Prepairing for Another Week of School

     Here we are late Sunday , getting ready for our first full week of school and this weekend all I have heard is about Sebastian wanting to go back.
  DH and I still can't get over the difference in his behavior in just three days ! Today he has started to have a little trouble listening to us but considering he woke up so early today I am not too surprised by that fact. 

   We have a ECE meeting scheduled for Tuesday and I am so worried that they are going to want to remove him from his class... maybe he needs additional assistance ( okay , so we know he will need SOME regardless) but I hopefully I can explain to them clearly enough how much he is gaining in there daily. I am attempting to fade more and more into the background in the classroom so he is forced to become more independent - doesn't seem to be an issue. He is more concerned with the other kids and the teachers than he is with me... lol.  

  Well, I am getting tired and I have a busy day of Kindergarten ahead tomorrow so I better get to bed ...Try to write more tomorrow !
 Night all   ;)

First Day of School !

 Okay , here is folks, the post people have been asking me about since I walked in the door this afternoon :)

 Sebastian had a really nice day at school today. I ended up staying in the classroom to help out where I could and was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly everything went. I think he was a little nervous, but     heck , who ISN'T on the first day of school ! He did pretty good on listening to his teachers and was SO excited when they sang "Wheels on the Bus" 

   A few comments were made by other kids about him wearing a pull-up,some serious stares at his stoma and a few little boys cornered him and tried to take his glasses so it seems we are going to have to work on standing up for ourselves. On the upside to that all Sebastian was so into all the new stuff going on around him I don't think he really paid much attention to those incidents. It just makes me sad though , he has fought so hard to get where he is and to have other kids make fun of where is he lacking ....  :/   I know they don't know his history of course but still the momma bear in me wanted to growl but instead I just told the kids to keep their hands to themselves and to be kind. 

    One wonderfully funny thing did happen, a little boy was going around to the kids kind of chest bumping without touching , trying to intimidate them and make them flinch. He tried with Sebastian three or four times , Sebastian just looked at him like he was nuts then proceeded to scream at him with an ear piercing scream then wander off to play on the playground again -- this time The Intimidator flinched and took off . Is it wrong to be proud of that ? ;)

Sebastian LOVED the playground and was heartbroken when it was time to go back to class. I can not say enough nice things about his teachers Mrs.F and Mrs.K and their openness to this crazy little situation !  I am SO looking forward to what this year will bring for Sebastian  

Boooo !

   Due to a small but mighty storm that blew through the area last Saturday large sections of the city lost power- including us. We went without power for 3 days but not going to complain too much , the weather was nice and Sebastian seemed to have fun playing with a flashlight. 

   Another bummer is school has been canceled for both Monday and Tuesday due to all the power outages, phone lines out and roadways blocked. Sebastian is looking forward to it but I am glad they aren't risking kids' safety - and the parents' sanity !  We were sitting around talking about it and got laughing over the fact the kids have already incurred two "snow days" to make up at the end of the year yet they haven't even gotten on the buses yet.

Missing Teeth and Starting School

 So , it has been awhile since I have written but at least this time it wasn't a year ... an improvement I believe :D 

  Things have been going good around here , busy with some major life changes ( that is a whole other post ) but overall good. 

  One July 7th Sebastian lost his first tooth and the following week it's wiggly neighbor came out, suddenly he was drooling all over the place and was having trouble pronouncing some words - it was just like when he was a baby ! ;)

                  

I can't help but to smile back at that little gap tooth grin, shows just how much he has grown up. We attempted to go visit the dentist and while he didn't quite make it out the door like he did the first visit, he was so freaked out by all the medical equipment that it was impossible to do anything. Seems we will have to go to a dentist who sedates so they can do the x-rays they need, I was SO hoping to advoid him being put under yet again.

With as many times as this kiddo has been under anesthesia in his short life it seems like everytime we have to do it that we are rolling the dice on having some sort of adverse reaction to it. Of course what has to be done has to be done but rational logic doesn't always win in convincing emotions and nerves !

 Other BIG thing going on in our little world is Sebastian is starting public kindergarten next Monday !! It is a Montessori based school so I am over the moon with that - after researching different schools in the city vs his style of learning and basic personality I can see him reaching his fullest potential in this setting. As many of you know we have been having issues with the whole IEP deal ( what a shocker , huh ? ;) ) so at this point there is NOTHING in the computers about him, his past issues, where he is developmentally or what I have been working with him at home. The downside to this school is they have no ECE classes aside from 2 for the profoundly developmently delayed so that means the only other place for him is in a mainstream class.

  As wonderful as the thought of having him in a "typical" class sounds I know it would be impossible because of the on going potty training ... we are half way there if you catch my drift. Legalities aside, I could not consciously leave him with a teacher who is trying to also teach 20+ other kids with the possibility of a dirty pull-up happening. So much to my amazement a little plan was stitched together until we get this IEP deal figured out, I will hang out in the school and help out during the day then if Sebastian has an accident they can just bring him to me to clean up or if he gets too overstimulated then we can a few quite minutes together.  I am hoping this works out - just flying by the seat of our pants here... lol.   

   I wish I could be overall as happy as I feel about Sebastian being given the shot at a mainstream class without being "pigeonholed" by an IEP  from the get-go but there are still aspects I am rather concerned about that are bothering me. For the sake of everyone's privacy I am not posting those reasons on the blog in a public domain but anyone interested - it is ok to ask in private. 

 Despite my concerns I am looking forward to Monday and seeing how he does! I think he will love it once he gets use to it. I am already in love with his teacher Mrs.F for at least giving him a chance in her class and not discounting him like some people would like to. I know he was "assigned" to her class so really she is kinda stuck with us at least until the IEP is straightened out but it was nice to not be made to be felt as if A HUGE FAVOR was being done for us and he would be shipped out of the school as soon as the ink on the IEP is dry.