It's a JUNGLE Out There!

Today, Emma's class went on a field trip to Grapevine Mills Mall. This was Emma's first field trip, so I took off work so I could join in the fun. Since I was going, we just met everyone there instead of dropping her off at school to ride the bus over. It was so nice to finally officially meet some of her friends' parents. We all met up right outside the Rainforest Cafe and when we walked up to it, Emma said "jungle." I love how she is really starting to generalize and become more interested in her environment!

Once the bus arrived and her friends were inside, we took some pictures and started walking around. Emma was not in the mood to be in her stroller and wanted to touch so many things as we walked around. Instead, she ended up being passed around for almost every adult to take turns carrying her because she was leaning and reaching to see so many people. It was so exciting for me to see her so interested in meeting people she didn't know very well (the other parents)! It doesn't hurt that it also gave my arms a break from carrying around my adorable twenty-nine pound munchkin.

Looking at the sharks with her teacher.

Once we reached the food court, we stopped to ride on the carousel! This was the first time Emma had been on one, but I figured she might like the horse since she was enjoying her rides on Pooh Bear at SpiritHorse so much more now. She didn't seem comfortable on the horse and kept trying to get in my lap so we moved to a small carriage for the ride.

Sitting on the horse with Mommy.

Enjoying the ride!

Once the ride was over, it was snack time for all the kids. Emma had some yogurt and then we said goodbye to all her friends from school. While it would have been nice to stay and spend the entire day with all her friends, she was ready for nap time and I had to get to work. But we made some wonderful memories while it lasted!

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

Hard for me to believe that my little munchkin is old enough to start school, but given she just had her third birthday, it must be true. We had to say goodbye to all her Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) therapists last week as it was the last time she would see them for therapy. It was bittersweet, as are most times of change, but it was nice that she got to see most of them that day to say goodbye. I can't thank her therapists (the ones she said goodbye to last week and all the others that she has worked with in these last few years) enough for all the support and guidance they have provided while helping Emma and I be the best team we can be.

The process for starting school is definitely one to mention, as the team of people we worked with did a wonderful job with helping make it a smooth transition! Emma met with and completed assessments with a diagnostician, occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech therapist, orientation and mobility specialists, and her current Vision Impairment (VI) Teacher. I was able to tour two different campuses (one of which I attended personally) and see two different classroom options to decide which option would be the best placement for Emma. After much deliberation and several discussions with the diagnostician about the options, we decided the Functional Life Skills (FLS) classroom was the best choice for Emma. The student to teacher ratio was much better,  as well as the equipment they had readily available for daily use while at school.

After the decision was made, Emma and I made a visit to her future classroom so she could meet the teachers and they could meet her. Her primary teacher asked if it would be possible to come by our house and get to know her even better in her own environment to start learning her likes and dislikes as well as what motivates her. Thrilled with the enthusiasm of her teacher, we gladly had her over. It was so nice to start to develop that bond you have with your child's teacher and have that sense of trust and respect before Emma even started attending school. It really made the idea of my little munchkin not being so little anymore much easier to swallow, even if I did choke back some tears when I dropped her off this morning for her first day of class.

Playing with Elmo and her new teacher!

And, as no surprise to me, Emma had a wonderful first day! Her teacher sent me pictures of her interacting with so many new toys and textures - some more enthusiastically than others of course. Elmo was there with her, but she also found something new that she was interested in - a slinky! She was assigned locker number seven, which I told the teachers was quite fitting, since that was both her birthday and mine. On Thursday, she'll have her new backpack to carry her notebook back and forth to school. She would have had one today, but I didn't think she'd be having homework so soon! (No homework, it's just a way for her teacher and I to communicate about how things are going. But I had to make the joke!)