Life as a Leach

Look who learned how to write her brother's name?! This was hanging up outside of her classroom.  Too funny! And  dance she does!  All. Of. The. Time. We had a conference with Abby's teacher the other day and we are thrilled with how well she is doing!  She has learned so much already and I am especially impressed with the knowledge she has about number combinations.  In the car the other day, she was spouting off, " one and three equal four, one and one and two equal four, two and two equal four!" without any prompting whatsoever.  She has a fantastic teacher who is perfect for her.  Matt and I especially appreciate how she is holding Abby to a high standard, so she isn't getting away with anything!  :)  We love our girl and the natural sassiness that has made her into the fighter she is, but we don't want it to become a problem in the classroom!  :)

Thanks to a bunch of wonderful people, Abby's first week of school went perfectly!  She absolutely loves it and asked today if she was going to school. She was disappointed to hear that we were only in the car to go to Caleb's fencing practice. :) Our awesome new PT was there almost every second of the first three days (T, I feel like I am almost cheating on you by calling MB awesome!  But you know how much we adore you!) and examined everything closely to see how she could help Abby to be more independent.  One of the custodians heard that Abby couldn't do a particular style of paper towel dispenser, so she switched it out for one she could do! I was so surprised and grateful!  There's a stool there so that she can reach things, and we have trained the bus drivers and assistants (she will ride a different bus coming and going) in all of the safety precautions.    Abby's teachers, the wonderful Mrs. C and Mrs. Y, have put a lot of procedures in place to hel...

Today was Abby's first day of Pre-K at our local elementary school!  She did great!  We walked to the door just as the bus was letting off.  Abby said goodbye, joined the line, and walked right in! I did stay in the building (since the nurse was going to be out), making copies for the 3rd and 2nd grade teachers and pulling a few groups. She didn't know I was there, and I kept it that way!  She did totally fine, and the biggest "issues" were that she wouldn't sit in the chair they provided her per her IEP (she can sit where she wants to sit!  It just needs to be available) and she didn't want to sing.  I do believe the child was showing her sassiness right out of the gate.  :) A lot of people asked me if I cried.  Yes, I did.  But they were not tears of sadness that she is growing up.  They were tears of pure joy and thankfulness that we have made it to this point. You see, When you cried because you couldn't get your colicky ba...

Abby got into prek at SLES, so now the fun begins!  Before she can start, I have to make sure she is completely safe and everyone knows what she can and can't do.  The nurse and I had a great meeting yesterday to create her medical plan, which she will share with the teachers. Nurse K has been really great and seems like she will be very protective of Abby.  She even decided to make her a lanyard with a little "please don't pick me up" sign for her to wear until everyone gets to know her.   I have a meeting later today with her teacher, and then an IEP revision meeting on Monday.  Somehow, our awesome team pulled off a meeting that fast, and I'm so grateful!  We need to change her IEP to be school-specific, rather than just as if she only receives speech services.  We also need to put in that she needs a 5 point harness in the bus, because she can't ride until it does.   Abby's start date won't actually be until Thursday, because the nurse will be...