First Day of School - 8/29/12

Holly is such a big girl now!  These are pictures from her first day of school this year.  She is at the same preschool but now she is in the full inclusion program.  That means she has a much bigger class with 24 kids and a new teacher.  She was excited and ready to go.  Tan from the last month of summer spent swimming every day, and wearing her closed toed shoes she had her back pack ready with her Mac and Cheese for lunch and a few comfort items "Just In Case"

Out the door, down the stairs, into the car and as a special treat both Mommy and Daddy would take her to school.  Her class is on the other side of the school now in the back but we found it.  Holly had met her teacher over the summer and spent a few sessions visiting her class to get ready.

Lots of kids were already there when we arrived including a friend from last year, Nate.  Her teacher showed her to the dramatic play area, as dress-up is one of her favorite things and she was off and ready to go.  We said good bye and she didn't even think twice about it.  its only been about a year and a half since her very first day of school, just after her third birthday and man this couldn't have been more different.  She is a big girl now. 

It took a while but 3 months in and she knows every child in her class, notices who is missing when someone is absent.  Knows all her Upper Case Letters and only mixed up i/l and b/d in lower case.  She even recognized all her numbers up to 19 She knows her shapes and her colors.  She loves circle time and sharing her weekly "letter" back pack.  She even answers story time questions and asks them too.  She is still working on expanding her circle of friends and is most comfortable just playing with one person at a time, and she is still working on her table top activities, she doesn't want to miss anything so she rushes through them to make sure she gets a chance to do every single one, so she is learning to slow down and take her time.

This week she even dealt with her first Bullying issue, she told Mommy about it casually, and then said she didn't want to talk about it, but Mommy got the details and talked to the teacher.  A little girl pushed her and then Holly got Mad and another little girl hit her.  But she actually dealt with it on her own, decided to play in another area with a different friend.  Its hard to know what really happened or why, but we are working on having her tell a teacher when something like that happens so they can facilitate communication and get to the bottom of things.

She had her first heart break when her favorite friend told her he didn't want to play with her "Right Now" which she of course couldn't understand why.  But after a few minutes and help from the teacher she found a new friend who did want to play the same thing as she did right then.  And of course later she and the first friend were playing something else all together happily when he was done with the previous activity.

She has a very rigid routine and wants to know what is on the agenda every day.  She dresses herself in the morning for school and tells Daddy knock knock jokes on the ride in.  She has free play and circle and outside time, on certain days she plays with the SLP or the OT, she has table time and lunch and more outside time and then after nap time has started she patiently waits for Mommy to pick her up.

Today I told her I would be picking her up early later in the week and she got upset because all the times in class are her favorite and she told me she didn't want to miss anything so I would have to wait and pick her up after Nap time started.  She loves school and I can't believe its already time for me to begin to tour Kindergarten's, next year her first day will be at a whole new school, I think she is ready But of course the worry wort that I am I am scared for her, but she is brave and strong and she is outgoing and loves to make friends and I know she will do great.  I mean really look how far she has come already!

McDonalds

So we don't go to McDonald's a lot. it's not never, but we do go a few times a month. They make it really hard to resit however when they do things like build this incredible playroom inside. The other day we saw one out of town off the highway where the play area was outside and the slide and climbing tubes went onto the room of the restaurant. It was kind of crazy. The McDonald's in our neighborhood does not have this. But a while back we were driving to Fremont to visit a friend. We ended up being almost an hour early around lunch time and just around the corner from her house was this McDonald's.

Now this is the real reason I am posting about this. Last time we went we were with Joel and driving home from LA. Holly got stuck up the top, she was too afraid to go down the slide and Joel had to climb up to help her down. He does not like places like this for that very reason, but I parent in the style of letting her get herself stuck in sticky situations. She will either figure it out, or I will get a big kid to help her, or I will help her. But that's how she learns what her limits are. I have been lucky with this philosophy as so far it has not scarred her and she is still as adventuresome as ever. That's not to say she isn't cautious, she is sometimes, but often her eyes and impulse is a bit larger then her ability and she needs a little help.

