Farewell, Blended Class

http://youtu.be/cvfBZoqlqgo
Wednesday marked a significant milestone for us.  The Beast graduated from Blended Preschool!  The previous year he had been in an all-special-needs preschool class with excellent teachers who helped him make so much progress.  This year, we were again blessed with great teachers that assisted him in making the switch to a blended class (some "normal," some like him).  In two years, our little man has really grown and made so many improvements.

Every day is a challenge with that young man.  Just when I think I have him "figured out," he goes and proves me wrong.  He is notoriously a bad sleeper - so when he took a long time to fall asleep last night, I didn't worry too much about it.  I knew he would probably sleep in and give his body the rest it needed, as he always did.  Not so - at 5:00 am there was a pounding on our bedroom door.  "Mo-om!  Da-ad!  It's time to be up!  The sun is out!"  An eager Beast bounced into our room and let the world know he was awake.  Yay.  No amount of persuasion got him back in bed, in case you're wondering.

Along with the challenges come blessings too.  The depth of love from that boy is incredible.  He is an amazing storyteller.  His connection with his siblings is unmatched.  He has a zest for life that inspires all of us.

God knew.  He designed our Beast especially for us.  He planned that we would face these challenges and difficulties that come with autism, knowing that there is a greater plan behind it all.  I don't know why God chose to give us the Beast.  I don't know why He thought us qualified to "handle" a special-needs kid.  I do believe God has a reason for this amazing young man in our lives, and to be honest, I'm pretty excited to see what God has planned for his future! 

Happy Graduation, buddy!

Friends

What do you do when your child seems to be an outsider? How do you handle it when it becomes evident that your child is being left out of things? How much should Momma get involved?

A few mornings ago, I herded my chaotic crew into the Drama Queen's school into the early morning room. I was teaching the junior high Spanish class that day; so I stayed in the room, trying to maintain some control over the male offspring before handing them off to their babysitter. I watched my daughter walk to the back of the room and sit in a row of chairs all by herself. One of her classmates walked over and asked her, "Hey, why do you always sit by yourself? Come on over here and sit with us!" My daughter shook her head, "No, I don't want to. I wanna sit here." The classmate shrugged her shoulders and walked back to her friends. Soon they were pointing at the Drama Queen, whispering and giggling. I looked at the cluster of girls, arms around each other, undoubtedly saying mean things about my daughter. Then I looked back at my girl. She seemed unaware that any whispering and giggling were going on. Honestly, I wanted to march right over to those girls and demand to know what they were whispering about. Then, my second thought was to go over to the Drama Queen and ask her why on earth she didn't want to sit with friends.

I agonized over what to do. It was tearing me up inside to see my little girl all alone while the other children played and chatted together. Finally, despite what I WANTED to do, I backed off and went to my classroom to set up for Spanish. But the images of what just happened stayed in my head all day. I decided to talk to her about it after school.

I tried to wait for an appropriate time to bring it up.

"Honey, who is your best friend at school?" I questioned her.

She shrugged. "I don't know, Mom."

"Well, what about. . . " and I went on to list the other girls in her class.

"No, I don't think so, Mom," she answered.

"Sweetheart, why didn't you go and sit with the other girls when they asked you this morning?"

"I didn't want to - I wanted to be by myself," she stated firmly.

"But don't you want to have friends and spend time with them?"

"No," she said flatly. "I don't really care, Mom."

You can't force your kid to make friends, can you? I was at a loss, not knowing how this worked. When I was her age, I loved being around my friends and would never have wanted to be by myself. This was foreign territory for me. I decided to let it go and talk to my hubby about it later. Being the introvert in our relationship, he might have some insight into the whole thing.

Ten minutes later, the Drama Queen spoke up. "Oh, I know, " she said. "Mom, my best friend is Tanner. He says he's gonna marry me when we grow up!"

Well, then. Maybe we have a different social problem altogether. . .

:)

Wordless Wednesday - She's Reading

so mostly for the grandparents and other adoring relatives. . . our preschooler is reading!

just had to brag for a minute. :)

okay, better go check on the kids. they are probably doing something I don't want to brag about.

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom...

