"How's Leo Progressing?"

    Recently, we've been getting this question more. And I want to be honest, I don't quite know how to answer that question. I believe it is asked with sincere desire to see the difficulties we/he have, and to seek to understand something that is not experienced by the person asking. But it's a little weird to answer and I want to try and explain why...

    When Leo was younger, this felt a bit more applicable. We had specific questions that we were trying to answer and there were still some typical milestones being met. I think that's the biggest thing. We had specific questions that we were trying to answer. Leo was failure to thrive. We couldn't travel without him drenching himself in sweat in the car seat. The stroller was a similar story. We were seeing new specialists or finding another doctor. We were starting a new therapy, practicing a familiar one. Etc. Etc. 

    And in our current stage, I don't feel like we have as many or as pressing specific questions to answer. Leo's still puking and we are working on handling constipation. Even with that, he's growing and has a "normal". We don't think the puking will ever completely disappear. That being said it's so much better than it used to be. But that being said it's still twice a day. But we're also able to feed him in the car seat or stander better. And we're trying to introduce blended food, but I'm not in a habit of that yet. 

    Or the car seat. He still has days where he screams his head off. He can work himself up to puking in a 10 minute car ride. He may be screaming and grinding his teeth the whole time. We could also have a 40min car ride where he looks out the window and happily chats to himself the whole time. He's even fallen asleep in the car seat. However, one day to the next could look completely different. And I can't tell you exactly why. There's not a formula to solve these "problems". 

    What I'm trying to illustrate is that the day-to-day things that go on in Leo's day that we are trying to address or grow in do not progress in one way. Moving forward doesn't mean moving up on a hypothetical graph. Not all factors improve. We can't figure our way out of these things. It's growing and learning. 

    So, that's how I try and answer the question, "how is Leo progressing?" 

"He's learning a lot!..." and go from there.

    Writing this post out has helped me figure out how I'm wanting to answer that question. I'm also realizing that this a parenting and people, right? People are not formulas and problems to solve. Teaching and discipling our kids is not a one way progression either. 

    Lastly, to be clear, I'm not offended by this question or mad at anyone who has asked it. I've just noticed that I haven't been sure how to answer it and wanted to work through my emotions and thoughts surrounding the question to figure out why it wasn't sitting quite right with me. So it's not bad to ask this question. Just to be clear.