On this day however, she ran into the playroom on her own while I was in line ordering some Chicken Nuggets. She took off her shoes and put them in a cubby, she tried to make friends with two little girls who were playing, it turns out that neither spoke English, at least not with there parents so that might have been why they didn't respond to her. But it didn't discourage her. She climbed up to the top to the play structure went down the slide and repeated this several times before I even got into the room. When I came back with the food she ran over, gave me a big hug and then said, "Watch Me Mommy" and then ran up and waved from the window at the top of the structure. She even didn't mind when the kids piled up at the bottom of the slide crashing into each other, she thought it was fun.

it was a nice lunch, Holly played, I checked email on my phone and watched her while snacking on nuggets and when the time came she was ready to go and we headed to our friends house. I however was not only a proud Mama, but in awe of what a big girl she is becoming.

The Ride Home, Notes About the Trip, Videos

The ride home from Disney was not nearly as fun as the ride there, I'm not sure if it was the lack of exciting anticipation to start the vacation or the fact that we had to begin with LA traffic but it took us forever to get out of the city and actually on the road. We had to get gas and then Holly had a super messy diaper then when we got over the mountain and pasted six flags and decided to stop for some food. Holly had a lot of energy so we went to a mcDonalds with an indoor playground which was fun but all this was add into to the length of our trip. Later we stopped again because I had to use the bathroom and ran out of my drink at Coalinga and when I opened the car door I felt like I was going to melt and the 1 minute walk inside made me feel like I was cooking. It was much hotter on this day driving home then when we drove to Disney. Later I checked what the temperature was and discovered it had been 105. I think it was around 7:45 when we got home. That said there were lots of fun parts of our road trip too. Holly had new Princess dolls and she really liked them. We all also spent a lot of time singing in the car, and I got lots of time to chit chat with Joel. Holly has recently "learned" to sing herself. it has been really exciting for me. Sometimes her singing is more like shouting, but it is a long group of memorized words in a sing song like voice, and I have several video's of her little songs here.

Happy Birthday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAKvDeoXm9Y

So we have been learning time based on events, so our trip to "Tinkerbell's Castle" was after mommy's, Sara's, and Chloe's Birthday. Then she wanted to know when Daddy's Birthday was. We told her it was after Tinkerbell's Castle, and Kaylee's Birthday. Next Month. Sometimes though, she doesn't quite yet get how long away those times are. Here she decided to sing Happy Birthday to Daddy.

Rock-a-bye Tinkerbell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmRLlk6dJKI

Here she is singing Rock-a-bye baby to Tinkerbell. It is one of the songs I sing to her and I have to replace baby with Mommy, or Daddy, or Chloe, or a friend from school. In this version she decided to sing it for Tinkerbell.

Holly Singing in Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyag5cf1_vc

I was trying to catch her singing Doe a Deer as it makes my heart super happy but I only got the tale end and then she begins Rock-a-Bye baby in a tree top. The drive home from Disney to Berkeley is long and she has to entertain herself somehow :-) She actually sang Doe a Deer several times but we didn't have the camera ready

Resists singing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90lir8rVAic

After singing Doe a Deer several times, now that we have the video camera out and ready to refusing to sing it anymore. She is such a little gremlin, so cute in her trouble makingness that you just got to laugh. She know we want her to do something so she will do anything but that. Sigh! Another thing Holly did to entertain herself was grab the camera from Daddy and take pictures. She took about 50 but I spared you by only posting a few shots. Most had her chubby little fingers in them. Many of them were of Mommy and then she had lots of the window as she tried to get pictures of outside. It was cute. She doesn't get that she has to aim the camera and she puts it up to her face, facing herself so there were several pictures of a smooshed nose.

So the last thing I wanted to talk about was the Guest Assistance Pass we used at Disney. This made the trip for us and I could not imagine the very different experience we might have had without it. On the first day we waited in line for Tinkerbell, and Daddy waited in like for Rapunzel, these lines were short compared to later days and the wait in many of the ride lines. Also on the first day it was relatively cool still, overcast and we waited in line in a shady area for those two character meets. That said, Holly was quite a little terror, sitting still was extremely difficult for her, and the heat was super agitating. Also you are not allowed regularly to take stroller's in line with you, and without the stroller it would have been a total nightmare. So the Guest Assistance Pass is for Guests with Special needs. the most obvious would be someone in a wheel chair, but because that is obvious they don't always need our pass. For guests without visible disabilities or issues you can get this pass from Guest Services. In our case I had my doctor write me a note stating her diagnosis of Fragile X, but according to the websites the note is not required, just makes it easier.

