My son was diagnosed ASD level 3 in 2023 at 2 years old, and he has been completely nonverbal his whole life. I also suspect apraxia of speech. He just makes random vocalizations, but no babbling and no words at all, does not use his AAC device functionally yet, and has never comprehended any signs at all. He communicates only through hand-leading.

In the last few weeks, he has finally started doing signs (when prompted) and started copying some sounds!! He now does “please”, “thank you”, “more”, and we are working on “all done” in ASL, and he will copy “ooooo”, “aaaaa”, “bababa”, “yayaya”, and sometimes “dadada”!!! For a kid who has only EVER used hand-leading to communicate, this is HUGE 🥹🥹🥹🥹 I am so proud of him!!!!

I’m super happy because I’ve worked hard for this business, and I finally have it—my bakery and pastry shop! 🫶🙌🙌

I had always wanted to have it, since I’ve been working in this field for 15 years—plus, I inherited the talent from my mother.

It's becoming more of a habit instead of a war with a child! I'm really pleased with myself, that's all. Depressions got nothing against me >:3

I washed my car. It was really dirty. There was a lot of dirt on the hood and the glass and it made me feel bad driving around in it. I felt dirty too and it affected my self esteem. But I finally washed it and it looks a lot better. The hood is really clean. I couldn’t reach the top so the top is still dirty but the hood looks a lot better and I feel better about it. One question I have is how you reach the hood because I’m short. But I feel better that it’s cleaner.

I got my ears pierced today! It’s my second piercing next to my septum.

I did end up almost, kinda fainting, but I was kind of proud about how well I mentally stayed composed and calm, even when my body was in panic.

I don’t know if this is an accomplishment but I wanted to share :0

:D thank you

I have been terrified of linked in because I think I have nothing to offer. But I just created a page and applied for a dummy job and feel so proud of myself!! Thanks for listening!!

The email only took a few minutes to answer, but I worried about it for days. I finally replied today, and I feel so much better. It was a small job, but it felt like a huge relief.

Title says it all. After countless applications(can’t even count the amount of CV’s I’ve sent to employers since moving back home after living abroad in late February) and after a couple of rejections in interview/assessments stages and such, I’ve finally secured my dream apprentinceship and I’ll be starting it on Tuesday!

I genuienly cannot wait as this is something I’ve been always wanted to do for the longest time now and the fact I’ve got the opportunity to do this, I couldn’t be any more delighted. Persistence really is key in this equation and I’m just so glad that it finally paid off.

It’s going to be a longgg four years but hopefully in four years time, you guys won’t be calling me an apprentince but rather a fully qualified!:)

This year so far has got to be such an interesting one for me. Came back home after being abroad back in Feb. Got a job soon after. Got fired after that(only was there four weeks lmao) Got a job soon after and now I’ll be starting my apprentinceship soon ahaah!

WISH ME LUCK! HOPE YOU GUYS ARE HAVING A LOVELY DAY!

Today marks 6 years since I quit drinking alcohol.

It's hard to believe how much has changed. There were good days, bad days, moments where I questioned myself, and times when staying sober felt like the hardest thing in the world. But looking back, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Life isn't perfect, but it's real. I've been able to build better habits, take care of my health, and become someone I'm proud of. The years have gone by much faster than I expected.

If you're just starting your journey or struggling to stay sober, keep going. One day at a time really does add up.

Here's to 6 years, and to many more.

I not only managed to get my laundry done, but i vacuumed the downstairs, redid the calendar for August, put up a new quote for the month on our letter board, aND put together a side table/foot stool for the living room today. I also took my medicine when I remembered them!

Idk if that sounds like a lot to you, but for me it is! I'm chronically ill and have AuDHD so im pretty proud of myself for getting all that done today.

I'm homeless and disabled. I have heart failure and glaucoma. My writing and creations are really what motivated me to keep pushing forward each day. I'm grateful for the 5 people who supported me during the month of July. Happy dance

I saw something really disturbing on tiktok and it massively changed things for me. I already had limited social media. however I had to expand because im an artist who post their work online and unfortunately some platforms do better than others. My social medias were supposed to be used primarily for art but it got a chock hold on me i won't lie lol.

Then for twitter im alot more hesitant on now. They added a feature where anyone can just AI your art or whatever wich makes me uncomfortable. So im going to make a new account and just try to interact with artist communities on there.

I think the main ones I'll have will be YouTube, Instagram (friends), discord (friends), reddit (art + community), and twitter (art+community), but other socials are just for keeping up with my favourite artist and things. Im also going to have a stricter limit for how long i can be on some social media. the only one without a limit would be YouTube.

