The First day of School

Of course you know I spent the last 24 hours thinking of all the things that could go wrong today.  I worried about transitions, about the paci, about the backpack falling off, about her being tired, about her not eating a good lunch, about the bus ride being too stressful, about being late, about the weather....you name it and I fretted about it.

I tried to pretend that today was just another day.  In fact, we know it wasn't.  Today was the day I was sending my tiny (they always seem tiny when they are getting ready to do big things) 3 year old off to school with strangers.  I'm sure they are wonderful folks (I'm learning just how much so!) but they are strangers to me and to Nea.  It's the first time that she would be left alone with someone other than her parents, family or close friends.  Would they pick up on her cues?  Would they be able to handle a meltdown? Would they comfort her through tears of stress?  (ya, okay...back to the worry thing.)

We did therapy this am as usual.  Wednesdays are going to be very busy days for her as she will be doing therapy in the morning and school in the afternoon.   There's not a good reason to take her from Diana and "A" at this point and she is really bonded with them.   We are not sure how long therapy at Pedi Rehab will go on as yet, but I believe we'll know when the time comes.

We went to lunch after therapy with Poppa.  A great, yummy lunch full of protein and a few carbs.  ("good lunch" stress unfounded).   She started to get tired after a full tummy, but we managed to keep her awake on the way to the school.  And of course we arrived on time ("being late" stress unfounded).  I tucked her paci's in the backpack in case of emergency which was no biggie for her ("paci" stress unfounded).  I put her backpack on her, and she held our hands walking into school.  (The backpack was fine by the way....another unfounded stress.)    Oh, and the rain stopped  ("weather" stress unfounded).

Her teacher and 3-4 of her classmates were waiting for us at the door.  Big smiles from everyone and a friendly "Hi Nea!"  That made her stop pretty quickly because she doesn't do those initial "hellos" very well.  But she bounced back fairly well  and gave a smile with a very shy, "hi".  The teacher gave her a teddy bear saying, "Would you like to carry the teddy bear to class?"  Nea's response, "Yah, okay!"

We walked in line with the other students, Nea holding tight to the teddy bear and walking right along with everyone.  The little boy in front of her turned to her and said, "This is how we go to school."  I told him that we didn't know, and he was doing a really good job showing us how!  The teacher sang "Follow the teacher to school..." with all her little ducklings singing along with her as they happily followed.

When we got to the classroom door, the teacher stopped and opened the door as she told them to put their backpacks in the spot.  Nea followed right with them.  She never looked back at me, she never hesitated one second.  The teacher smiled at me and said..."let's just go with it."  And with that, we turned and left.

As you can imagine, I cried all the way to the car.  I really think they were tears of joy.  I think my angry tears and my stress tears were shed days ago.  But today was about months and months of planning, of organizing, of meeting after meeting.  It was formulating transitions and developing an IEP that works for everyone.  That moment right there was everything we had been working towards so she could start her academic career successfully.

And we did it.

The bus ride home was the next worry, as that 50 minute ride was probably going to be exhausting and boring as all heck.

School ended at 3:00 p.m.  I received an email from the teacher at 3:15 full of heartwarming info.....

".....I am absolutely astonished by how well Nea did at school today...."
".....Nea participated and was very focused and engaged in the story we read...."
".....she did well with transitions too.  I have a visual schedule and just showed her pictures of what was next and she needed little redirection."
"....she was very excited to ride the bus home...."

The bus arrived at our house at 3:28.  Oh a 28 minute bus ride home is so much better than the 50 minute one we were anticipating!  We were thrilled!

Nea almost danced off that bus. Her opening words when she stepped out....

"I RODE THE BUS!!!"

She was excited, she was animated, and she was full of energy.  She had lots to say I could tell, but she just couldn't find all the words.  She walked around the house gathering up her trains and a few favorite toys and put them in her favorite spots, lined up just how she likes them.  Finally, she got a sentence out....

"Mamma!  I was at school!"

I am so over the moon happy for her.