Laughter in the Woods

Mia and I headed out to one of our go to trails close to home after school the other day. It started out like every adventure, with Mia skipping and squealing happily into the trail. I stopped to take a picture, and she hurriedly came back from her climb up the hill to grab my hand and pulled me further. This is probably the only part of our outdoor experiences that Mia dislikes. Mom’s obsession with photographing!

We walked to the top of the hill where the land flattened out for a bit again. The forest floor is now covered with crisp fallen leaves, decorating the ground with colorful reds, oranges and greens. Mia kicked the fallen leaves into the air as we walked, shreeking with delight as the flew up and then floated back down around her.

Mia can't wait to get off of the trail and into the woods!

When we came to a steep decline in the trail, Mia stopped kicking the leaves and reached for my hand for support to get down the hill. As we were climbing down the hill, a cool gust of wind hit us in the face, and Mia giggled as it swept across her skin. She has always loved the wind in her hair! Me, being the goofy mom that I am, acknowledged her excitement with a loud “Oh, how we love the wind!” statement, in a sing song sort of way, while I attempted to do a little jig.

As I shuffled my feet, they came flying out from beneath me, and in an instant I let go of Mia’s hand (so as not to pull her down with me) and was swept down the hill, on my backside. And in the instant that I had fallen, and let go of Mia’s hand, I heard the start of laughter.

That hill on the other side of Mia isn't depicted well, but it's steeper than it looks!

Yes, in that moment of unsteadiness, Mia had found humor. As I slid further away from her, her laughter increased in volume and strength. By the time my quick ride to the bottom, on my bottom, was over, I was laughing with her. She laughed harder with my laughter. Mia climbed down the rest of the hill to get to me, laughing harder with every step. Since I was still sitting on my bottom laughing, I was at Mia's level. When she reached me, she put her forehead to mine, a sign of affection (and possibly in this case her way of saying "it's all right"), but continued to laugh with me like this for several more minutes. I couldn't control the tears that had started to fall from my eyes. Tears of laughter, and tears of pride.

It’s common for people to laugh when such thing like this happen to others that they are close to. But to someone with Autism, this type of situation most times goes unnoticed, For Mia to laugh at the site of mom sliding away from her, is just another wonderful sign of progress in connecting to the world, and the people around her!

Still laughing at mom!