Kindergarten

Bright and early Monday morning we dropped our 1 pound babies off at Kindergarten.  They are babies, right?  I just birthed them last week, right?  No?  How the heck did the last six years go by so stinking fast? 

I’m not going to lie – In the two weeks leading up to the first day I have been a mess.  A complete mess.  Some sadness but mostly I’ve been worried.  I just keep wondering how all of this is going to go for Lindy.  From the first IFSP meeting we ever had when she was born our goal was to get her in a mainstream kindergarten classroom.  Every year we wrote the same overall goal.  We worked so hard with Lindy to get her caught up with her peers.  We spent what feels like a million hours in therapy getting her caught up.  And hot dang – it all paid off.  She is in a mainstream kindergarten classroom.  And I’m totally fretting it.  She got there and now I’m so worried about how it will go! 

I found anything and everything to worry about in the weeks leading up to school.  I was seriously stressed about the playground but I did start feeling a little more comfortable after we took her a few times last week.  She is in the best place possible to have a successful experience though.  We put her in a school that has an on sight vision teacher.  And the vision teacher is awesome.  We have loved her from the first time we met her.  I think she is going to work hard to make Lindy successful.  Her teacher has had visually impaired students before and the whole school is used to visually impaired students.  She is definitely in the right place.  It just happens to be a good school so it’s great for Will, too.  We are thrilled with where they are. 

But all my worrying and fretting didn’t stop Monday morning from arriving.  We got up super early because we had to take many pictures and we weren’t sure how long it would take to get across town with traffic.  The kids got up and got going pretty easily and we got pictures taken at home.  We got to school pretty early for some pictures outside and then we had to wait a few minutes to go inside. 

We finally headed in and got to Will’s class first.  I went in with him while Drew waited with Lindy.  We got his things put up and he got in his seat and started coloring.  I snapped some pictures and teared up and headed out.  I had to suck it up because I still had to take Lindy in!  I went in with her and got her stuff put up and got her in her seat.  I did okay leaving after that.  We headed to the cafeteria for a kindergarten parents’ meeting and then we finally headed out.  I was okay until Drew asked how I was doing and I teared up again.   Then I was okay until we turned the corner and saw one of my best friends, Katie.  I lost it then!  I got over it quickly, though. 

They had a great day their first day!  Drew did the pick up and that was a little long on the first day.  I’m sure that will take some time and will work itself out and get moving faster.  Lindy’s vision teacher walked the kids to Drew’s car.  Drew got them and brought them to my office so I could see them.  They were pretty wound up! 

Here’s hoping for a good year so I can stop worrying!

Kindergarten breakfast!Cool new backpacks!Sweet girl!First day of Kindergarten!!Room 7 for WillHanging up his backpack!Will with his teacher, Mrs. ByerlyWill at his seat!Next door down for Lindy in Room 5!Hanging up her backpack!Lindy and her teacher, Ms. GradyLindy in her seat!Lindy and her vision teacher, Ms. Donna (taken at open house last week). 

Last Week of Summer

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten…We just read the kids that book.  Yes, tomorrow they start kindergarten.  The book is cute.  It’s all about the kids going to school and having fun and the parents standing at the door crying.  It will most likely be a true book for me!

The kids had a lot of fun during their last week of summer vacation.  It was a week where we didn’t have child care…until some grandparents jumped in and helped us out.

Monday the kids had to go to work with me.  We started off bright and early at Macy’s giving a little MOD talk.  I brought them with me because they are little MOD miracles.  We exchanged some shoes while we were at the mall and stopped to get a cookie before heading back to the office.  The kids stayed with me at work until after lunch time.  I made them do some thank you notes and school work which they didn’t love.  They finally got to play some electronics and then they were super quiet!  Drew picked them up and headed home with them for the afternoon.

Tuesday GrandBob arrived for kid watching duty.  The kids had fun beating him up and spending the day playing with him.  Tuesday night Lindy had a class picnic at the playground at their school.  We ate dinner and the kids played and they got popsicles.  I won’t lie, the playground makes me nervous.  My visually impaired child is fearless out there.  There are some things she can’t do by herself and there are some things that are dangerous for her to attempt to do by herself.  Like climb a caterpillar 7 feet up in the air.  If she fell she could do serious damage to her shunt.  The whole thing just makes me nervous.

Wednesday morning Mimo arrived for kid watching duty.  We talked her into spending the night for two days of kid watching duty!  Wednesday afternoon Drew and Mimo had planned to take the kids to the playground so Lindy could get used to it but a thunderstorm brewed up so they ended up at the mall, getting another cookie.  Mimo had never seen the kids’ cool pictures at the Cookie House. 

