We all survived the first week of school, phew! I shed far too many tears this week. My days felt empty without Sammy by my side, holding my hand everywhere I went. But I knew he was safe at school with the BEST teacher and having a great time and that put a smile on my face. Elijah had a great week at school, too! He had some blurt-outs, but as far as I've heard nothing worse than that went down. In fact, some really amazing things transpired with him. Things I NEVER thought would happen on this first week of school. During the first two days of school he completed two math sheets (one of them with 56 problems on a page!) WITHOUT COMPLAINT. Uhh...wha?! Last year when a math sheet even touched his desk it immediately got crumpled and thrown across the room. I was so darn proud that I gave him a bit of incentive (uh, bribery) to continue with this. I offered an Inside Out stuffed animal on Friday after school if he could complete one math sheet per day without complaint. He did it!
Sammy has really done SO well this week. I give that boy major props for holding his stuff together so well. He hopped onto the bus happily every day and he hopped off happily every afternoon. He eagerly told me details about his day and seemed genuinely excited about going back again. This morning when we were getting ready for breakfast, I could see that Sammy was on the verge of losing it. I think the craziness of the week had finally gotten to him. He sat on the floor of our kitchen, staring at our pantry and literally SOBBING because I told him he could not eat fruit snacks for breakfast. He would not budge from that spot and continued to cry. Finally I grabbed him and hugged him tight and rubbed his back and told him that I understood. School is tiring! It's been a week filled with change! And I told him I was very proud of him. After a few minutes he completely switched gears, got dressed, ate breakfast and was ready to hop on the bus again! By the way, Sammy got an Inside Out stuffed animal, too. :)
There was another major success with Elijah this week at school. There is a kid in his class who was a major antagonist in his first grade class. This kid...ugh. He preys on Elijah's weaknesses and vulnerabilities and instigates trouble. He knows that Elijah is prone to doing things like blurting out potty words or screaming when frustrated, so he will approach him and say, "Elijah, say a potty word as loud as you can!" In first grade, Elijah always did what he said and of course ended up getting into trouble. This year, after seeing this boy's name on a locker at open house, I began coaching Elijah and doing some role playing. On day #2, Elijah got off the bus and proudly told me that this boy had urged him to "scream as loud as you can!" E told him, "NO!" and turned the other way. This is hugely hugely awesome.
We have had some medical developments this week, as well. Elijah had two routine specialist appointments, one with urology and the other with ENT. We have known that the urology surgery from last November hasn't worked, but we did not expect to alarm the doctor quite so much. Another surgery is necessary and SOON! He wanted to do surgery as early as Monday! I choked and began coughing and asked if we could maybe wait till the following week. So Elijah will have a urethral dilation on September 25th. The surgery itself is not major or worrisome, but what we have to do at home with him every day afterward for SIX MONTHS is worrisome. Let's just say major painful things in that region. :(
Today Elijah got a hearing test and we chatted with Dr. L. His hearing is the same as it was 6 months ago...mild hearing loss in left ear with a spike into normal hearing in higher decibels. YAY! And an improvement even from last time...his ear drum now moves when air is blown into the ear (before it wouldn't budge). Dr. L said AGAIN that he never ever ever ever would have anticipated this outcome for Elijah. In standard fashion, he referred to E as an "evil genius" and walked away scratching his head. In a good way!
I'm super excited about tomorrow because we will be getting together with two new friends (one in the am and one in the pm) who we have recently met. We are excited about the opportunity for new friendships and connections!
Phew, here's to another FULL week almost done. Looking forward to what next week has in store!
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