Amelia had her first day of school today. I got there with her at the appointed time, but it was chaos. I figured since everyone else had been there for a few weeks, everything would be all settled in and I would be able to just walk in with her, sit her down and leave. Apparently two other kids started that day and I was left standing around with Amelia trying to figure out what to do. I didn't know where to put her back pack or her lunch or how to sign her in.
Even though I'd had extensive conversations with the Director about Amelia's special needs, none of that trickled down to the teacher. The teacher did not have any of her paperwork and didn't even know her name!
Amelia seemed very unsure of the whole thing. She kind of stood dumbstruck in the middle of the room wringing her hands. I led her over to a table where some other kids were sitting and teacher brought her a puzzle but she just kind of sat there not knowing what to do. The girl beside her was screaming her fool head off. I know that child has been there for three weeks and she is still upset about not having her mommy. She was working my nerves something serious,but Amelia looked at her and laughed. She thought her crying was funny. I kissed Amelia good bye and left the room. Me and another mom were in tears.
Then I had to go to the office to pay the tuition, but when I was done I had to go look on her one more time to ease my mind. They were out on the playground and I was able to see her without her noticing me. She was alone, standing near the fence looking out like she was lost and searching for me. It ripped my heart out and I started sobbing. Then the nun who is the assistant for the class saw me and gave me a big hug and let me cry on her shoulder. She said "Oh don't do this to us! She will be fine!" and led me and the other mom who was sobbing out to our cars. I haven't been apart from Amelia and left her with strangers for that long since the NICU.
The day did fly by but mostly I did things that reminded me of Amelia. I went shopping for some clothing for her, tried doing stuff on her blog, uploaded her pictures I took that morning to the computer. I picked her up and the little toot did not even act excited to see me. Oh well. She had a progress report in her back pack and it said "She had a great day!!!" It said she played and colored. In the back pack was also a color sheet for St. Luke the patron saint of doctors, which I thought was very appropriate. It had purple crayon scribbled all over it, which I am pretty sure she did not do by herself. Last time I worked on crayons with her, she barely touched the tip to the page.
Her lunch pack and her water bottle got separated from her backpack, so we are already missing items. Also I was supposed to provide a nap mat, but because I never got any classroom information and it was not listed in the handbook, I didn't know anything about it. The teacher said she had an extra mat that she let her sleep on. Amelia took about a 20 minute nap (she has been taking 3 hour naps for forever) but woke up crying when there was some loud sound. She recovered and continued to have a good day after that.
So Amelia came home in a good mood and played, but she definitely was tired. Last night we decided to let Amelia sleep in her bed and our goal is to break down the crib soon. We removed the headboard and rails and decided to let her sleep on the mattress on the floor. Todd pulled all of her books off the book shelf. Our two main concerns were that she would fall out of the bed and that if she got out of the bed safely, but we didn't know she was awake, that she would entertain herself by removing all the books, ripping out pages and nibbling on the paper. Also he removed anything with an electrical cord because she enjoys ripping on those. She did great! Tonight I put her under the covers and she giggled, stretched her arms over her head and closed her eyes. I think she was asleep before I turned off the light and closed the door.
No comments:
Post a Comment