Thursday they did take the kids to the playground in the afternoon and Drew walked through with Lindy and showed her all the drop offs and they talked about what she should and should not do by herself.  He thought she seemed to get it a little bit.

Thursday night was open house for the school system.  It was packed!  We had to park a mile away and walk to the school.  They have horrible parking!  We made it to Will’s class first and it was a bit overwhelming.  You had to fill out papers at his desk and then you had to walk around and read all these other things that had info on them.  We finally got out of there and went down to Lindy’s class and it was quiet and we were almost the last ones.  It did give us a chance to talk to her teacher a bit, ask some questions, and voice my concerns over the playground.  Both she and her assistant will be going out to recess which makes me feel a little better.  More eyes to watch out for our crazy girl.  We finally got out of there and went to see Lindy’s new vision teacher.  So far I love her!  I can’t wait for Lindy to work with her.   I asked questions and voiced my playground concerns as well and she said they might have an aide go out with her at first.  Hopefully she’ll be looked after until she learns the playground.  We were waiting for Drew to get the car and pick us up and Lindy was dancing around.  Her vision teacher and a speech teacher came out and were talking to us.  Remember how I hurt my toe in May?  They took my toe nail off, gave me stitches and sewed my toenail back on?  The toe nail has stayed on all summer.  I can tell a new one is growing underneath it but it had stayed on.  Lindy was dancing Thursday night and stepped on my foot and knocked my toe nail off!!  I played it off, no one knew it happened.  When the teachers walked away I picked up my toenail.  I knew she’d be the one to do it!  Oh well.  My toe nail has grown about half way up my toe.  Later that night I was putting Lindy to bed and I leaned down and she leaned up.  She whacked her head right into my nose.  That child unintentionally beat me up that night!

Friday Drew hung out with the kids.  He did surprise them and take them to see the movie Planes in the afternoon.  Will liked it but Lindy fell asleep!  I’d been waking them up early all week so she must have been tired!  I got home and we headed up to the church for our children’s back to school bash.  We headed to some church members’ house for dinner and swimming with our church friends.  The kids were having a great time until a storm brewed up and we had to stop swimming.  We got all the kids changed and headed to the trampoline park for some bouncing.  The kids had a blast bouncing.  I ended up leaving a little early because my neighbor was having a yard sale I was putting stuff in and I needed to get stuff out.  The kids didn’t get home until about 10:30pm so it was way past their bedtime!

Saturday morning we were up early getting things down to the neighbors’ house.  I stayed at the yard sale but walked home around 9:40am.  Lindy was just eating breakfast and had gotten up around 9:15am and Will was still asleep!  I walked upstairs and he opened his eyes at 9:42am.  I  think that is a sleeping in record for him and probably our entire house the last six years!   We packed everything up around noon and came home for lunch. We worked around our house some and got everyone ready and then both went out for some errands.  Lindy went with Drew and Will with me.  We got back and Ed and Jamie and Katie, Kris, Micah, and Claire came over for dinner. The kids had fun playing and the adults had fun talking.  We  have some plans in the works for an adults-only trip next summer so we were discussing the plans!

Today we had church and this afternoon we went back to the school playground for one last talk with Lindy.  It didn’t go well at first because she immediately tried to do things she shouldn’t be doing.  We went through it all again and gave her some numbers, like she can climb up four steps on the caterpillar.   I feel better about the playground though.  I just hope she listens to us!  We ran by Target on our way home for some final school supplies before coming home for dinner, baths, and the last night before kindergarten! 

Wish us luck tomorrow!  And by us I mostly mean me!!  The only pictures I took were from Friday night.  Might be my least amount of pictures ever!

 

Sweet boy swimming around!Oh how I love this boy.  And this girl.  This is my favorite picture of the night!  How cool is this?After swimming and on to bouncing!This girl loves the pit.  I loved that a 6th grade girl from our church helped get her out for awhile!

Next time I post I’ll have kindergartners!

Oak Island Trip

We took our last trip before the start of school last week. I’d have called it a Beach trip but we never saw the beach. 

Before we left though, Lindy had an eye doctor appointment last Monday.  Drew ended up taking her while Will hung out with me at my office.  He said it went fine.  They gave us the first real acuity on her – 20/150 (with glasses on).  Up until now they have never been able to tell us one.  I think that is pretty good.  Legally blind is defined as visual acuity (vision) of 20/200 (6/60) or less in the better eye with best correction possible, so she is not legally blind.  I guess that’s a good thing.  I’m not sure what a definition of legally blind would get her.  And not to say that it’s 100% correct or it won’t change.  But for the first time in a long time I thought about the fact that she will not be able to drive.  And that makes me sad.  How is she going to get along in life not driving?  How will she get to work?  It is just a foreign concept of not being able to drive and I certainly haven’t wrapped my mind around that for her.  They dilated her eyes and he said she didn’t need new lenses right now.  Also for the first time ever, he said to return in a YEAR!!  For years we were going every 2 months.  I finally got him to put us at every 4 months a couple years ago.  Eventually he went to every 6 months for a couple years and we are finally at yearly!  Hallelujah!!  Having so many of her appointments as yearly visits makes life SO much easier.  It’ll also be great because we won’t have to worry about so many appointments during school hours. 

