School Has Finally Started!

School has finally started! 

Suzie is going to Kindergarten half day as of Monday. I was able stay at the school for the first 2 days and she did well. Our school has been wonderful and gave her a one-to-one aide even without an IEP (individualized education plan) which is amazing and is really the only reason that she is able to go. It is very clear that her attention span and ability to follow instruction is not at all at the kindergarten level. Her aide keeps her on task and helps keep her attention. She also gets her in and out of her wheelchair, changes her diaper and keeps her safe. She is sweet, patient and has a loving demeanor- an absolute answer to prayer! Suzie really likes her and gave her a big hug today when she saw her.

Today was her first day at school without me...the real test! And she did great!! She cried when I left and I stayed outside her classroom hoping that she would calm down before I left. Sadly, she didn’t stop and I finally had to go to work. It broke my heart to hear her calling out for me- not knowing whether I would come back or not. But, apparently she stopped crying after about 20 minutes and did great the rest of the day! yay!! I’m so proud of our brave little girl!!

Waiting for the doors to open for school

Thumbs Up after her day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 
Our life is currently a whirlwind of appointments, paperwork, school visits, casts & exhaustion but we are so thankful for all of it and how far we’ve come. This morning, Suzie was coloring in bed and she drew stick figures and said they were Phil (our dog), Addie & Mason. This a big development step in learning to write and draw! In just 8 months she has gone from random scribbling to actually coloring objects and now stick figures! She’s flying through developmental stages!

Meeting the Para for Kindergarten

Well our start of Kindergarten was delayed until Suzie’s Para could start. Her first day was today, so we went and met her and will officially start after Thanksgiving break! She seems great- gentle and loving and has worked with other special needs kiddos. 

The kids in Suzie’s class are so sweet! They all ran over and gave her hugs. 

Halloween and Kindergarten

Here’s a few updates on little miss Suzie- she got a new cast yesterday- pink this time! It’s been 4 weeks since her tibia break and new X-rays show it was bad...broken completely through. It had been lined up well initially so the break was barely visible. Since then, the bones shifted and are now healing, but are not lined up as well and she has a big bump on her shin. I’m pretty sure it shifted the first few days after the break, which explains why she had so much pain. She’ll have the short leg cast for a few more weeks to protect it as she starts putting some weight on it again.

Halloween was the best! Suzie loved her costume- especially her mask and quickly got the hang of trick or treating. He wheelchair was perfect in the dark with light up front wheels and mom and dad got a workout lifting her up stairs to get to doorways!

And the big news- Suzie is starting Kindergarten next week!! The district had hired an aid for her which is really the whole reason this is even possible. They will be with her, keeping her safe, helping her around, in and out of her wheelchair and doing diaper changes. We have not met them yet so prayers that Suzie bonds to the aid quickly! We’ve been taking Suzie in each morning this week to get her used to the school and classroom. Every day is a little better, but the true test will be when we leave her. Our plan is for her to go half day for the rest of the School year and then repeat kindergarten again next year, so that takes a lot of the pressure off but we still want to see her succeed and be safe. She loves that she is finally going to school like the big kids!

Kassie carrying Suzie down some steps