6 weeks and counting...

As I blogged about back in January, we have been working for the past several months to transition Morgan from the AZEIP program to the Vail Inclusive Preschool. We met with the team back in January just to discuss the program and decided what tests would be done to make sure Morgan would qualify. They then asked us to come in back in April to do the tests and have a visit to the classroom.

So one morning back in April, Morgan, Lucas and I packed up the van and headed right next door to Cienega where they have a small campus for VIP. It was determined that Morgan will go here rather than to the District Office due to the playground. The one at Cienega is much safer for her in the wheelchair. I wasn't going to complain because it would be a 1 minute drive compared to what would have been a 10-15 minute drive.

Morgan and Lucas ready to go to preschool.

Anyway, when we arrived that morning Morgan was so excited to check out her school...but first they needed to do her speech evaluation. An hour and a half later, Morgan was STILL testing!!! The poor thing, she was so tired and wanted to go play so badly. They had her taking the test right in front of a window facing the playground. By the time testing had past one hour she politely started to push things away and tell the speech therapist "All done, go play outside." I felt so bad for her, but the good news is that testing took so long because she was doing so well. The first test they gave her was a receptive language test. Morgan has great receptive language; they can't stop testing until she misses a certain number in a row. This is why she sat there for over an hour. Once she finally missed enough in a row we were able to move on to the pronunciation test. This went much fasted. Morgan can make most letter sounds and say most words, but she substitutes a lot like "g"s for "d"s and leaves off syllables or the endings to words. This is the main area they will be focusing on for her speech therapy.

Finally she was finished testing and we could go check out her classroom. When we first arrived they were playing playdough and drawing. Morgan chose to have a seat at the playdough table and played along side (they don't really play 'with' each other still at this age) a few other kids. It was then carpet/music time. Morgan couldn't wait for that; she LOVES to sing and dance. We moved over to the carpet with the rest of the class and did the "bean bag song" with them. Morgan had a blast! She has talked about that song so much over the past two months. We were then invited to stay for snack. While in line to wash her hands a little girl called to Morgan from the table and told her she was saving a seat for her. It was so sweet; she was making friends already. Then after she was seated I saw the cutest thing ever. I looked up from talking with one of the teachers when I heard "Morgan, raise you hand" and I look over to see my tiny little girl sitting in a tiny little chair at this tiny little table next to other 3 year olds and she has her right hand raised up as high as she can reach it. I wish so badly I had my camera. It is one of those moments you will never forget. Anyway, Morgan enjoyed every moment of her visit at school.

We then were set up to meet again on May 6th to write Morgan's IEP. They asked me at that time if I wanted Morgan to start school on Monday, May 10th (her third birthday) or if we would just wait until July. I opted to wait until July. She enjoyed her first visit so much and talked about it so often I knew if we started the last two week's of school we would have a VERY long summer of her asking "Can I go to preschool today?" So, no, we will wait until July. Plus this way she will be new along with everyone else and can learn the ropes of preschool with everyone else. In the meantime, we wrote her IEP. I am pretty happy with the goals they wrote and the decisions that were made. It has been determined that she will not have an official one-on-one aide, but rather an extra aide will be placed in her classroom to help as needed and be there for everyone.

So.... that is where we are at. Morgan now only has 6 weeks until preschool starts and we are very busy making sure we, her, and the school are ready for her. First, I hope the school is ready... I don't know that they truly get that Morgan does not know she is limited. We have ALWAYS done everything we can to make sure she can participate fully in everything. We become her "legs" and help her do the slide, swing, etc... She will not want to just sit during recess and I tried to very politely explain that to the school. Also, she is smart! She LOVES to read, knows all but two of her capital letters (she confuses L for I and V for Y; pretty common mistake), knows all her colors and shapes (has since she was about 18 months), and can count. In fact the other night she was counting the number of pushes it was taking her in her mini-wheelchair to get to her bathroom for a bath. I was in filling the tub and I hear "one, two, three...." she made it all the way to 12 without a mistake, then I hear her continue "12, 14, 16, 18" Wow! My three year old can even skip count (heehee). Second, we are trying to get Morgan ready. We have been trying desperately to get her potty trained. She was doing so well for so long...since break she hasn't gone once for me! UGHHH! I can't stand potty training. I can't tell you how many times a day we sit on the potty, but nothing. And to top it off, last night we went to Grandma's and boom, she goes potty for Grandma without complaint. What a stinker! She doesn't have to be trained to go, but it would be nice. We are also working on snack time and learning how to open her lunch box on her own..so that meant we needed to get her her first lunchbox. I of course could not resist doing the first one special so we bought the Potterybarn lunch box with her name on it and the matching backpack.

Morgan loves her new backpack. She is constantly asking to wear it.

Her lunch box is as big as the backpack! She is already figuring out how to open it on her own.
Aren't they adorable!

Finally, we are trying to get ourselves mentally ready to have a child in school. I can't believe how fast it has come. We are so excited and can't wait to see the changes Morgan will make once school starts. It's just weird to think about how different this year of "back to school" will be. Since I am a teacher I have done "back to school" shopping every year, but this year will be different. I will actually be out buying supplies for my own child and attending "Meet the Teacher Night" for my own child. It is just so exciting. We will be sure to post lots of pictures when the big day finally comes. In the meantime we have 6 more weeks to continue preparing ourselves.