Wednesday night I got home from work and we loaded up a few more things and we headed to Oak Island.  We had waffled on where we wanted to spend our last little vacation and we kept coming back to the beach.  Plus I felt like I didn’t get much beach time this year.  One good trip at Memorial Day, but then it rained half our trip to Florida.   I was looking forward to soaking up a few last rays of the sun and summer.   It would have been great if it hadn’t been 67F and rainy most of the time.  We woke up Thursday to rain and it being COLD!  I hadn’t brought sweatshirts or rain coats or anything to keep us warm.  I ended up turning off the air in the house because it was cold.  We finally decided we would ride the ferry to the aquarium since it was raining.  Well, apparently everyone else had the same idea.  The ferry line was backed up for hours.  We decided we would go ahead and drive.  We got to Wilmington and saw the USS North Carolina battleship and decided we would take the kids there.  Drew and I have both been but we both enjoyed it.  The kids did great for about an hour and then got a little tired of it.  I would have thought Will would have enjoyed the ‘maze’ of following the arrows but he got tired of it and just wanted to get up to the main deck.  They liked running around on the main deck and going up to a couple higher decks that didn’t take very long.  It had thankfully stopped raining but it was chilly!  We ended up having dinner on the Intercoastal Waterway in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach and then drove through my alma mater, UNC Wilmington.  The place has totally changed.  There are so many new buildings it was crazy!  We finally headed back to the beach house after  a full afternoon in Wilmington.

Friday we got up and they basically said it was going to rain again off and on all day and be cooler again.  We decided we would try the ferry again and do the aquarium.   Wouldn’t you know it never rained.  It was in the low 70’s, which might have actually been chilly on the beach, but it didn’t rain. I was mad!  It could have been a nice overcast day at the beach.  We did ride the ferry which the kids did love.  They had done it when they were little but hadn’t remembered it.  We saw the aquarium which was fine.  It’s not a really big one so it was about perfect for their attention span these days.  We headed back on the ferry and played a round of putt-putt.  It did sprinkle a tiny bit on us but never very hard.  We picked up dinner and headed back to the house for an earlier night. 

Saturday we got up and did yard work all morning before getting rained out.  We got cleaned up, cleaned up the house, and we headed home.   NOT my idea of a good beach trip!  We have had so much rain this summer.  It is out of control and ruining all my beach time and that does not make me happy!! 

The kids did seem to have a good time and weren’t phased by not going to the beach.  I was pretty upset by the weather most of the weekend.  But on the other hand it gave us a chance to do things we don’t normally do at the beach.  When the weather is nice that is all we ever do.  We hardly leave the beach or house.  It was nice to spend some quality time with the kids and the family. 

We got home Saturday evening early enough for us to get every thing unpacked and put away quickly.  It was not nice to come home and find the cat had pooped on our recliner.  Naughty kitty.  Sunday we had church – which we had to break out some warmer outfits for.  We set a record low high on Sunday of 65F.  Our weather has been so weird.  I was able to go meet my BFF Carrie at the mall and hang out with her for awhile which was fun.  Sunday evening we met Mike and Janice at the ice cream shop for dinner.  We hadn’t seen them in awhile so it was great to catch up. 

And now we are officially in our last week before kindergarten.  Da da da dum……That’s how I feel.

A few pictures from our trip. 

Daddy was playing with Dominoes and built the kids a tall tower!Lindy was so excited about her ‘new sunglasses’ after her doctor’s appointment on Monday.  She is a cool cat, isn’t she?!Caught them being sweet!On the Battleship!At the Gedunk Shop – this one is for GrandBob!Comparing bunk bedsScary!A big ole ship!At dinner Thursday night on the docks of the restaurant.A bad picture but I thought it was funny.  “Lindy don’t you dare touch your brother”  Look how straight her arms are.  ha ha!Pulling onto the ferry in the car.  He was amazed!Lindy and the albino alligator!Cool jelly fish picture.  As long as they are behind some glass!Will loves putt-putt.  He made two holes in one.  He had just gotten one on the hole behind him in this picture!