A Letter to Brian's NEW Teacher

A little history first...

Friday afternoon I was called to the principal's office and told that due to the population of Brian's class being louder than a typical first grade classroom, it had been decided that he had not been placed in the best education environment for him.  I was angry, hurt, shocked...but my emotions don't really matter here.  What matters is what's best for Brian.  And through the tears and boiling blood, Shawn and I made the decision to allow him to be transferred to another first grade homeroom.  In our experience, it's best to just rip off the band-aid, so this change will occur tomorrow morning. 

Brian was very sad when we told him.  He cried and fought it, just like we did.  But today has been better.  He seems okay with the decision.  I am hoping by tomorrow afternoon, or maybe midweek, he will even be a little excited.

This is not making this huge change to all day school any easier on this mama.  And so....

Dear Mrs. Elkus,

This is a very different letter than the one I wrote to Mrs. Holtzapple a little over a week ago.  We had a history with her and with you, we don't.  You don't know that my Brian has been through SO MUCH in his life and how very much he has overcome.  You don't know that my Brian barely spoke when he was small.  You don't know my mama heart and that I left my job that I LOVED to be the mama I need to be for my Brian.  Or that my mama heart broke in two when he was diagnosed with hearing loss and has healed little by little by watching him become the amazing young man who will enter your classroom.  You also don't know that my Brian is extremely artistic and has a little engineer/builder mind.  Or that he is extremely sensitive and compassionate.  You don't know that he can be a little shy, but has a TON to say and a MILLION questions to ask.  You don't know that his best friend in the world is an impish red head and that he's the best big brother on the planet.  You also don't know that I was told at his preschool interview that there was little hope he would ever "catch up."  And that he has.  Actually, he's exceeded all expectations from that, our first introduction to public school. 

But you will.  I know you will because your reputation precedes you.  I chose YOU to be the teacher to help him make this transition because I know you are the same kind of teacher I am.  You are loving, but firm.  You expect excellence.  Your students excel.  And you understand that your job is to be a guiding hand.  I have every faith that you too will exceed my expectations.  I am counting on it. 

Please help my Brian to adjust to this huge change.  Please know that while he is different, he doesn't see himself that way.  He has been taught to march to the beat of his own drum and to own it.  He was been taught not to be embarrassed by his disability, but to embrace it.  We want him to continue to be proud of who he is.  We want him continue to excel in his studies.  We want him to make new friends and not be afraid to jump in.  We are counting on you to help him along the way.  We are entrusting our baby boy into your care. 

Sincerely,
Maria

Kings Island

One of our end of summer celebrations was to take the kids Kings Island for the first time.  This is a place that we both visited as children often and it's kind of part of life when you live in our area.  As adults, we don't really love Kings Island anymore.  It's expensive.  There are many, many trashy people there.  The lines are long.  BUT to a kid, there's a little bit of magic there, so it was fun to see it through their eyes.

Brian rode some pretty big coasters.  He is big enough to ride some of the really big coasters and probably would have, but we decided against it. Lilah was happy to jump between two or three rides in kiddie land the whole day.  They both had a blast and were completely exhausted by the time we headed home!

Brian was like the annoying boyfriend who hangs on you at the amusement park all day.  I think the heat was getting to him!

The Beastie!  This is the only coaster mom rode!

Done.

To Brian's Teacher

Dear Ms. Anita,

I realize it's Mrs. Holtzapple now that Brian is a first grader, but you will always be Ms. Anita to us.  How blessed we are to have you as Brian's teacher once again!  Your calming patience and tremendous knowledge of childhood development eased our minds while Brian was in preschool for two years.  And now that he has had a year to grow and change under the care of someone else, he is being entrusted into your care once again.

This time is a bit different though.  This time, he will be with you each day more than he is with me.  Please take care of him.  I know that you will, but it's still hard for me to let him go.

