In the midst of all of this madness, Patrick went back to preschool.He was excited, for sure, but talk about a crazy time to send your little boy back to school! He attended his first week. We picked him up from school on Thursday afternoon, flew to Omaha, got a new line put in, came home Sunday, and sent him back to school.
On the one hand, it was nice to have somewhere fun, comfortable, and safe for him to go while I tried to get everything taken care of medically. On the other hand, it’s really hard to have your world turned upside down and come back to a brand new routine.
I think we’re getting there, though. Finally.
Patrick is super excited to be back in his familiar classroom and we’re both very happy that he still has his great preschool teacher, Miss Catherine. She is great about being aware of all of his needs, but still letting him be a kid.
Both of the classroom aides that he knew and all of his therapists have changed. That has been disturbing to him. Thankfully, one of the aides worked with him in his other classroom last year so he already feels safe with her and she is comfortable with him.
It’s different for Patrick to be one of the bigger kids in the class. For one thing, I can tell that he’s really kind of annoyed at all the little kids who don’t know their names yet and hang their coats in the wrong places and steal the other kids’ name collars. Kinda makes me smile.
He was worried that his best friend from last year isn’t in his class again. Thankfully, we still see Fred before school because he’s in kindergarten and they line up right next to us. I was actually really excited when Fred recognized Patrick and climbed right up into the car next to him to talk to him the first day. These two little boys are really kindred spirits and I’m so happy that friendship survived a summer apart.
Patrick’s also making new friends in his class. He has a little boy in the class named Angel who is in a wheelchair. Last year, Patrick really fell in love with a little boy named Conner in his class who was wheelchair-bound. Since then, when Patrick sees a child in a wheelchair instead of seeing the wheels (which is his natural tendency)… he looks for a friend there. Angel is no exception. Patrick adores Angel. He goes right to him to talk to him while all of the other kids gather in the mornings. At first I worried that he was making him uncomfortable, but I can tell now that Angel is happy that someone comes to him, since he can’t easily go to them.
I had a chance to volunteer at the school after just a few days. I actually had a really great time. It was wonderful to be somewhere where my education in teaching, Spanish and sign language met up with all of the special needs training I’ve picked up over the past 5 years with Patrick. It was awesome to play with all of the kids and I think that knowing them has made it a lot easier for me to help Patrick learn to interact with them in line in the mornings. I can’t wait to go back and help more. But for the next couple of weeks, it seemed that I should probably give Patrick some space. Having mommy in class was fun, but also kind of cramped his style.
Starting the school year in chaos has been hard for Patrick. The transition to busy structured days has been tricky, too. With school most mornings, all of his doctor and therapy appointments fall in the afternoon. After the first couple of weeks, we were both irritable about the new, more demanding schedule.
Finally, this weekend I decided it was time to stop trying to accomplish so much. We took a total lazy day Friday. It took till 10 a.m. before we were dressed and left the house. It was a perfect break and I can tell he’s feeling better already.
Hopefully that will translate into him doing a little bit better in school this week. I hope he’ll feel more at home as he gets to know the new staff and classmates, too.
Patrick loves school and is so excited to be back. And I’m enjoying a little more peace and get-things-done time than I’ve ever experienced before.
And I hope in a few more weeks that we’ll hit our stride and it will feel natural again.
Hooray for preschool!!
Patrick Hoopes 