First Day of School

On Sunday afternoon Dean announced that he and Asher were going for haircuts. What? No! I love Asher's hair. It has a little bit of curl to it, and...you know...he's had his head shaved his whole life, I wanted to grow "hockey hair". This drives Dean crazy I know, but whatever. Dean promised to not have anything taken off the top. ;-)

So my big man took my little man, and they both came home quite handsome.

The next morning Asher found his new backpack sitting on the bench. Now, he gets very excited whenever he's told to get his jacket on, since it means we're going somewhere, or at least outside! But when I told him to get his jacket on THEN put his backpack on him, well...he was beside himself! He was so thrilled to be walking down the driveway to the bus stop! He didn't know what was going to happen yet, but hey, we were outside! He has gone to the bus stop with the big kids before, but they weren't with us this time. Maybe we were waiting for them to come home?

I have to tell you, this is a toddler-sized backpack. TINY. Barely enough room for a couple of papers and a notebook. It fits him perfect. 

Standing at the bus stop is great physical therapy since it's a steep hill and requires little boys to balance. ;-)

Originally he was going to ride the regular ed. bus to school, but at the last minute we opted for the special ed. bus this year, then next year he'll ride the reg. ed. bus with the neighbor kids.

The first day I rode with him on the bus.

I stayed with him at school the whole morning. He really enjoyed school, although it was evident to me right away that we do need to add ELL (English Language Learner) services. His primary need at the moment isn't his cognitive disability but the language difference.

Asher is assigned two buddies every day. They pair up with him for stations, and since walking with a group in a line is new for him, any time they're out in the hall or walking to the playground one of his buddies (or both since sometimes it's hard to share!) holds his hand. Asher LOVES holding hands, so this gives him an opportunity to do so appropriately.

He got to experience a playground for the first time, and climb up the stuff then slide down. OH how he laughed and clapped for himself at the bottom of the slides! He had so much fun!

When it was time to go home I rode the bus with him. He was almost as excited to turn down our street as he was to pull into the school driveway!

When we got home, he made a bee-line for his room and came back with THREE dangly things. LOL Guess he missed not being able to dangle at school.

Once he'd had lunch he took a HARD three hour nap!

Tuesday morning was the first time Asher got to go by himself to school. Sink or swim buddy!

He was SO excited now that he knew why were standing at the end of the driveway!

His teacher said he did GREAT! There was lots of tongue sucking though, which I explained for him is the equivalent of thumb sucking. They know how to prompt him to keep his tongue in, and once he's been reminded a few times he's pretty good about it. He brought home his first library book that one of his buddies  helped him pick out. Green Eggs and Ham. He loves it!

So the baby started school. Wow...three hours by myself four mornings a week (Thursdays we go to Therapy all morning.) Whatever will I do with my time?