Thursday, September 30, 2010

End of one road, start of another

Tomorrow is going to suck. Tomorrow I'll be putting my almost 3 year old on a school bus to take him to his first day of special ed pre-k.
I'm sure he'll do great, maybe have a rough start of it but in the end Lex will thrive. He is so adaptive when it comes to play environments and his teacher said that's first and foremost what her classroom is that learning happens naturally when the kids are playing and interacting. I'm excited to see how he handles the transition to "big kid" status. He'll ride the bus to and from school 4 days a week and 3 of those days he'll go right into daycare.
I on the other hand will not do well with this transition. My feelings are so mixed, pride and worry and sadness have become my 3 shadows these days. I'm so proud that Lex will be doing this, that he will take most of this in stride and be a better person for it. Proud to simply be the mom of this amazing little person. I worry that he'll have a rough go of things just like the transition to the 2 year old room at daycare. That he may not work to his potential because he could be stressed out. Lex isn't a big fan of change and this is a pretty big change. I'm really sad to see the end of the baby days nearing. Since he'll be my only child (barring some miracle) it's hard for me to let go of the sweet baby. He hasn't been a baby in almost 2 years, he's been this rough and tumble, mess and monsters kind of boy but I really just want to hold onto him where he is. Every day is a new adventure, he's talking more, dancing, jumping, and being infinitely more affectionate than he ever has been.
I attribute a lot of the new found skills to all the hard work he does, Nate and I working with him and then his wonderful therapists David and Paula being there and being amazing resources. It's hard to imagine we'll be navigating the world of autism and sensory integration dysfunction without them in 2 weeks since they have been our guides but it'll have to be something we do. We know the skills it's just time to apply them.
I'm not ready to start down this new road but I think Lex will grab my hand and pull me along no matter what.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Busy and frustrating

It's been a busy couple of weeks here. We completed Lex's evaluations for entrance into the school district and they were pretty right on in relation to where he is developmentally and socially. He'll start his first day of school on October 1st but his last meeting with his current therapists will be the week of his birthday so we'll be doubled up for 2 weeks.

Last weekend we did the Northland Autism Walk. Our team met our goal of $450 and passed it. We had a lot of friends and family come out and walk with us, all of them rocking the tie dye shirts I made. Team Lex was amazing.

This week Lex was moved over to the 2 year old room at daycare. While I wasn't happy about this idea I know they have to do it, one because of his age/size and two because of the numbers of kids they have to maintain in each classroom. The first day resulted in Lex clinging to his old teacher, but I had no information about the day because she didn't know. Second day was more of the same but I sent a communication notebook so we could try to relay information back and forth. After that day I was not happy with the classroom teachers. They made it seem like they weren't going to make an attempt to keep Lex interacting in anything. Nate and I had a meeting with the center director and the teachers yesterday to discuss their concerns and see what can be done to make this easier on everyone. I felt very attacked at this meeting like I was asking them to do something that's not in their job descriptions and that they just don't have time for a kid like Lex. They seem unwilling to do his brushing protocol or even give him a couple of minutes to unwind away from the other kids before bringing him back to projects and circle time. I understand that they have 14 other kids to think about but they need to think about Lex too. I got the feeling during the meeting they really want to have us leave the daycare so that's my intention. I don't want to but I want to do what's best for Lex.