A couple of weeks ago, Esther-Faith started preschool.
At a special needs preschool we selected during the IEP process.
As with just about everything here at the HennHouse, we photographed it.
(She really just thinks the cameras are part of our hands, anyway.)
It would be strange NOT to take pictures.
On the way to school… we are SO EXCITED!
Once we got to school, we checked EVERYTHING out.
(and by EVERYTHING, I mean EV-ER-Y-THING. Twice.)
After all of our new friends arrived, we went to the “muscle” room to play.
Esther-Faith opted to crawl and roll instead of use the walker.
(I didn’t stop her. I really just wanted to be as invisible as a
wall decoration. She is all about finding her own way.)
Esther-Faith discovered that she really loves the ball pit in the muscle room.
(She sank all the way to the bottom; ball pits are kind of difficult
and kind of therapeutic for kids with gross motor delays/disabilities.
Esther-Faith’s PT was supervising the whole time.)
She really, really loves the ball pit.
Once back in the classroom,
there was circle time, story time,
craft time, snack time, and more playtime.
(There was potty time, too. But she kept playing.
No potty time necessary if you’ve got a neurogenic bladder
and are on an intermittent catheterization schedule.)
Towards the end of her first day of preschool,
Esther-Faith rolled her wheelchair over to me
to show me her dress up clothes.
And to make sure I was ok.
I said that I was ok.
(But I’m not sure that I was. That I am.)
Wasn’t it just yesterday that a tiny, fragile baby came home from the hospital after spinal cord and brain surgeries?
That I stayed up nights, not because she kept me up, but so that I could just hear her breathe?
That I worried about her survival?
And here she is. Thriving. Adapting. Playing. And being a child.
My sweet baby. My Giggles. My Scutterbotch. My Sassquatch.
My growing girl… The world is at your feet and your fingertips.
It is yours.
You can read more about Esther-Faith and her brothers over at the
HennHouse.
