and then it was grace's turn...

Grace started school last Monday...

 

And it was not a good week for us.  It traditionally takes Grace a few weeks to get used to school again.  I'm hoping since this week was such a doozy, that it will take less time this year.  Grace has the same teacher, Regina, as last year and I couldn't be happier.  Not only does she already know Grace and her quirks, but she is great about communication with me.   She told me that all the kids were having trouble transitioning back to school.  It does help to know that we are not alone.  

Just to give you an idea of what 'not transitionally well' looks like for us.  Grace has either been up till 1:00 am or woken up at 2:00 am for the day, pretty much every day last week.  When Grace is awake she is VERY vocal so there is no way to just ignore her, so mama is up with her too.  I'm a little old to be having the sleep patterns of a college kid, so needless to say I was exhausted last week.  Her van comes at 7:40 so she was getting an average of 6 hours of sleep a night.  Not nearly enough for her.

She is also going through a change to her eating.  Since she is fed almost every single bite of food that she eats, I should say a change to her feeding.  Which means that she has become very picky and will now reject previously favored foods.  I'm spending a lot of time planning, shopping and making her purees now and trying to come up with food combinations that she will eat.  It has been very time consuming but I've made some progress with her feeding and she is now eating Whole30 with me.

The boys don't have to leave for school until 8:15 so they have been rolling out of bed at 7:50, but on Grace's first day of school I made them get up and pose for a picture with sister.  Don't they look thrilled?!?  John wouldn't get his picture taken in his pjs (which are literally shorts and a t-shirt), so we made the van wait on the first day so he could find the shirt and socks he wanted.  Guess it didn't matter that his hair wasn't combed...

During the first few weeks of school the class is doing a lesson called 'all about me'.  So the teacher sent home a sheet to be completed.  Since Grace doesn't talk, use her hands or really show preference for much, I asked John to help me fill it out.  So I read him the topics and he made something up answered for Grace.  When he got to "When I grow up I want to be...", he asked 'will she get to be anything'.  I said, 'probably not, but let's pretend.'  So he picked a career for her based on her love of dogs.  I waited to cry until the kids were in bed...

Since this post seems kind of whinny, and really I didn't mean it to be but I do try and tell the truth about having a child with special needs.  I thought I'd share a recent video of Grace.  We kept finding her on the back porch but no one was letting her out the door (she can't open and shut doors).  I finally saw how she was getting out there and now know why we need a new screen on the door.

I have shared most of these pictures and that video on instagram so sorry for the repeat if you follow me there.  If you don't, you can go here to my IG page.  I'm way better at updating IG that I am my blog or facebook.

Hope the start of school was great for your family!