First Day of School

Summer is officially over. Today, all of the Dunganlets head back to school. And, for a change, they will all be going to the same school. One drop off and one pick up, yes, this will be twerp transport mecca.

Sydney will be heading to second grade with Ms. Holder. We spent about 45 minutes with her the other night and think she will be a perfect fit. You may remember that last year I compared her teacher, Mrs. Rogers, to a Disney princess (that was a smack on description by the way). Well, this year, in keeping with the Disney theme I would have to describe this teacher as a fairy god mother. I honestly don't think there could be a better match. Ms. Holder is unique. She, too, is the parent of a child that was a cancer survivor and, even more eerily coincidental, with high pitch hearing loss. In fact, her children are both grown and are now speech pathologists. She understands Sydney's unique challenges and I think will be instrumental in aiding us to help Sydney do the best she possibly can.

Graham has been placed in Mrs. Lewis' class. You may remember this name from 2 years ago when Sydney had her for a teacher. I think she will be a great fit for Graham. The trick for Graham will be in getting him to the first day of school. You see, yesterday morning he had a surprise trip to the ER. It actually sound much worse than it was. Starting on Friday, Graham had a fever and began complaining of flu like symptoms. While we could have waited until Monday to see the doctor we knew he would surely have to miss school. Additionally, for obvious reasons, if this truly was the flu we wanted to catch it early. So, to make a long story short, we made an early morning trip to the ER to have him checked out. It was a good thing too, at the time he had a 103 degree fever. In the end, he tested negative for both flu and strep. He has a simple virus. He needed some love, some cuddles, and some chicken noodle soup. I am glad to report that he improved yesterday. However, today is anew day and we will need to wait to see how he feels this morning. Assuming the fever is still gone, he should be ready for reintegration into the land of the living and, hopefully, capable of participating in the first day of school.

Believe it or not, Ainsley is the one that I have the most concern about today. Over the last few weeks, Ainsley has gone from being absolutely fearless to sheepishly petrified. I don't think the metamorphosis is permanent. In fact, I think it is just a stage that she is going through. We began seeing this trait rear its head on vacation when she refused to touch the sea lion on one of our adventures. We saw more of it the other afternoon when we tried to introduce her to a few of the kids in her classroom on meet the teacher day. For some reason, she is being shy. It is a new twist to Ainsley and, frankly, it has caught both Lynley and I off guard. This is one side of her we have never seen (and never thought we would) and are not quite sure what to do with. I have a feeling that today will be a rough start for her.

Well, I had best be off, today's schedule is tight. In true SCS tradition they are starting school with a half day which means parents only get a half day of work before the kiddos need to be picked up. It will be a shortened day of work.

It will not be lacking purpose, however.