Thursday, February 8, 2018

First school visits and a birthday cake

Wednesday 7th: Asher's first school visit today. Just for the morning. Unfortunately she had a seizure on Tuesday at 4pm and then another one this morning at 7am. Thankfully nothing while at school, but another one at 6:30pm. So a rough two days neurologically.
Thankfully she was pleased to see her box with familiar things, and enjoyed playing with them all. She wasn't looking great and I wondered if we would see another seizure in the morning, so I asked Rachel to bring her cake for morning tea, rather than waiting for lunch.
Rachel went to a cake decorating course on Monday evening, so she did this cake for Asher. It worked out well to celebrate with her class today.
Beautifully done Rachel.
Happy 5th Birthday Asher.
One candle hidden behind the horn (I didn't think about that). It was nice to have her class sing for her and get to enjoy her cake together.
I ended up staying and helping with keeping her distracted till around 11. I was then able to head home for a bit before picking her up at 12:30.

She will have her buggy at school too. This is another "safe place" for her. She had some morning tea while in it this morning. I need to just bring her tray next time and then she can even do a bit of "work" in there too.
The day went really well. Much better than it could have. Rachiel (her Teacher Aide) also commented on how well it went. We had both been prepared to potentially have a lot of screaming and even hitting - but she didn't do either. So wonderfully successful from that side of things.

BELOW: Nice to get a 2018 School photo of them all this afternoon.

Hezekiah's art that he brought home today.
Rachel did some shopping on Monday when she was in town. She spotted this pillow and thought of Ruth. Ruth had mentioned before how she loves these - with the little sequins that can be pushed two ways (so either a white background with a gold dear - or a gold background with a white dear). So thoughtful of Rachel.
Rachel and I headed off to do the egg collection this afternoon. It was nice to get out and spend a bit of time chatting.
A neighbour brought this cake as a "birthday" cake for Anastasia. She apologised for it being "late" but it was actually perfectly timed. Asher's cake was provided in the course on Monday, and so it was not Gluten Free. This cake is GF though, so it was nice for everyone at home to have some cake.
Thursday 8th: Another morning school visit today. And it went so much better.

They have "fitness" first thing in the morning and so we went outside with Asher. She ran over to where all the children were playing catch. Hezekiah spotted her and even tried to help teach her how to play. It was very special to see.

Her teacher suggested chalk for outside, so once she had lost interest in their game I got her drawing with the chalk (using "Wheels on the bus" song - which she often "draws" with at Champion Centre).

Her teacher also got some balls out which worked well and then gave Rachiel some bubbles. So she had a few different fun and familiar activities outside which was a great help.

The primary head teachers in the class on Thursday mornings after morning tea, and she gave me this encouraging feedback:
"We had a shared writing session on the mat, and I wrote a story about Asher being at school, and then asked a student to come and draw the picture to go with the story. Asher then also on her own accord, came up and took the pencil and also contributed to the story by drawing and making dots. She did this on more than one occasion and it was delightful to see."

We are all so very pleased that she is settling in so well and already starting to look at what the others are doing and even joining in.

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