This is Liam

04/08/2026

I used to love the BBC game show series Ready, Steady, Cook!,🫑🍅 with Ainsley Harriot (I'm giving away my age now. You've got an old Mama, Liam, growing up with The Waltons and The A Team and Airwolf and MacGyver 🤪🤦‍♀️...and Ready Steady Cook! 😉)

In Ready Steady Cook!, contestants had to dish up something spectacular with mystery ingredients, while they were racing against the clock to get everything done in the allocated time period.

The running around, the clock ticking, the last minute, last seconds of scrambling, cheering on, give-it-all-you've-got, until the alarm goes off with a BANG!! ⏰ ‼️

Then everyone had to stop. Put their hands up in the air. Take off their aprons. The cooking was done.
ALL DONE!! ✔️
(Like you always say Liam 😉)

Cutting your hair with amazing Brie a few weeks back, made me think of that game show Liam! 😆 Brie offered to cut your hair at home and she couldn't make me any happier with that suggestion. She couldn't finish your previous haircut in the salon. You had a tough time.

This would (hopefully) be so much better. In your environment. With your surroundings. At your safe place. Your home.

There were no mystery ingredients in a bag for you, my dear. Yours were laid out right in front of you:

Snacks
Fidget toys
Super Simple Songs on a screen and
A visual timer

I grabbed a small tablecloth and improvised a cloak with a washing peg. Brie and I were getting ready to jump into action.

I prepared you for this moment with visuals and a social story but I was still apprehensive. Cutting hair is a really big challenge for lots of Neurodiverse kids.
For you too my Liam! Sensory stuff is so hard sometimes.

It felt like we were preparing for a trip to space or maybe on our way to a top secret mission. (Rescueing the world or something 🤪)

Brie laid out her instruments; Clippers, Comb, Scissors, Water spray bottle.
Ready for action. Like a surgeon, ready to do a heart transplant. Her eyes focused and intense. Staring at me.

Asking: "How long? 10 minutes?!"
My reply: "15!!" Was I pushing it???

I heard the Final Countdown Song's intro Too-tootootoo-ing it's way into my head. My mind was racing:
Ready...Steady...and on GO!!! I slammed down the visual timer in front of you, Liam. The countdown began...15 minutes!

The next 15 minutes went by in a daze. I just remember the visual timer going off, Brie and I hugging and cheering and giving you a high five!

You were a champion! 👊🏻 You did so well!

Brie could use the clippers and the scissors and you were there taking all of it. Even the tablecloth cloak stayed intact the whole time!

My chest grew and grew and was close to bursting of pride and my bra nearly popped off my body like the time when you first put on your own socks and shoes 😉🤣

You. Did. It!! 🥹

What a handsome boy you are my Liam. With your mane or without it 😉

You make me SO proud!

Yes!!! 💪🏼🎉

04/08/2026

Walking a few steps behind you
I'm admiring the breathtaking picture in front of me:

You and your beloved Papa

Framed with white
Cascading blossoms:

Pure
Innocent
Beautiful

Just like you
Liam

My smile grows wider when I realize my phone captured the moment

So precious

So special

Etched in my heart

Forever 🤍🤍🤍

03/30/2026

Liam, I don't have words.

Today. Was. HUGE.

I'm still in awe. Speechless. Amazed. Grateful.

You went for a swim with your dad. Afterwards we went for your usual Tim Hortons drive through order of the day.

Except, today was different:

"We're going inside" your Papa said.

"No, we're not" your Mama said.

"Yes, we are" your Papa said.

(No, pleeeeaaase not!, your Mama thought...having unresolved trauma from previous experiences of you and me, in public. Meltdowns. Self injury. Scared to get out of my comfort zone, happy to stay in your safe place, our safe place, the car.
Away from stares and new triggers and transitions and meltdowns)

Before I even had time to prepare myself, prepare you, we were out of the car and in the Tim Hortons. In the line. You, holding our hands. Your eyes sparkling bright, a smile on your face. Looking so pleased and happy and content and excited. Like a child about to meet Santa 😳🥹

Sitting at the table. With your Vanilla Dip Donut and Decaf cappuccino, proclaiming:
"I love Timmies! ❤️" Saying "Car, all done!"
Staying seated for more than 40 minutes.
For-ty-frea-king minutes Liam!!! 😱

You didn't run.
You didn't scream.
No meltdown.
You loved it.

All because of your Papa believing in you!

In an instant I kicked the Mom guilt which was creeping on my back again out of the door with a Bruce Lee kick and a "Heehaaaaaaaa!!!" guttural scream you could hear all the way to Africa...okay, not really, but tell me I can visualize what I want 🤪

I realized. This was our first time inside a Timmies. Ever. But sure as hell, won't be our last time! Your dad taught me a valuable lesson today. Sometimes you just have to do it, to do it! Cast the fears aside and become the warrior instead of the worrier! 💪🏼👊🏻

Maybe, just maybe,
One day, some day,
We'll be able to go out, as a family,
All five of us
And sit, and talk and have coffee together.
Relaxed. Happy. Like you were today...

There's hope. ALWAYS.

I love Timmies too Liam.

Do you know what I loved even more?!

Watching you today. Loving every moment inside the Tim Hortons, not in the car,

not isolated,

having the time of your life with a vanilla dip donut, a decaf cappuccino with your Mama and Papa by your side, surrounded by other people 🥹❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻

03/29/2026

Liam rediscovered the kitchen.
And what's in it 😬

He loves to help his Mama to prepare her Yogurt Bowl in the mornings. He loves it even MORE if she's out of the kitchen for 5 minutes. (Damn! I should've known when he said: "Mama! I love you 'many' much!" on my way to my bathroom break of the day)

When the cat is away, the mouse can play 😉 Then Liam can prepare his own fruit salad and crack some eggs in a bowl. In a record time. Without someone breathing down his shoulder.

I stopped counting at 6 eggs...😳
I'm impressed to find no shells in the bowl.
Liam's fine motor skills came a long way, that's for sure! 🤔

I guess we'll have omelettes tomorrow morning 😉🍳🥚💛

03/17/2026

I only saw this for the first time a few days ago. A blank grid and Liam putting all the numbers where they should be.
In no order. Randomly.

03/17/2026

Our "Lion's mane" needs a trim! 🦁❤️ Enjoying a walk in the wind 🤣 💨

03/14/2026

❤️

When a child is in the middle of a meltdown, they are not refusing to learn — they are unable to.

In that moment, the nervous system is overwhelmed. The brain is not looking for a lesson. It is looking for safety.

This is why correction rarely works in the middle of distress:
children cannot absorb guidance while they are drowning in emotion.

First, they need someone steady enough to help them find their footing again.
Only then can they hear what we are trying to teach.

Connection is not the opposite of discipline.

It is what makes discipline possible. ❤️

Quote Credit: ❣️

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