In the fall of 2009, when Mia was 3 months old, both girls started together at the same preschool/daycare. It’s a mile from our house and I committed to walk them there as many days as weather and schedules allowed. We walked 253 times over those three years. This slideshow captures a sampling of our walks.

If you view it while thinking about Mia’s development, there’s a lot to see. She learns to reach, point and eat with righty, she wears her constraint splint (first hot pink later green on lefty), she learns to sit, walk, ride a balance bike. You can also see the developing relationship between the girls. And, I treated this as hardiness training so we walked in all seasons, with appropriate gear, and as a result my girls are quite comfortable and capable to be outside all year long. Mia’s determination is a huge asset as she has worked hard to gain skills and functioning. Zoe is a fantastic motivator to Mia as she wants to keep up and do everything that she sees Zoe doing.

May is pediatric stroke awareness month and I am sharing tidbits learned while parenting Mia, who had a stroke around the time of her birth, almost 4 years ago.