Oliver's First Day

September 09, 2010

Oliver's First Day

Oliver started preschool yesterday. He is now attending the same school as Waverly. He has a new teacher, aides and classmates - lots of adjustment. When I dropped him off he was excited and gave his teacher a hug when he met her. They said he had a good day and when he did get upset, they took him up to Waverly's room for a visit. Today was more difficult for him. As soon as we drove into the parking lot, he started crying. I think the crying lasted most of the morning. He will hopefully begin taking the bus with Wavey next week. I think that will help him have a better transition.

It is always difficult to hand the kids over to someone new. Wavey has always been easy to love and never gets upset. Oliver is a bit more moody. He is a total love bug! I think because he can't speak and gets frustrated by that, he can be tougher to understand. Hopefully my pages of notes, speaking with his former teacher and spending time with him will all give his new teacher the information she needs.

It feels good to be back in school and back on schedule. Matt has started his new position. We are back to family dinners and weekends together. It is wonderful!! I hope we are able to get into a nice rhythm soon.

Comments

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.