If you’ve ever taken a beach trip with little kids, you know how it goes—kids make fast friends in the waves or at the pool, spend a few days playing together, and then part ways without much ceremony. Everyone goes home.

But for Milo, who’s autistic and often struggles to connect with peers, this kind of easy, spontaneous friendship hasn’t come easily—if at all. That’s what made this moment so special. He was just a kid on vacation, doing what so many kids do without thinking twice.

This episode is about two boys playing together in the ocean.

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Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

To Milo’s delight (thanks, Daniel Tiger), we went on a family trip! We spent a sunny week in Myrtle Beach, bouncing between the pool and the beach, and all our kids had a blast.

In this episode, we share why we feel comfortable calling this trip “easy” — and how it compares to last year’s much tougher experience with Milo.

Traveling with an autistic child who has sensory needs and gets easily overstimulated doesn’t come naturally—it takes patience, practice, and a lot of planning. We know that for some kids, travel isn’t possible. We’re really grateful that Milo has grown and can enjoy these moments with his family more and more each year.

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Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

In this episode, we’re looking back on Milo’s 2.5 years of preschool—how it began, what we learned, and how it shaped the next phase of our journey.

From that first January morning drop-off to his final days in the preschool classroom, we share the highs and lows: navigating classroom changes, speech therapy, behavioral supports, and the big moments in between. We talk about what it looked like to pursue early intervention services without an autism diagnosis, how we found providers who could work with us, and what we didn’t expect from the public school system.

If you’re in the early stages of your child's early intervention preschool or therapy journey—or know someone who is—we hope this episode brings some clarity, encouragement, and solidarity.

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Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

In the summer of 2021, just weeks after moving into our new home, we sat down with a service coordinator from Ohio’s Help Me Grow Early Intervention program.

It was the first time we fully acknowledged Milo’s developmental delays—and the first time we reached out for help. In this episode, we walk through what that process looked like for our family, what we learned, and how it shaped the next steps in our journey.

Plus, stay tuned until the end for our very first listener-submitted Glimmer. Thank you to Cameron in Defiance, Ohio, for sharing with us.

Follow us on Instagram @beyondthelabel440.

Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

Days after moving into our new home, Milo — just 2 years old — pushed over a heavy wooden chair, and something in us shifted. In this episode, we reflect on the early signs that something deeper was going on, the stress that surrounded that season, and the moment we finally reached out for help.

Over the next several episodes, we’ll continue unpacking the stretch of time leading up to Milo’s autism diagnosis — the part of the story we briefly touched on in Episode 11: Diagnosis.

Follow us on Instagram @beyondthelabel440.

Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

Do you remember your earliest friend? One of the hardest things for us as parents is to witness how hard it can be for Milo to connect with other kids his age. He's increasingly eager and friendly and aware, but the communication gap is always there. What will friendship look like for Milo? Will it ever get easier? Spoiler alert - we don't know - but we're talking about it.

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Follow us on Instagram @beyondthelabel440.

Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

Milo is getting ready to say goodbye to the early learning center where he began school-based services in 2022—and it’s bringing up a lot of emotions. In this episode, we’re sharing the highs and lows of his kindergarten year, and how we're feeling going into the summer.

Follow us on Instagram @beyondthelabel440.

Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!

Here’s something we’ve often wished was easier with our kids: just going outside.

In this episode, we go back to a beautiful March evening when Milo couldn’t make sense of what we were doing—or what his sisters were doing—and we couldn’t figure out why everything felt so hard. We also share a few moments since then that have really surprised us.

Follow us on Instagram @beyondthelabel440.

Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song, "Sunshine," as our theme music. Follow Tom on Spotify.

Thank you for being here!