Preschool (My baby is growing up!)

This week marks a brand new adventure for Phoenix and our family. My baby is going to school (imagine a tiny tear drop running out of the side of my eye). Seriously, this is a big deal and a huge step towards her independence. It is so, so easy for me to still look at her as a baby. Especially because of her beautiful bald head and developmental delays. So there is a contrast there for me, that I am sending my baby to big girl school.

It is so odd to me that we have started talking to her about being a big girl, especially in the context of her siblings on the way. We know that after the babies are born it is going to be the 'twin show'. Which is in stark contrast to the last 3.5 years which have been the 'Phoenix show'. This kid has had a long time to get used to being the centre of attention, and boy are things going to change in that regards this winter.

So, she is becoming a big girl. And big girls get to do things that babies do not. Like go to school.

I chose a special ed preschool that is provided by our local school district. I suppose I could have pushed for an inclusive environment with an aide, but at this point it wasn't that important to me. I am happy that she gets a full time spec ed teacher, 3 aides, a consulting psychologist and an OT, PT and SLP who run groups with the 16 max kids in the class. It's a pretty good set up I think. I'm pretty sure that she will be the only kid with DS, which is ok. Just goes to show that lots of kids need extra support, not just those with extra chromosomes;)

And you know, it may be the only chance she gets to be the academic rockstar of the class. I'd like to give her that chance.

I'm happy to release the controls of her early education onto people who do this every day. I've taken her pretty far I think in terms of her early learning. And frankly, I'm tired. I know that has to do with being pregnant with twins, but it is a big relief to hand over the reigns to someone else and (hopefully) seem more progress. I feel like we have given her all we can, and now it is time to let the education system see what it can do.