Taking the Scenic Route

It is the first time I have been to this park, but will not be the last.  It is a drive for us, but it is awesome.  It is fully fenced in, handicap accessible playground, so it accommodates nearly any playdate we might have.

Zora was SO EXCITED.  Not only a great play area, but a lot of her friends from school also made it.  She was in heaven.  Zane found a whole lot more to enjoy here than he does in typical playgrounds too (and with the fenced in area, I didn’t have to hover to make sure he didn’t leave), so it was truly a win-win for our family.  It was really nice to sit and chat with the other moms instead of chasing after kids every moment.

(merry-g0-round)

And from one of the other moms…

Zach took Zora to her last day of Preschool.  They were planting flowers and decorating the flowerpots for Mother’s Day.

She was very proud of her flowers.

It was a great year, with lots of growth, and I can’t wait until next fall when we can do it all again.

Zora was stoked.  The fire department came by the preschool and gave all the kids a ride.  The fireman even gave out hats, which has been played with nearly every day since at our house.

On a “bad mom” note, I noticed the jacket she was wearing.  It isn’t ours.  I am guessing that she didn’t wear her jacket to school, and they gave her one that they had sitting around for such occasions.  The really embarrassing part?  I think Zane wore the same one years before, at the same preschool, for the fire trucks coming.  At least I am consistent.  (we are all warm blooded and since both kids reject coats, we only push the issue when it is cold enough for frostbite risk or, in situations like this, when we know that we will get a stink eye from people who get cold much faster.  I just didn’t pay attention when she and Zach left for school)

After we took Zane to his last day at Heartspring, I left Zach and Zane at home to go to Zora’s Valentine Party at school.  She handed out the valentine cards with the conversation hearts (which seemed more appropriate than usual at a “speech-language-hearing” clinic) to all of her friends and the teachers.  Since she can barely write her name, and can’t really write it small enough to put on the cards, I did the writing in a crayon of her choice and then she put stickers on the card.

Then she made a 2 cards from all of the fun supplies.

This is the Clinical Educator and Student ST in charge of her individual therapy.  The valentine’s cards that Zora picked were those hologram ones where there are two pictures that change as you move the card.   In her ST sessions this week they had similar hologram stickers  and called them “teasing” stickers (they were stickers in the session, and they were talking about teasing), and when Zora saw these valentine cards she wanted the “teasing ones”.    Here she is showing them the valentine’s card she bought, plus the one she made (the white paper with the “writing” on it), connected to the baggie of conversation heart packages.

She had fun and it was good to see her at school.

Zora started back at preschool today. She was VERY excited to get to see her friends again.

The theme/book this week is “Tacky the Penguin“, which is one of Zane’s favorites, so Zora was familiar with it too. It was reported that she was excited to inform the teachers that she knew the book.

Her penguin home

Her penguin craft

I didn’t understand exactly what happened, but some of the preschoolers, including Zora, decided to trade a little stuffed penguin they got for a dollar. She was very excited about her dollar and had definite ideas about how she wanted to spend it.

Zora’s picture story of her Dollar as told by Zach and the camera:

The “Orange Store”

“I do it myself” (self check out aisle)

Her favorite “Circle Candy” (peppermint patties)

Sweet victory

At the end of the Fall semester the new Montessori School finally got all their licensing stuff done and she was able to go the last few weeks before winter break.  She loves it.  One of my former classmates (went to school from preschool-12th grade with her) is the mom to one of Zora’s classmates.  I am not the oldest mom there!  (well, actually, I might be…if I recall correctly, her birthday is in either March or May, but at least not the oldest by a decade)

Here are the cards Zora made as Christmas Gifts.

The annual “Gingerbread House” day was a hit, as usual.  The Clinical Educator goes to the effort, every year, of making Gingerbread Houses from scratch and then transporting them to the school.  They are always awesome, but this year, she actually put a little Gingerbread Baby (I assume to go with the book they read) and a light inside the house so that you can see it through the hole in the door.  She said the thought of Zane and how much he would have loved that when she was making the light part.  (by the way, my Mom came up to spend the day with Zane that day because he would have had a total meltdown having the watch somebody else put together a Gingerbread house and not be able to do one himself…it is one of his obsessions).

Zora enjoyed the houses almost as much as Zane did when he went here.

Jennifer, the Clinical Educator, turns on the light and shows Zora the surprise inside.

She loved decorating, but unlike Zane, she got to a certain point and wanted to go play instead of keep decorating.  She and her friend played in the kitchen area, her favorite spot, and she donned a doggie mask (she loves pretending she is a dog).

And one last shot of the house.

Today is Zora’s first day of school ever. She is going to preschool where Zane went. She will go as a peer model, and if her speech doesn’t improve, she will be as a ST student next semester, but she has already made huge leaps, so that doesn’t seem as likely now as it did at the beginning of summer. Zane also had his first day of school as a 2nd grader.

We took an insane number of photos, naturally.

At school

Zane & Daddy waiting for mom to finish dropping Zora off

Chillin’ with new friends after school.

Some faces you will probably see again because I am good friends with the mom of the girl and grandma of the boy (grandma is raising him) from the autism support group we go to.

These first four are the “official” photos that were taken by a contractor for the school.  If parents, ect, want a copy of it, let us know and we can link you to the website.

The rest of these were taken by our friend, Robert.

The other people there were my parents and Robert & Dori, our friends.

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