Preschool in less than 2 weeks!!!

Whew!  It has been a long week.  We went to observe the school on Tuesday (without Molly) and I was completely overwhelmed by the idea of being in the classroom with 11 other students 3 and 4 years old.  I observed kids being kids, which included hitting, pushing, shoving and running and falling into furniture.  For the average kid these are just part of the day, but for Molly most, if not all, of these incidents would have resulted in a fracture.  I think it is hard for any parent to drop their child off and allow someone else to be responsible for them, but for me this is almost more than I can handle.  I have been obsessive about keeping Molly as safe as possible to minimize her fractures (which I think are now over 40).  

The teacher at the school is wonderful.  Lynn, the teacher, started the preschool program after observing some hearing impaired children in the general population and noticing that they were not required to "use their words" to communicate and were held to a different standard than their peers.   She is very passionate about customizing both the classroom layout and the curriculum to each child's specific needs.  I was overwhelmed on Tuesday trying to envision how to make this work, but today went extremely well.  The teachers had spent this morning rearranging the classroom for Molly in her wheelchair.  Lynn has also planned a unit for net week to teach the student about people in wheelchairs etc.   Jim and Lori (our neighbor) came today and helped to reassure me that this was a reasonable an appropriate place for Molly.  Lori, our neighbor, did some reading up online about Lynn, the teacher, which increased my confidence in this particular classroom.  It is hard not to have another classroom to choose from, but I am starting to feel better that this is going to be a good placement for her.

Yesterday we had a "play group" with Abby, a local 2 year old little girl with OI.  They were SO cute together.  Abby was putting her hands to her mouth and calling "Moll" and then rolling to get to where Molly was.  Abby was getting up close and cuddling in with Molly.  Molly was jealous because I was paying attention to Abby, which complicated things a little bit.  Nancy, Abby's Mom, has been so trusting of me and allowed me to pick Abby up.  I picked Abby up and "sat" her on Molly's lap (still in my hands) and Abby snuggled in with Molly and rested her head on Molly's shoulder - it was ADORABLE!!!  

Today has been a good day.  We are definitely excited about the prospect of Molly going to school and being able to play with other children her age.