..he was happy to smile with me for the camera...
...he was ready to head out the door...
And drop off was easy. A bit "too easy". We went in and he set off to play with the school toys. He didn't look back when I walked out the door. I thought to myself "what was I worried about?"
Then came pick up time...two and a half hours later. When I walked in, the front door ladies told me he started out okay, but then he didn't want to come in from outside and wanted to go the gym. So, I knew this wasn't good. Nicholas is quite stubborn.
I got to the room and they were all in circle time singing songs he knows, songs he can sign too. But, Nicholas was crying. And was beyond thrilled to see me.
Having a child with down syndrome makes me ask myself lots of questions. And the questions go something like this :
Did he cry today because he has DS or because he is a two year old boy that is having trouble adjusting to mom being gone?
I know, seems like a pretty dumb question. But, having a child with his diagnosis makes you wonder those things all the time.
Does he have tantrums because he has down syndrome or because he is two years old? Does he choose to run away from me because he has down syndrome or because he is an exploring two year old? I hope some day I can learn to stop asking myself those silly questions. Because I know deep down in my heart, that this is his personality. And he cried today because he missed me and is smart enough to know that this is a new thing for him.
Oh, I guess it was more than half a success today. Because he was exhausted when I picke dhim and took a wonderfully long nap...
I'm sure it will be hard some days, yet other days he'll do great! I anticipate a lot of adjustments when Benjamin starts 3-yr-old special ed pre-k in April. He does pretty well when we leave him in the church nursery each week, but that's not for 3.5 hours like pre-k will be.
ReplyDelete