If you follow me on Twitter, then you know that yesterday I woke up looking like this:
Yes, somehow I developed an incredibly bad case of pink eye. I’m fairly certain that this is because Charlie’s IEP was today and the universe loves nothing so much as a good joke. I went to the doctor immediately, maybe hoping that he’d declare me terribly contagious and then I wouldn’t be forced to go around town looking like the living dead. Instead he told me, “you’re an adult—keep your hands to yourself,” which left me on the hook for the IEP—weepy eye and all.
So today was the big day. Charlie decided that there was no way he could take a nap. This was to be expected—like I said, the Universe loves a good joke and what’s funnier than a screaming toddler? Oh, I know, a screaming toddler who's about to meet a room full of strangers. He screamed bloody murder as I packed the Quickie Zippie into our rented minivan. We were running late, so I put the thing in the van all in one piece. I agree with Barbara that one should try to protect their backs when lifting medical equipment, so I chose to give myself a hernia instead. I’m kidding. Mostly.
We got to the elementary school relatively on time and I got into the building with little incidence except for one of the wheels falling off the chair in the middle of the parking lot. I swear, you just can’t make this stuff up. Some nice people came to my rescue, we got the wheel back on, and then proceeded to the IEP.
I was pleasantly surprised. Despite Charlie’s severely cranky attitude, they all commented on how cute he was and giggled as he diligently pressed the buttons on his DVD player. It’s a good thing he’s cute because Lord Almighty is he a whiner.
He’s going to be in class three days a week, all day. I’m still letting that sink in—my baby is going to be gone all day. Of course, if that doesn’t work for us, we’ll make changes, but with the multitude of specialists who need to see Charlie, I knew he would be in school a lot.
He will have PT, OT, adaptive PE, and assistive technology once a week. He’ll have speech twice a week. He’ll take one meal and two snacks at school every day and have a seventy minute nap. Charlie doesn’t take a seventy minute nap, but I figure that’s their problem. Knowing him, he’ll convince some nice lady to cuddle up with him so he can rest properly.
He’ll be working on all kinds of things, but I’ll share what I remember best: sorting and categorizing, naming body parts, feeding with a spoon, using a PERCS system, and potty training. We weren’t sure about the potty training, but after a lot of discussion we decided to go ahead and give it a try. We’re setting the goal at 50% of the time, though, to give us some wiggle room.
I feel a lot better about things now that I’ve met some staff and have a feel for what we’re getting ourselves into. Up next: figuring out the best way to enjoy the summer.
Pictures from this week’s bug unit—we’re a little behind schedule because of all of our appointments, so unit post probably won’t go up until Saturday.
