08/16/2026
How is my baby girl already going into her last year of elementary school? 🥹
I swear I was just sending her off to full-day kindergarten, wondering how she’d do being away from me all day. And somehow, here we are… standing at the beginning of her very last elementary school year.
Tara has always moved through life in her own way. She’s never been one to follow the crowd or do something simply because everyone else is doing it. She has her own rhythm, her own spark, and her own way of seeing the world.
Since her autism diagnosis with a PDA profile, I’ve come to understand so much more about the girl she has always been. Things that once felt confusing suddenly made sense. Not because there was anything about her that needed to be changed, but because her brain experiences the world differently. She needs things approached differently, she does things in her own time, and she has always carved out her own path.
It’s never been Tara and her autism. It’s all Tara. ❤️
School hasn’t always been easy. There have been hard days, big feelings, moments of refusing, moments of pushing through, and so many little victories that probably wouldn’t look like victories to anyone else.
But I see them.
I see how hard she tries.
I see how deeply she feels.
I see how much she’s grown while still staying completely herself.
And that might be what makes this last year feel so big.
I don’t need this year to look like anyone else’s. I just hope she is surrounded by people who take the time to truly know her, give her room to be herself, include her in ways that make her feel like she belongs, and remind her that there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a different path. Because inclusion isn’t asking her to fit into everyone else’s version of school. It’s making sure there is space for her there, too.
One last elementary school year, baby girl. 🥹🥰
We’ll do what we’ve always done, take it one day at a time, celebrate the wins that are uniquely yours, and figure the rest out together. I Love You! 💕
