Kindergarten tomorrow

Janey starts kindergarten tomorrow. We went to an open house on Thursday and as always after spending time at the O'Hearn (now the Henderson), I felt very happy. Everyone at all who is involved with Janey came in Room 5 to see us, and to welcome Janey back, and to talk about their plans for this year. I couldn't ask for more in that way. It's one thing that's good about inclusion. If she was in a class of all autistic kids, she would not stand out as much and not get as much attention and positive interactions. Of course, she would be getting more specialized education, so it's so hard to know what is best. But I love the feeling of knowing that she is with people who adore her all day. In my gut, I feel like that is the most I could want. I know there are at least 6 or 7 people there who love her like a daughter. I like her new room. Most of the kids from K1 I wanted to have with her are there, and a few that I didn't, aren't. It's just a nice room. She will have Ms. Samuels as her regular ed teacher, who Freddy had too and who I really like, and Ms. Elmaus as her special ed teacher, who I don't know well but I met and liked a lot too. Still, I have so many worries. I hope she learns. She hasn't learned much yet, in terms of things concrete that you could test for, like colors and numbers and letters and shapes.

She did some good talking today. She wanted us to play catch with her cat, a cotton knit cat we tie up into a ball and throw, so she said "I want to play catch with my kitty, Janey", a nice long sentence. She almost always adds Janey at the end, sort of her own tag to let us know the sentence is about her.

The sudden rages are getting more and scarier, though. She will be perfectly happy, and then something happens that isn't what she wanted or expected, and she screams, bits things, cries---all this happens within a minute. I think it will help if she can tell us what is wrong, although we might not always be able to fix it.

I am glad for little things. For years, she would bring me yohgert to have me feed her, and I would say "I need a spoon, get a spoon" and of course she wouldn't. Just the last few weeks, she brings the yohgert WITH a spoon. It finally clicked.