Back to School

Wow. This summer flew by. Busy is an understatement, but we had a blast, and great memories were made.

All kids got up pretty easily, most of them excited to start their first day. I'll let you guess which one wasn't (hint: he's taller than I am).

SMILES:

my handsome high schooler to ...

my excited 5th grader to ...

my preschooler!

• Through the summer, Aiden slept until 9 or 10. No joke. First day of school, he got up with no problem! The best part, the lack of our typical wrestling match trying to get him dressed.
  
  
• Aiden says, "No more J! Mary!" ("J" is what he called his teacher, Mrs. J, from last year, Mary is his new teacher). Love it.
  
  
• No tears on the bus! AND, his friend Eric is riding with him this year too! It's amazing for as little of a city we live in that there's another little boy Aiden's age with bilateral Nucleus Freedoms. They are the only two with CIs in our local school district, hence our reason for sending them out of district. ; )
  
  
• At drop off, he looked back, waved to his bus driver and yelled, "Bye Jahtee (jackie)!"

• He was a bundle of laughter and smiles the rest of the night, talking nonstop.
  
  
• Kailyn's one of the "big kids" in the school now (K-5th) and boy is she loving it!
  
  
• As her bus pulled away today, she was in the back seat and mouthed to me, "Look! I get the back seat!" Guess it's still cool to ride in the back of the bus.
  
  
• My best oldest child ever, Ryan, wasn't too excited about his first day, but then again, what teenager is. We decided to enroll him in a Catholic high school for the remainder of his high school career. Our local district h.s. wasn't a good fit and there were a lot of things we didn't agree with or like about the school. The good thing is he's completely on board and is very positive about his new start. He's hating the whole uniform thing - I on the other hand, love it.

and DEEP BREATHS

• I struggle with the thought of Aiden being in school five full days a week. He's just three. The good thing is they nap the last 60-90 minutes of school - this is good as he won't nap at home, but he will with others. It's a long day, but a structured day full of language enrichment. I'm going to give it a month or so, if it seems too much for him, I'll change back to 1/2 days like we did last year. I honestly think he'll be just fine.
  
  
• On top of the long school day, he has quite the bus ride, which makes his day even longer. He's on the bus a good 45 minutes each way to and from school. I may start to pick him up though, since I'll pick up Ryan everyday and their schools are only a couple miles from each other. I gotta say, he loves riding the bus though, and I like the thought of some one on one with Ryan before my wild ones get home. We'll see.
  
  
• On top of school, Aiden will still have his auditory verbal therapy every other week and OT once a week, each during the school day. Then there's the possibility we may have to add a speech pathologist in the mix, but I'm going to fight to get him more speech time at school through his IEP. I'm thinking of taking him out of school one day a week and deem it "therapy day".
  
  
• I have worries for each of my kids this year, one no more than the other. I worry about Ryan and Kailyn just as much as I worry about Aiden. Being a teenager is not easy and honestly, you couldn't pay me enough money to go back to those years. I hope he finds himself and realizes how much he has to offer this world. He truly is brilliant and has such a big heart. Kailyn struggles in some areas and I pray the school jumps on board and starts working as a team with me. I have to say, my girl always has a smile on her face that lights up a room, but is her own biggest critic. I'm working hard with her to get that "I can do anything I set my heart and soul to" attitude. Aiden has new obstacles to overcome on top of everything else we continue to strive for. We're still on the unknown path, with no official diagnosis, but we've also already entered the path to success as we work through mapping issues and get a jump start in OT. All I can do is hope. Hope and pray, and continue to support each of them in their own journeys. It's not easy, but I know they will all overcome.

I have a feeling it's going to be a good year for all of us; very busy, but good. We all have some hard work ahead of us, but I think we're at the point where we're ready for anything ... either that, or about to all fall on our faces, but what fun would that be?