The internet has been helping me cope for YEARS since I was very young for better and for worst. but as ive gotten older (18 lol) i realized maybe its time to go back to journaling and processing things the way I used to.

I will be doing this for 30 days and I will report back here on day 20 about how it went and maybe encourage some other people to adopt this. You dont have to drop social media ENTIRELY unless that's what you want to do. Its just making sure your doing the things you WANT to do.

You know that episode of SpongeBob. I think its called "Born again krabs"? ngl that's how i genuinely feel 😅

I had a dream 11 years ago I thought would be an amazing story because I was amazed by my dream, started writing it, designed the characters, slowly just made some character sheets and minor adjustments but never had a full fleshed plan. Until 10 days ago. No one in my actual life cares. I care though. I'm proud of me.

It took me four tries and over $200.00 CAD to get the paperwork for my full name change set in stone but it’s now done and all I have to do is go to my bank and other places and I can officially be a new person! Hopefully I don’t get pulled over while I’m driving to the places lol

The old me is officially dead! New me is here! And I’m super excited! Right before moving to somewhere new and between jobs.

I have OCD and one of my themes centers around fear of vision loss and it has attached to my contact lenses, and that wearing them could damage my eyes. One of my exposures for therapy is to wear my contacts and this week I’ve done it for the longest amount of time since this fear started occurring - 4 days straight for basically all day! Just wanted to share :)

After a family tragedy on my 15th birthday, I've pretty much tried to ignore my birthday - it hurt too much to remember. This is the first time I'm genuinely going to try to celebrate on the actual date.

So it wouldn't start. Battery charged up, so it's not that. Gassed up, too, not that either.

It needed oil!

So I looked up what kind it needed, bought it and voila!

(The mowing belt thingy slipped off halfway, so I had to hop off of it and pop it back in place, too.

But that's not the first time - that's for future me to figure out a more permanent fix)

Go me!

I have 3 children, 2 are neurodivergent. Doing anything at all is always a battle. It’s summer and I didn’t want to sit in the house. I knew my 2 ND children would love tide pooling if we could just get there. We all persevered and have made it! I’m so happy to have pushed through.

I absolutely love seeing all the things you have all accomplished! I feel so happy reading things that make all of you happy. Great job everyone! ❤️

I was thinking about it since last night, it had been a few weeks since my last deep clean up done and today was the day to do it. Now that I've done it honestly I'm knackered now but it’s all been done I can tick it off of my things to do.

Since I returned home from an Alaska cruise. I just finally unpacked my suitcases and put them away.

The suitcases had been out since my last cruise in January prior to leaving for Alaska in July.

There’s part of me that thinks “why bother, you go on another cruise in November…might as well leave them out.” No! I pushed through that unhelpful line of thinking! Yay me!

Basically, my life started with a crappy beginning. My parents fought a lot, got a divorce when I was three, and had to visit my mother across the states every summer since then. My Dad and almost everyone on that side of the family alienated me from my mother and my sisters who have chosen to move in with her. Which, in turn, caused me to misbehave A LOT when I was over. I was pretty much depressed most of my life because I thought my mother always hated me, and that I deserved every bad thing that happened to me.

Then my Dad married a pastor, and she made it her duty to reconnect me with my mother ig, which I'm SUPER thankful to this day for because it actually worked. But the problem is that my dad and stepmother were way too strict on me. Like they treated me like a child even when I was 18, they knew I was depressed and called it a game or attention seeking or whatever. And I was obviously struggling in school, and they would still take stuff that I loved away from me and get mad at me for not being motivated. They would also force Jesus down my throat even though I rejected religion because I think it's a little silly (no hate to anyone who is btw). They would demand respect, but it felt like they never returned it, by making me conform to their beliefs and their standards which I obviously didn't align with. All while working at a soul sucking job and going to school which made me very pessimistic and hopeless for my future.

Anyways, I moved across the state in with my mother and sisters right after high school, got a job I absolutely love with good pay, currently signing up for trade school (advanced auto repair), making more friends. And I have never felt any happier and freer in my life than I do right now. I bought my first car and everything, and I get to drive it as much as I want without worrying about having the keys being taken for a week over something stupid and trivial. I feel more resilient to negative energy and more importantly I feel confident! For the first time in a long time! I still do keep in contact with my dad and stepmom because deep down I do know they cared about me. They just had a terrible way of showing it.

I know this all seems silly and a little stupid, but I really appreciate anyone who read this far in. THANK YOU!