changing our son's development this past year, and as we continue to use this approach, the impact it will have on his life will be huge.
Dr Greenspan has helped countless other children with autism and special needs, and will continue to help thousands of others with what he has left behind. The world of autism will not be the same because of him.

As someone else so nicely puts it "Dr. Greenspan was a pioneer in the field of mental health of children and their families. He viewed children on the autism spectrum through a lens of humanity and hope. He taught the world not to fear those with differences, but to step into their world, join their intent, and expand it."

Words cannot do justice for how grateful I am for this man. He will be truly missed.

Deception Pass

James had a surprise day off from work today so we decided to drive up to the Tulip Festival up at Mount Vernon. Once we got there however, there were no Tulips left!
We then drove on to Deception Pass, as James has wanted to take us there for about a year now. We walked across the very dramatic and very high bridge, then walked down to the beach. As we left, the rain came down, and we found a good place to get some quality fish and chips (American style) before driving home.
Milo enjoyed himself on the car ride there and back, calling out every truck he saw go by. (His latest obsession are trucks!)

Deception pass bridge
a view from the bridge
posing

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!