They asked me to describe her issues, Attention, Waiting, Sitting Still, Sensory issues, Anxiety with noise and crowds, and heat and light sensitivity were a few. if we had seen any of the shows this would have allowed us preferred seating in the front right before the show would start and access to an exit, but we decided not to risk it this trip. It also allowed us to access rides through the accessible entrance or in some cases the fast pass entrance, and in other cases that access was through the exit of the ride.

In most cases we would go to this entrance and either one other family or no one in front of us. We would be greeted and then have to wait one cycle of the ride, so if they were loading the ride or it was going we would be on the next 1-2 ride revolutions. Typically our wait was 5 at most 10 minutes and we were in a shaded, not crowded area where Holly would not be disruptive. Then we were able to board the ride. In many situations the actual ride wait was hot, cramped and a wait of at least 45 minutes. While this is not designed to "Cut" the lines, I felt like it made our experience doable.

I feel like without this, not only would we have been able to do maybe 25% of what we did, Holly would have been miserable and spent much of her time wanting to go home, I don't think we would have lasted the heat of the second and third day, and our trip would not have been successful. This also allow us to push Holly a little bit and try things. In one occasion I rode a ride first to see what it was like and then decided not to take Holly onto it. Also it would have allowed Joel and I to take turns riding each one waiting with Holly while the other rode, if we actually went on any of the grown up rides together.

Finally Kathy was pregnant, so I think this helped her out a lot with the limiting of the amount of standing we had to do. I highly recommend this pass for anyone who has a child with special needs. Disney itself is overwhelming, scary, and a sensory explosion. Any opportunity to minimize possible negative moments makes the trip all the better. Holly simply does not have the patience of other kids, the tolerance, or the impulse control to handle long lines. Also the pass allowed us to bring the stroller with us where ever we needed to which was nice, she had a safe place to hide when she needed one.

Park Hopping

We love hanging out with Chloe, the girls are the closest of friendsWe joke and sometimes call them frenemies, as they delve into the terrible twos and begin to butt heads.I think they act more like sisters, sharing everything, always able to make the other smileAnd often just wanting what the other has, purely because they have it. Giving what they want to the other because they care that much.They have been interacting and engaging and actually playing with each other long before the expects said they should beThey smile and hug, they taunt and tease each other, egging each other on.Partners in mischief, they learn from each other new skills, and bad habits too.On this particular day we had a free Saturday morning and decided to meet at the park in Alameda.Daddy always loves it when he gets to tag along and see the girls in there true element.Pictures may speak a thousand words, but seeing is believing and sometimes the antics these two get up to is quite unbelievable.Holly loves to swing, Chloe not so much, but together, with Holly by her side Chloe wants to swing too.Chloe loves to slide and climb, Holly is often hesitant on the slide, but with her friend near by, she too comes whizzing down.We started the day in Franklin park, but it was very hot, and there was no shade.So then we drove over to Lincoln park, stopping at only one garage sale on the way.This park has two play grounds, a nice grassy area and lots of shade from trees.Chloe is not a fan of the sandy ground, but with Holly to chase she puts aside her dislike and follows.They climb and jump and run across bridges and through play structures.Tube slides are in particular Holly's lease favorite, but she likes to play peek a boo through themAnd sometimes when Mommy waits down at the bottom she will venture through.If Chloe tries to climb up the chain ladder, Holly is by her side trying too.I must have taken fifty pictures of the girls sitting together on the curb here, so many expressions.We took a break from playing to sing some songs and they were so excited to sing along and listen.The cute smiles, excitement, and surprise as the clap, stomp, and shout hooray.Its so neat how they listen to the words now and can follow along on all of the actions in the various songs.The morning was long and our bellies were empty so we began to wander back to the cars for Lunch.We were taking Chloe and Katherine to Mommy's favorite Thai Restaurant, so they could try it out.We may have let them have a few snacks along the way, and we even had a few bubbles before we left.Lunch was yummy, the place is called Toomies (I think - its on park, around the corner from the movie theatre) and they have a wonderful Garlic and Pepper Chicken and yellow Curry Chicken.One Sweet and One Spicy, the perfect dishes to get and share having some of each.Days like this are the little things that make life so wonderful.