You know that Brian can be reserved, that he is incredibly creative and that he is quite intelligent.  I'll never forget how proud you were of him in his second year old preschool when he got in trouble for talking!  He was so quiet back then.  Fair warning...he's not anymore!  He will play coy with you as he always has, but he has A LOT to say.  He asks questions constantly.  And he genuinely wants to know the answers.

He LOVES reading as he always has and is coming along as an independent reader.  He gets on crazy reading kicks where he will read every book he can find at his level.  He all still loves to be read to.  We have been reading chapter books and he begs me to read more chapters each time it's time to stop.

He can still be a bit timid with friends, even those he's known for a long time.  The other day it took him almost an hour to warm up to Bradley at the park.  And he's known Brad since he was 2.  He definitely is one of those kids who waits and watches, hoping to be invited in.  Please help him get invited in.  Please help him to learn to just jump right in.

Even with his reserved personality Brian is a pretty confident kid.  He is proud of who he is and his accomplishments.  He is not embarrassed by his disability and he doesn't feel different.  Please help him to keep this confidence while he is in your care.  Help him to continue to be who he is and not care what his peers think of that boy.  Because I love that boy.

I'm excited to see how Brian likes full day school.  He loves to learn and be with his friends.  He loved his specials classes last year.  I am hoping he will love school again this year.  I am counting on you to make this transition easy on the both of us.  It's crazy to think that I took this kind of thing for granted when I was in the classroom.  I never gave a thought to how much the parents must miss their kids when they were in my care.  Once again, another thing that Brian has taught me that will make me a better teacher when I re-enter the classroom!

I trust you Ms. Anita.  I know that you will make this a wonderful year for my baby!  But I'm still going to shed a bunch more tears as I say goodbye to summer.

Sincerely,
Maria

Washington Park

Thanks to my great friend Katie who taught me that OTR isn't that scary at least during the day, the kids and I spent a great deal of time at Washington Park this summer.  This park is all kinds of awesome!  It's a sensory park which means it's like no other park in our area!  It has all kinds of huge musical instruments, mounds of fake grass to climb on, a huge castle made of foam-like stone, a sand pit, and an unbelievable water feature area! We also stumbled across a great program by the Cincinnati Park system every Friday where the kids made cool crafts and learned all kinds of neat info about animals and plants.  So fun!  It makes me sad that summer is over and we won't be able to visit again for a long while.  Maybe we can hit it up on the weekend with Daddy!

Birthday Celebrations

Well if there's one thing that summer does to me, it certainly gets me behind on my blogging!  I took pictures off the camera today only to find that I had never blogged about the kids' birthday party!  Whoops!  I am hoping to get several catch up posts up this week.

We celebrated each of the kids' birthdays separately on their actual birthday with balloons and streamers to greet them in the morning, a special meal out, and presents from the family.  Between their birthdays we have their party with family friends and family members.  It's a long few weeks, but the kids have an absolute blast and get spoiled rotten.

We decided to give the kids their shared big gift on Brian's birthday so they could enjoy it for more of the summer.  It's safe to say it was a great surprise that they both love and have enjoyed this summer...a trampoline!!  Brian wanted cookies, not a cake for his birthday, but he agreed to have a cake for Lilah.  He wanted to eat at Noodles & Co.  For Lilah's birthday we had strawberry cupcakes made by one of my preschool parents, and cookies that Lilah wanted for Brian.  They are so good to each other!  She wanted to eat at First Watch.

Oh the Snackeez...

The joint birthday party was held at the park like every year.  It RAINED a lot!  But we made the best of it.  The rain held off for the first hour, so the kids all got to play.  We called them in for presents and cake just as the rain started, so everyone was in the shelter while it poured.  Most of the guests cleared out once we finished the presents, but a few of our close friends stuck around to play in the wet shelter.  The kids had a blast running around in the puddles!  That's what so great about kids.  They don't even realize that rain at an outdoor party is a bad thing.  They have fun no matter what! 

Dancing in the rain!

This was apparently hysterical.  Let's show our butts when we are supposed to smile!