He has them every once in awhile.  The breakthroughs.  And we finally feel some validation for all of our hard work day in, day out.  And that all the arguments and many, many tantrums over something seemingly so silly weren’t for nothing. One of them was last night when Stevie took his shoes off – completely unassisted – for the first time ever!

His chubby little fingers wrapped around the velcro and pulled it apart with all his might.  He used his reasoning to take the opposite foot in his hand and pull his leg in the right direction that his big ol’ foot could easily slip out of the shoe.  And they were off.  Just like that.  Like he’s been doing it all along.

Something clicked.

Oh, the excitement!  Look how proud he is!  I couldn’t even bother cleaning up the mess, I just wanted the exact moment.

Now on to socks!  Well, after I finish celebrating this little victory for a minute.