Open House…
As Andy mentioned, we went to the open house for Maria’s preschool this evening. Sue, Andy, Maria, & I went. As you can imagine, it’s been a rough couple of weeks, topped off by the neurologist appt today (Andy didn’t mention her saying AGAIN that she’s sure Maria had a stroke before she was born, that she’s had significant brain damage and/or there’s brain tissue missing and/or her brain is slightly deformed. A mom really likes hearing that, no wonder Maria withdraws when we’re in there…). There’s a lot of crazy nonsense at work (re-organization, lots of retirements, 2 of my co-workers are leaving so I get to do their work also), so that’s also been a bit of a strain. And then we had the preschool meeting.
The teacher is super sweet, friendly, wonderful. Her aid, the one we’ve met, is also very nice. Both of them seem to really enjoy Maria and don’t seem to be afraid of her, even when we told them of the recent aspirating and seizure activity. In addition to her Swifty stroller, which is really tall, there’s only 1 other chair in the room that she can sit in. There are chairs with high sides, but no straps, and although the aid said she could sit in it with one of them watching her, I said that won’t work because if they left her (which they’ll do because they’re in a room of 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds), she could easily fall out of it.
The thing that freaked me (and Sue) out is that none of the other kids looked “special”. Her class will have 10 kids, 3 typical and 7 special needs. ALL of the other kids are very mobile. Almost all of them looked bigger than Maria. I asked Sue if this is the right place for her and she replied “they seem to think so”, or something like that. Holy crap. I know the Foundation for Blind Children seemed way too special, but this one, wow. Monday’s going to be pretty rough.
We did have a nice time in California. Went to the beach one day, Maria seemed to like the water and the sand. She and her cousin Amelia actually touched hands once. Maria was reaching out to Amelia, Amelia touched her hand, and Maria got a big grin on her face. So school will be ok, right? We went to the Bodies exhibit (real bodies that have been plasticized. Saw a brain with hydrocephalus, fetuses from conception up through birth, a cross-section of the throat so I finally saw how milk could go down one pipe to the stomach or the other pipe to the lungs, tiny bones in the ears). Pretty darn amazing. Maria got to lay in the grass a couple times, which she doesn’t do in Phoenix because I have no lawn. She ate well and slept well (though she STILL weighs 28 lbs). It was a nice, relaxing, much-needed week in San Diego county.