Long Overdue

I can't beleive I haven't posted since July. There's no way to really catch up on all that has transpired so I will do my best to sum up how life has been since then. July continued to go fairly well. About the time we hit August things started unraveling. Folks had vacations and schedules had to change. Tripp had me and home as his main constant, but the rest of our routine was hit or miss each week. He start regressing quite a bit. In order keep myself sane I let him spend way to much time on the computer. I'm sure that didn't help much. So, by the time we were ready to start school he was going through 3-4 pair of undies a day and was pretty uch a walking stim. I will say that the brightest spot of the summer is that his language held strong. Thank you Tessa for working with us this summer! I have no doubt that our time with you was crucial in us not loosing any language.

When it got time for school to get going we had a few shockers. I went to orientation and found out that the co-teach program was going to be in was full inclusion, not partial like I had expected. Knowing the state Tripp was end by summer's end I had a very hard time believing a "regular classroom" all day everyday was really a good thing. I prayed a lot and went into his ARD with A LOT of questions. I even called Mom to come and go with me because I was afraid I wouldn't have sufficient backbone on my own. Truth is, I was just plain scared for my Monkey and I needed some confidence in that meeting. I came out of the ARD not happy, but satisfied that this was worth trying and probably the best fit the district has for T at this point.

The first two weeks were horrible....for me. I cried, and I mean ugly cried, the first day. That was the only day I shed tears, but I continued to get sick to my stomach for about the first week and a half. Things got better after that. I think Miss Devine and Ms. Alice have had a shock too. They were really surprised by how much Tripp regressed. Miss Alice even said to me one day when I picked him up,"This makes me sad." And she meant it. I think that is what has given me peace about T being there. Miss Devine and Ms. Alice really, really care about my son. They are doing everything they can to help Tripp settled and get back to where he was at the end of May. Alice even made him a token chart that is all numbers and calculators! Love that!

There have been a few other shockers like that day I got there and there was no teacher to receive Tripp and they actually wanted me to tell him to walk all the way into the building by himself. Like that was going to happen! They got a "concerned" email as soon as I got home that morning. That hasn't happened since. They also finally realized that having us drop off with all the rest of the K-4 school is a bad idea and moved our drop-off location to a different spot. The other big shocker came this week when we got a letter letting us know that the regular ed. Head Start teacher and aid are leaving the classroom and we will be getting new ones. We are finally starting, and I mean just starting, to get back on track and they are chaning 2 of the 4 staff in his classroom! Thank goodness Miss Devine and Ms. Alice, who I'm supposed to call Ms. Kowalik (ko-wall-ick), are staying. T won't call Ms. Alice anything but Ms. Alice and I don't blame him. Kowalik is hard to say. Anyway, I haven't written my letter about the teacher change yet, but I'm formulating it in my head. I understand that things happen and changes need to be made, but changing half the staff in a first year co-teach program six weeks in is a poor choice in my book.

There are a few other things going on, but I'll save them for another post. Mokey is happily playing on the other computer right now and the girls are playing play-doh. Easy is playing in a golf tournament benefitting Sonshine School. I need to get moving and get some cleaning done this morning. I hope you are all doing well and I promise to keep you more up to date on my sweet Monkey!