A week in review

This past week was Grace's first week of school. She is going Monday through Thursday and gets picked up in the van at 8:00 and is dropped back off at 2:45pm. As with any change there is a period of adjustment. So this week (and probably next week) we adjusted. I was dreading her leaving me. She is so little and young and non-verbal and helpless and she is my baby. So I was a mess last Sunday at church. Everything made me cry. But I prayed and I know a lot of others prayed for me, and Monday I did not cry at all. I dropped her off at her new school and got to meet her teacher and her room aide. There are 6 kids assigned to her room but not all kids go the same days of the week. So Grace will have lots of attention. In addition, she has MANY hours of therapy which will be both in her classroom and in other areas of the school. It really is a great school. My two main areas of concern with sending her to school are that she doesn't normally eat for anyone but me or Mark, she doesn't normally eat in noisy or bright or loud places, she will miss her 2-3 hour afternoon nap and they don't know her like I know her. Oh, I guess I have four concerns...

It was strange not having her at home with the boys on Monday. They both were off because of a teacher in service day (Thank you God). So we all met the van with great anticipation Monday afternoon. By all accounts, she had a great first day. However, she didn't eat at school and she just dozed on the van. It was so sweet to see her get off the van, and I'd like to think she missed me. Tuesday morning the van picked her up bright an early and the van driver and aide were so happy to see her. It was great. I put her on the van, got the boys loaded into the car for their doctor's appointments, went back into the kitchen for my coffee and LOST IT. Mark asked what was wrong and I said "They took my baby", seriously how dramatic can you get?!? But still, I was having trouble breathing. Thankfully, it passed quickly and I was fine the rest of the day. I just keep checking the clock to see when she will be home.

In fact, Grace did not eat at all for them any of the days she was there. But she made up for it when she got home. She is in fact, napping on the van. Her sleep was greatly impacted last week. So much so, that she fell asleep on the way too school one day because she had been up since 4:00am. Another night she was up from midnight till 4:00 am and then I had to wake her up at 7:00 so she could eat and get ready to go to school. That day she didn't eat and they didn't see my note about feeding her breakfast, so her first meal of the day was lunch at 11:00 (which she didn't eat for them). I'm hoping that she figures out the eating at school issue and I know that the sleep issues should resolve themselves (she says prayerfully!!!).

I was able to spend some one on one time with both John and Luke. And that is something that is precious to me. I feel like our family has been out of balance for 2 1/2 years and now I will be able to spend some time focusing on each of my boys. All the while, knowing that Grace is getting the attention and therapy that will take her to the next level. I am also going to be able to focus on ME now. I'm so happy that I was able to join a women's bible study at my church. I am joining the group a few weeks into the study but it seems like a great group and I'm so happy to be able to do this. I will most likely have to take John with me every week, but they have a great program for the kids. And two of my friends from MOPS work in his room, so he will be well taken care of.

Luke's 4 year old appointment went very well. I was so proud of him. He sat like such a big boy during the exam and was able to 'read' all the shapes for his eye exam. He is now in in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. Too bad for him he got 4 shots, he needed 2 vaccines so he would be up to date and I got him the seasonal flu and the H1N1 flu shot. John was also there for one shot, he was somehow behind on one of his regular vaccines. And then I added the seasonal flu and the H1N1 also. So 7 shots later we were out of there. Because they were brave, and I'm a sucker, we stopped at Walmart for a special toy and a happy meal. So the trip to the doctor's cost me $30 bucks in bribes...

Grace had her 3 year old appointment on Friday. She normally acts like a mountain lion that has been caught in a trap at the doctor's. But she did much better this past week. Which is to say she didn't start crying as until after I put her on the scale. I'm not sure why, but when she cries and freaks out like that I laugh. It seems inappropriate even to me, but it is so silly to be crying before anything happens. The visit is really just to keep her up to date on her vaccines and make sure she is still growing properly. They really don't do anything else for us because she is healthy and we have no diagnosis. I read the physical form they filled out for her school and she is in the 3rd percentile for height. Really. Why didn't they just put 0-5%. Anyway, she only had to have the H1N1 vaccine so she had the least amount of shots this week, but cried the most. Thankfully, we don't have anymore well visits scheduled for a while for anyone.

I really don't want to make this post any longer so I'm going to stop there. And I haven't downloaded my pictures of Grace's first day yet, so this unbelieveably long post will not have any pictures. I'm sorry.