Moving Mountains...One Day at a Time :)

Last night I read a post celebrating the successes of a fellow blogger's family*. It was full of love and joy at her children completing tasks that often can cause distress. As I read each line & witnessed each experience unfold in front of me, it made me realise how important it is to capture the beautiful moments when they happen. 

Last year I completed the 100 Happy Days challenge (yes, I know I've mentioned this before - I am slightly evangelical about it!!). What this aims to do is to get you to be more observant - to notice something that made you smile. It can range from enjoying a bar of chocolate to a special occasion. Each and every one forms part of your happiness awakening (so to speak - ha ha!). What this did for me personally was to focus my mind on the good and not tune into the negatives. This is no mean feat and certainly was not always easy. As time passed on this challenge, I learnt that far more good happens on a daily basis than I had previously realised. Since the completion of my 'happy days' last September, I have tried (not always successfully) to notice the positives. It's incredibly easy when you have children, with or without needs, to get trapped in the work: the washing, cleaning, school runs, homework, appointments...need I go on?! But just as this blogger did last night, she caught the good in her day and by doing so, reminded me to do the same.

As my daughter napped over lunch, I took myself into the garden and thought. I thought about how much we achieve on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and how many of these stepping stones are lost in the day to day flurry of activity. I started to ponder how far we've come and how much we've overcome. Each day we get little victories - they aren't necessarily life changing but they are meaningful. The simplest moments spent in idle pleasure are successes but not always given recognition. Spending the morning playing playdoh, cutting stars, rolling out wiggly worms...seeing the happiness beaming from her face as each squishy creation came to fruition is & was beautiful. That's worth celebrating. A walk round the shops listening to her gabbing away as we collected everything we needed for the week, seeing her play a matching game while saying and signing the word 'same' - gorgeous self satisfaction etched on her little face! Again, this is worth celebrating.

But it's not just the little moments...today my little Bean asked me to "blow the balloon". Although she's had lots of single words and even two word phrases for a while, starting to hear mini sentences appearing and the delight on her face when she gets the reaction she wants is sublime, in fact it makes me feel quite emotional. This time two years ago, she was losing weight, being sick constantly (I'm not exaggerating-she was sick with EVERY feed and even when not feeding there was a constant clear liquid being expelled from her little mouth). It was hell on earth - we were weeks away from hospitalisation. These were some of my darkest days. Then, this time last year, she had been walking for around a month, she was growing in strength, gaining weight, saying words and sounds. She was hooked into portage, a child development group and her hypercalcaemia had finally disappeared. These were all major achievements - huge successes but I'm not sure I ever celebrated any of them. Life was too busy, life had been too hard that perhaps this rising out of the ashes felt almost too good to be true. That by celebrating these beautiful moments, it was like tempting fate, like you were begging destiny to knock us down again. 

Despite every obstacle she has faced, she has fought like a little tiger. Nothing has dampened her spirit - if anything it has only served to exacerbate her determination. It is often my eldest that reminds me to notice the simplest successes - she has a lovely way of cheering her on. She, unlike myself, recognises that we move mountains every day, if only we took the time to notice and give ourselves permission to celebrate it. 

Bibi xx

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*The blog I was inspired by was the fab @Ojosworld 'Celebrating Successes' - beautifully written and reminded me why capturing these moments is so very important. Have a read :)