Friday Funnies

Just to let everyone know, we have a genius in the house. The Drama Queen is learning much more at school faster than I ever anticipated, and it's so fun to listen to her tell me all about what she learned each day (well, that, and who was naughty and got their name on the board).

Okay, she may not be a genius, but she is super smart (gets that from her momma, naturally). The other day we were driving to church, and I mentioned to the Nerd that she had been learning about opposites in school.

"Really? Let's see how much you know." he challenged her. "What's the opposite of cold?"

"Hot!"

"Okay, what's the opposite of happy?"

"Sad. Too easy, Daddy!"

"Well, what's the opposite of down?"

(big sigh) "Up."

(trying to be tricky) "What's the opposite of below?"

(no hesitation) " Be high!"

Yep, that's my girl! Have a wonderful Friday everyone!

You Know You're a . . .

You know you're a mom of a preschooler when. . .

. . . you get into the minivan after stuffing the kids into their respective car seats and finding niches for everyone's backpacks, lunch boxes, jackets, and toys they just can't live without. You start up the van and turn on some "calming" music, hoping for a safe and uneventful drive home. About two minutes into the drive, your youngest (who has a very strong tendency to hurt himself on a regular basis) starts screaming and carrying on as if he were about to die. He screams, "Help, help, emergency!" and although you try to calmly ask what's wrong, you don't get a satisfactory response. You try using your rearview mirror to assess the damage, if any, but of course, you can't see anything. You continue to drive, but the screams grow louder and more forceful, making all sorts of crazy things go through your head. Maybe he is tangled in his seat belt and is slowly choking himself to death! Maybe he is sick and needs to throw up. Maybe there's a giant fire ant in his car seat that is systematically biting his leg. . . Finally, in frustration, you pull over to the side of the road and open the side door. You inspect the little man to see what could possibly be such an emergency. Ah, yes, of course. He wants to drive his little Hot Wheels car up his pant leg as a tunnel, but he can't quite fit the car into the pant leg. After the "an emergency is only if you're bleeding or dying, young man, and that certainly wasn't called for to scream like that!", you then calmly show him the right way to get the Hot Wheels car in his pant leg and get back in the drivers seat to drive home. It is THEN that you know that you are the mom of a preschooler! (or two, or three.. . .)

And Then...

6:00 am - Get up, make some coffee, get dressed, and make sure all backpacks, coats, and shoes are in order.

6:45 am - Rouse the Drama Queen, who is NOT a morning person, dress her in her school uniform, and try to coerce her to eat some breakfast.

7:00 am - Allow the Spud and Beast to come out of their rooms, get them settled with breakfast, and then dress the little fiends.

7:30 am - March the kiddos and all their appropriate gear out the door and proceed to buckle them into their five-point harness car seats.

7:40 am - Pick up a teenager that carpools with us to school and drive to school, occasionally making a stop at McDonalds for a mocha frappe for the teenager.

8:00 am - Drop the teenager and the Drama Queen off at school and then park the van. Unload the remaining gremlins and check them into the school daycare.

8:00 am - Get set up for class and attend teachers' meeting. Teach Spanish to the 7th/8th graders.

9:15 am - Finish up class and go pick up the boys from daycare. Once again do the car seat thing.

9:30 am - Arrive at the gym, unload the boys from the van and drop them off at the gym child care. Go work out! woohoo!

10:30 am - Sweating profusely, pick up the boys and bribe them with a granola bar to get to the van quickly. again with the car seat process...

10:40 am - Arrive home, get the boys in front of a short DVD while I take a quick shower. Spend some time playing with the boys and picking up around the house.

11:40 am - Load the boys back into the van and drive back to school to pick up the Drama Queen. Head home for lunch.

12:15 pm - Make lunch for the kids and eat. (quickly!)

12:45 pm - Load all offspring into the van again and drive The Beast to his special preschool.

1:00 pm - Go back home and do laundry, dishes, lesson plans, whatever needs to be done.

2:00 pm - Grab the kiddos and head out to pick up one of the Drama Queen's friends that stays at our house after her school is out.

2:30 pm - Take the kids to a playground or library, depending on the weather.

