First Day of School

The first day of school is always a rite of passage. For us, today was a little milestone. Sylvie was so excited to go to school again with Sibel & me that we were mere distractions to her doing all sorts of different jobs (that's what they're called in the Montessori curriculum). I was a little terrified of the classroom packed with kids and parents. Sylvie did not share my concern. She's very wobbly but managed to carry her trays filled with shells, pom poms and marbles to the table. And despite knowing there is a hearing issue, it would really be hard to detect unless you were talking directly to Sylvie. Then again, she might just come across as an inattentive toddler.

After school, I ran home to do some work while Sibel & Sylvie went to the playground where they ran into our new neighbors and friends. Shortly thereafter, I cruised back to the school to meet Sylvie's teachers, the school director, one of the APNs and the educational coordinator from the Tomorrows Children's Institute. I asked them to come in and talk about Sylvie's condition and any special needs in the classroom, guidance as to how to talk to other children and so forth. It was a great meeting. The issues are: Mobility & Hearing, kids bumping into Sylvie, kids asking why Sylvie has very little hair, flu & chicken pox. I mentioned that Sylvie is sure to talk about hospital things, too. Sylvie knows that she was sick and that there was a bump in her tummy.

I picked up another copy of Todd Parr's "It's Okay to be Different" for the classroom. Sylvie loves it and there's a page dedicated "It's ok to not have hair."

Because Sylvie was so good on her first day of school, we went over to the Hello Kitty store. The owner was so thrilled to hear that she's back in school that she gave Sylvie a Hello Kitty backpack. I got teary eyed. She got teary eyed. We all hugged. The other customers just looked at us and smiled. It was obvious why we were all embracing.

Sylvie is sleeping with it right now.