2 More Days

Just two more days of Pre-school Summer School left. Then I will have two kids home all day to bring chaos to my mornings. The good news is Jimmy sleeps in until 11:00. The Doodle is going to miss his routine and I hope he doesn't get too out of sync about it.

At home, we don't have a lot of routine--it's more free play, destroy time and mind games for control while OCDing. Lately his OCD focus has been on Cool Ranch Doritos and Salsa. We put a lock on the pantry and tie the refrigerator closed with a highly technical security lock that resembles a purple satin ribbon. Too bad he couldn't be compulsive about fruit or drinking water; something a little healthier for him.

One thing I can be sure of, there will be plenty of time for TIME OUTS.

School starts again on August 16th. He'll be going to a new school, new class, with a new teacher, new bus driver, new bus, new Shape Aid and new hours. That's a lot of new for a child with severe transition issues. With fingers crossed, I will hope for the best.

The Doodle's First Day Riding the Bus

Just click on the arrow in the middle to play slideshow. Sorry but you'll need to turn the sound off on the slideshow otherwise you're going to hear two songs at once.

What An Exciting Day

Today was Jimmy's first day of 4th Grade. He was so excited. He had the clothes he was going to wear all laid out last night and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. He got the teacher he was hoping for and one of his best friends is in his class, so he was pretty stoked this morning. I think he might have snuck one of my Go-Girls. Can you tell?

Then we had a little communication-fart take place.
A Short Bus showed up here this morning to take the Doodle to his first day of Special Ed Preschool. Only, they must not have gotten the memo that the Doodle won't be starting school this week after all. We have another IEP scheduled this Friday to determine the best classroom and school for him. I always wanted to choose the school closest to us which happens to be the school Jimmy goes to, but we are technically not in the district. So, because of the Doodle's medical condition with multiple seizures a day, they are now willing to give us a referral over to the other school because they have a medically fragile classroom there. This Friday I find out exactly what that means for him.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to be my usual demanding-self in order to fight for what is best for him there. I'm already getting some pushback on the phone with some of my requests, like asking for a one one one. Not that I need to, but it might be time to break out the Matrix Advocate if they try dicking me around too much. I hope I'm making the right decision.

Meanwhile, I still haven't been able to shake that image of the short bus driving down our driveway from my brain. I'm not sure why it affects me so much. Must have been all of the short bus jokes I told in Junior High.

Bye Bye Betsy

Today was our Angel Betsy's last day:(

Since working with the Doodle every day since last year, she had become an extended part of our family and we adore her. Dominic has been so lucky to receive some fantastic special education services from Betsy but more importantly, love. Betsy has been his Shape assistant and comes to our house and plays with him for a couple of hours a day and has been gifted with an enormous amount of patience. Because I know how trying it is and how I need to really practice my patience skills everyday and he's my own son. I can't imagine trying to have that much patience with someone else's kid.

Dom gets so excited when Betsy comes to the door and he loves to throw things out of her bin. Most people that visit Dom usually bring a bin filled with wonderful tactile things to play with and do. If you ever come over to my house and Dom answers the door he will be checking the porch to see if you forgot to bring in your bin. Actually, he has quite the Staff for such a little person. He also has a speech person, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist who are all working to shape and regulate this special boy. Betsy promises to stay nearby and will continue to be his guiding light. No pressure Betsy...

Soon the Doodle will go to special ed preschool and be riding the short bus. I can't help but giggle and cry when I picture a short bus pulling up to our house and picking him up in his helmet with his weighted backpack. Come on, you don't get much more special than that. We're all the way to right on the special spectrum, there's no in between special here. It's funny now that I know he will be riding the short bus, I see short buses everywhere. I think I counted 7 short buses today while running errands. Not a lot of helmet-sporting special kids on the short bus; I did make a note of that. You must be very special in order to wear the helmet.

My goal for the Doodle by preschool is to get the seizures under control. Goal two would be to get him to say some words and hopefully his first word will not be a swear word. A talking Doodle would be fantastic and a dream come true. I can't even imagine right now what his little voice would sound like if you took away the grunts.