3:30 pm - Pick up The Beast from his preschool and head home. Get the boys settled for "rest time" (naptime is a rarity anymore) and the girls doing a quiet activity. Take a deep breath, finish housework, and start making dinner.

5:00 pm - After the Drama Queen's friend gets picked up, get dinner on the table and feed the family. After which, the evening activities of dishes, kitchen clean-up, baths for the kiddos, bedtime stories, picking out of outfits for the next day, vacuuming, etc. will commence. Any remaining time is to be used for catching up on emails and doing some projects for The Framed Frog.

You didn't really read all of that, did you? Well, if you did, stop and take a deep breath. That's what I have to do when I realize how busy my schedule is! I love it - the constant motion, the going here and there - but it is definitely the reason I have been lax in my blogging the last few weeks. I haven't yet figured out a good spot to fit in blogging.

But, don't worry - I enjoy blogging too much to stop! I'll figure out a way to keep it going. Plus, there are so many bloggable moments these days, and I don't want to miss out on any of them. :)

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

9:30 am -

School Daze

Last night, I uttered words that have never been spoken in this house before - "She needs to get to bed. It's a 'school night.' "

Yes, things have certainly changed around here. It all started on Tuesday morning, when I got up early to get everybody and everything ready for the first day of school.

The Drama Queen was already up, excited and ready to go in her uniform and with her special backpack, packed to the brim with tissues, Clorox wipes, construction paper, and other such preschool necessities. I had my bag packed as well, with my lesson plan book, red pens, paper, and some special treats for my Spanish students. When the boys woke up rather groggily, the Beast pulled out his new Spiderman backpack to be filled with extra clothes and pull-ups for daycare and later his ESD preschool. We managed to remember everything and get out the door in plenty of time to get to school.
The Nerd planned to go into work a little late that morning so he could see our baby girl go to school that first day. After dropping the boys off at daycare (not a happy occasion for the Beast unfortunately), we took the Drama Queen up to her classroom where she willingly posed by her desk in her Dr. Seuss-themed room. That sweet smile and air of self-confidence tugged at my heart a little, but I didn't cry. The Nerd insisted on taking several pictures of the momentous event, including photos of her in front of the fish tank, in front of Mrs. Kaiti's desk, in the process of unloading her backpack, etc. You would think he was the blogger in the family! I gave her a quick hug and told her she was going to be awesome in preschool; then I hurried downstairs to teacher's meeting. After a long but informative assembly, I got to meet the the 7th and 8th grade students that would be in my Spanish class this year. (lots of boys with deep voices that squeak every once in a while and a few girls that are taller than the boys :) ) It felt great to get back into the teaching groove again!

After Spanish class, I picked up the boys from daycare and headed home. I got a few things done around the house and then it was back to school to pick up a very bubbly and talkative Drama Queen from school. She chatted about what she had learned and who had gotten their name on the board (apparently not a good thing) and who was sitting next to her all the way home. We all hurriedly ate lunch and then got back into the van to take Davey to his ESD preschool for the afternoon.
This time, as I pulled into the parking lot of the ESD/Headstart building and signed in to take him to his class, I started to cry. It was very overwhelming to take my barely-three-year-old to a class with a teacher I hardly knew. He looked at me uncertainly from the door, but as soon as Mr. Scott promised he could wash his hands with the bubbly soap, he cheerfully waved and went inside. I didn't want to leave and stood around for a little while, as if there were something else I should do before I go. Mr. Scott gently reminded me that he would see us again at 3:30 pm. I reluctantly took the other kiddies home for the rest of the afternoon.

Promptly at 3:30 I was back at his school, waiting to hear all about his first day. Mr. Scott said he did very well for his first day and only had a little trouble staying focused during circle time. Davey of course said nothing - he never talks about his day. From his preschool, I drove straight to the doctor's office, where the Drama Queen and the Spud had their check-ups and respective shots. Then it was home to finish making dinner and finally take a break from the van!

So, yes, I would say that our daily lives have changed rather dramatically. I am trying to figure out where my Etsy shop projects and blogging will fit in, but I am loving it! This is the part of motherhood I have been waiting for - the busyness, the school projects, and the daily schedule :)