New Ventures for the Little Man.

So my munchking began school and at first he was fine then he went through a day or two of trepidation and now he's just loving it. Every day he gets up at either 5:30 or 6:00 am only too happy to get ready to go to school. He's always loved a routine and he has certainly soaked this one up for all it's worth. The whole idea of getting ready for school, choosing what breakfast item he can take with him in the car (usually grapes, bannanas or cheerios - occassionally if I stop for breakfast, apple pie suffices) is just wonderful for him. Once we get in the car and get to the gate of our complex, I ask him what direction we should go and he chooses which way Mum shoudl drive him to school that day.

When he arrives at school, he announces that he's at his new school and that we need to go and find Ms. Angie, who's he's classroom assistant. His lead teacher is Ms. Liz, but he just has a special place for Ms. Angie. In the mornings, he rushes to hug her and she and he walk around the playground to get ready for the other children to arrive.

I could not be happier with Tristan's language development. His reports from school for the first few weeks were typical in that he was taking time to adjust and wasn't listening as he should but in the last week, his reports have been wonderful. Apparently, he's talkign up a storm which is exactly what they want him to do. He's also communicating with us in a lot more in a meaningful manner. He tries to talk about the people at school (Gina, Jalen and Matthew are his classmates) and the things that he does at school. The best part was one day I asked him a question about school and it took about about 2 minutes before he answered, but he gave me a list of things he did.
1. Circle Time
2. Told me the songs he sang.
3. Worked on puzzles
4. Had lunch
5. Played on the playground
6. Took the bus to Grandma.
I was elated, I'd never had him do that before. You had to take your time and decipher but he did respond and not just with one thing, but with a list. Who knew?

He and his Dad have also had some interesting situations. Munchkin is supposed to take the school bus to his grandma two days a week. However, when his Dad went to pick him up one day he flatly refused to go with him because he wants to ride the bus. So now he rides the bus every day and Dad picks him up from grandma and that seems to be working pretty well. This week his Dad decided to get him some fish. On Wednesday they got all the tank paraphanalia and that was set up. On Thursday he got two goldfish. His Dad refers to his goldfish as "Dorothy" since that's the name of Elmo's fish. But when I asked Tristan the name of his fish, he promptly told me "Nemo." Now I don't know if one is "Ne" and the other is "Mo", but hey they are his fish and he gets to call them pretty much whatever he wants.

His Dad made one big boo-boo however. He left the fish food where Tristan could get a hold of it and he promptly emptied the entire container into the tank. I was sympathetic to Tris and told his Dad that he really couldn't punish him because that was just one temptation that was too much for a toddler to resist and that it was up to Paul to put the food where Tris couldnt' get it. Paul didn't get my drift until I reminded him that as grown ass as he was, he still fiddled with items whenever he was in a new place - what made Tris any different. That sure shut him up.

So on Friday morning, he had to go and empty the tank, clean it, condition it and put back the fish. I suggested he get one of those scavenger fish that help keep tanks clean by eating debris. We'll see how it goes.

We are not "tragic" at all

You know life is really interesting. When I first realized that my son had some had of speech and language issue, I never thought of it as something that was a “tragic” event. I figured, okay, he has a setback, let’s do what we need to do to get him on the right road. I even went as far as thinking he might be autistic and I still didn’t think it was “tragic, “ because at the end of my day, he’s my son and I love him to death. Sometimes I look at his little face and my heart simply swells. It really is true that you don’t realize how much you can love until you love your child. I thought loving a man was an experience, but your child is a whole other matter altogether.

So I’ve settled the little munchkin into school and he loves it so I’m thrilled. He can’t wait to go there every morning and when there, he doesn’t even want to wait outside with his teachers, he wants to be in the classroom and getting ready for the fun stuff. In 6 hours, they do so much. They do singing and communicating lessons, work on the computer, do listening exercises with tapes, one on one activities with the teacher, group activities, arts and crafts, not to mention lunch time, nap time, snack time and time on the playground. At his other school, they only did the singing and communicating part in the mornings, one learning experience before lunch, nap and then one activity in the afternoon and then play time. I’d always thought he was bored and now it’s confirmed because he participates in everything that is done and his teachers think he’s settle in quite well.

As I dropped him off at school today, I once again saw the Mom brining her son in to school with his work dog. The stop and talk to the school resource officer (cop) and then make their way to get him to class. I think the little boy has some sight loss and that his dog helps him to get around school and that kind of thing. Then there’s another little girl who I see all time. She’s in her wheelchair and each morning her big sister wheels her into class. I think she has spina bifida.

So I go back to thinking about people thinking that my situation with Tris and his developmental delay is a disappointment or a sad or tragic event and I want to tell them to please can the whole sorry for me, Paul and Tris bit; because we don’t feel in the least disappointed in the situation. I think things like these force you to step up the plate with parenting even more so than over parents. You have to do more, know more and be more. I spend more time working with Tris and his language acquisition and other skills than I’m sure do most parents. I have to.

So, I look at the parents of the little boy with his dog and the little girl with her wheelchair and I’m sure they feel like me, no more disadvantaged than any other parent.