Play Time at the Mall

Today I organized a play group at the Meriden Mall for Andrew's friends. Recently, I have connected with an amazing group of Moms who all have children with Down syndrome. These moms are a great, positive group of women who have similar views and opinions on raising our children. I had been wanting to get involved more in the Ds community and I think I'm finally starting to do that. I enjoy meeting other families and trying to help provide support and friendship to them.

So, today's playgroup was a ton of fun for the kids, and the moms got a chance to catch up and chat while I kids ran around, and in my case, tried to run out of the play area into the mall. I started to feel like a goalkeeper, trying to keep my kids from running out into the mall! I took some great pictures of our kids playing and when they had enough, you headed to the food court to eat lunch from McDonalds.

At lunch, we got to observe first-hand how LAZY some mothers are. This one boy was running through the food court, walking up to perfect strangers and talking to them while they were trying to enjoy their lunches. Meanwhile, the kid's mother was sitting on her ass, just letting him run around and bothering people. He was out of her sight constantly. A few times, she yelled at him, but she never got her lazy ass off her chair to go get him and make him behave. Our group threw plenty of dirty looks at her and made several loud comments in her direction, but she was COMPLETELY unfazed. I know that when I take my kids to a public place, my kids are never out of my sight and they are not allowed to run around and disrupt other people. I couldn't believe this mother. Her kid could have disappeared in a second!

But, all in all, it was a great day! The kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and are still sleeping 2 hours later. Maybe we need to get that much exercise and stimulation everyday! If only we didn't have anything else to do...grocery shopping, laundry, packing to move, etc...

THANKS ladies for a great day! Love you all! I'll have to start planning our next get together, which may end up being Andrew's 3rd Birthday Party next month!

Preschool Visit

Today I took Andrew to visit his preschool classroom. He will start preschool after he turns 3 on December 12th. When we met with the school for his transition meeting, I brought up my concern about Andrew being very "schedule-oriented" and anything that throws him off his schedule will unnerve him and he gets upset. The Haddam-Killingworth school system is being very good and doing whatever they can to help make Andrew's transition to preschool a successful one. His teacher invited us to visit as often as we need to in order to get Andrew comfortable with her, the paras, and the new classroom.

So today, I got Andrew up and dressed earlier than usual (6:30am) and got him downstairs for his breakfast. So far, so good. He even got to watch a new program on PBS this morning: Arthur. Since we are usually just getting up a 7am, he has never seen Arthur and he seemed to like it. With breakfast done, I settled him in front of Clifford while I finished getting ready. Then we left for school!

Andrew's B23 service coordinator (who also is his PT) met us there and walked him into the school. We immediately saw the Speech Therapist, who remembered Andrew from our meeting, but he did not seem to remember her. He flopped down on the ground and we had to peel him off the floor. He then led us down the hall, around the corner, up a ramp, and immediately found his classroom---ALL BY HIMSELF!!! We were shocked! We visited the classroom last month during his transition meeting, but I never thought he would remember where it was! GO ANDREW!

When he walked in, he went straight for the toys. His teacher was the only one there. I wanted to arrive before the other kids, so he could get used to the room before his new classmates arrived. Boy, did I worry for (almost) nothing! He loved the classroom, walked all around, put together a Mr. Potatohead with his PT, played with the cars and tunnels in the "block corner" and was still there when the other kids arrived. The teacher told them that they had a visitor and his name was Andrew. Most of the kids went up to Andrew to check him out, and a few said "hello" to him. Two of the boys went right over to play with him and Andrew was totally fine with it. I was so afraid that he would duck under a table or chair or something...that's what he normally would have done when he was overwhelmed by so many other people in his space...but he was great! He kept moving around the room, interacting with the teacher, the paras and the other kids. He never went "into hiding" or anything.

We stayed for over an hour and he did great in the classroom. The teacher gave me some sticker sheets that they use for potty training since we are going to start that after we move. I actually had to drag him kicking and crying and pulling my hair to get him home. I finally asked him if he was ready to go home and he shook his head and ducked under a counter in the kitchen area. The adults thought it was hilarious that he was hiding when it was time to go home instead of when he arrived in a new place! I had to finally pull him out from under the counter and struggle with him to get his coat on. He pulled my hair after I picked him up to get him to leave. I got him out the classroom door and out in the hall before I put him down again. He ran for the classroom door again and sat down in front of it. I had to pick him up and carry him out the front door before I put him down again and made him walk with me to the car...whining the whole way.

Besides the whining while we were leaving, I'm so proud of my boy! Andrew is going to LOVE going to school. I am so happy that I was worried for nothing.

Kim :)