Beyond the Label Podcast

We're sharing what back-to-school looks like in our family — the excitement and the anxiety that comes with change. Nora is thrilled to be in second grade, June is starting her second year of preschool, and Milo is beginning first grade. We talk about the mix of pride, grief, and worry that comes with parenting through transitions, and what it feels like when the unknowns of school are overwhelming. 

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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...

We’re exploring what success looks like as parents of an autistic, developmentally delayed child. When your child is on their own timeline and you’re feeling lost, how do you know you’re still on the right path? 

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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!

The high of watching your son be greeted by a friend you didn’t know existed.

The low of watching him get made fun of minutes later.

All in the span of 10 minutes at a soccer game.

Parenting an autistic child with cognitive delays requires a certain level of grit—and constant decisions about when to step in, and when to let things be. If your child is happy, is that enough?

We're talking about it in our latest episode.

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A sunny beach day. A therapy pickup that should have been routine. Sometimes the smallest triggers can spark the biggest reactions—and that's just life with autism.

In this episode, Lisa shares two recent moments that capture the whiplash of parenting a child with autism: how quickly things can shift from calm to chaos, and back again. From a coveted bucket at the beach to a misunderstanding about crackers, these stories illustrate the constant state of alertness that comes with navigating a world full of unexpected triggers.

Even when things are going well—especially when thin...

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...

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’r...

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.<...

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 sh...

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.

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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 E...

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.

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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!

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.

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Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his song...

Let's talk about the awkward, emotional, and often unspoken moments that can come with raising a neurodivergent child. Lisa shares a story she still replays years later and together we unpack the weight of apology, public perception, and the struggle between explaining and simply existing. If you've ever wrestled with whether to say "I'm sorry" or stood frozen in a moment you couldn't quite fix, this one’s for you. 

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Thank you to our friend Tom Evanchuck for the use of his son...

We’re talking about those rare moments when you meet people who just get it. From a chance connection at a splash pad to an unexpected friendship formed after a cookie decorating class, we share a few times when we felt truly seen as parents of a neurodivergent kiddo. Finding new friendships as adults just in general isn’t easy — it takes effort, trust, and a little bit of luck — but those real connections are worth it. 

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Email us at beyondthelabel24@gmail.com

Thank you to our friend Tom Evanc...

Not all milestones are big and flashy. In this episode, we reflect on 9 recent glimmers—small moments that brought us peace and reminded us how far Milo has come.

From getting excited about dinner to thoughtfully picking out gifts for his sisters, each glimmer offers a glimpse into Milo’s world and the quiet, powerful progress he’s making.

In honor of Autism Acceptance Month, we’re celebrating Milo, the joy he brings to our family, and the way his personality continues to shine.

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Milo was diagnosed with autism the month after his fourth birthday.

As the parents of a young neurodivergent child, we will make it to the "other side" of challenges over and over again - just like we made it to the other side of the autism diagnostic process. Now, 2+ years removed from receiving Milo's diagnosis, we're sharing how we got there.

Ever been in a season where sleep just... disappeared? In this episode, we’re sharing what it was like during a stretch of nearly six months when Milo couldn’t fall asleep for hours—and still managed to wake up before sunrise. We tried everything, and nothing worked… until two yellow blankets changed the game. 

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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 her

When Milo was diagnosed with autism just weeks after turning 4, and as his behaviors became more challenging, I struggled with envy toward other families. Sometimes, I still do. It’s not rational. I know every family has its own challenges, whether we see them or not. But it’s real. And we’re talking about it in this episode.

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.

Th...

June & Milo.

June is a bright, animated, and funny kid—and extremely stubborn. As the quintessential little sister, she wants Milo's attention, and she doesn’t care how she gets it.

While we’ve been working on behavioral interventions for Milo at home and school, June and her four-year-old antagonizing ways have been... a challenge.

They are at once enemies and the best of friends. They fight, and they laugh. They are always trying to get what the other has. They want to be together, but they also want their own space. Theirs is an...

Nora & Milo. 

They are 16 months apart, now ages 7 and 6.

Since they were very young, they've had a special relationship. Nora is the proud big sister. Her love and affection for Milo is one of his greatest blessings - but we have to acknowledge that being his sister is not always easy.

Sibling dynamics, particularly the siblings of kids with different needs like Milo's, are complicated and beautiful and hard. We think it's important to pull back the curtain just a bit and share what life has been like for Milo's sisters, starting with N...

When it comes to any special event, the decision of whether or not to go as a whole family, with Milo in tow, is carefully made. That was definitely true as we planned for a fall festival at a local farm in support of Nora's school. Go back in time with us to a beautiful Friday night last October...

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.
<...

We're navigating a crowded Costco when Milo spots it: the overflowing rack of Spider-Man costumes. "That one!" he says, very matter-of-factly - and so we add it to the cart. It may seem like a simple interaction, but it was much more than that.

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!

Turkey calls and SOS texts: We're going back to a day last May when Ty had a plan for a much-needed break - and to enjoy a hobby he loves. When you're in the thick of "the hard," how do you find a way to regroup and refresh? And what if you can't? 

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!

So often, two things can be true at the same time. That's the case with Milo's birthday. We feel so grateful for him, and for being able to watch him grow! But anticipating his birthday can make us feel a little bit sad. We're digging into our feelings on this episode - as well as talking about some of our favorite Milo moments from the last year. 

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 o...

Milo has a fantastic imagination: An orange, knit hat is one of his go-to items to pretend to be Danny Go. But if you try to reason with him that the hat is not a great idea to wear outside on a warm fall day, you're not likely to win.

And so, when we set out on a family walk on the trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Milo's hat was firmly in place - despite his increasing frustration, despite becoming overheated.

You might still be thinking, why not just make him take off the...

Last year at this time, our family was reeling. Our son, Milo, had been going on months of little sleep, struggling to go to bed and then waking before dawn, his anxiety pulsing.

We were a year removed from his autism diagnosis in January 2023, but no closer to understanding how to best meet his needs.

And then - his behaviors worsened. Milo became much more physically aggressive, with longer outbursts that were difficult to manage. We went from sleep deprived to devastated: the pure pain of witnessing your child struggling and not knowing what to...