I know it's been AGES since I've written anything. It's not that things have been quiet.....in fact they've been insanely busy. But once I take a little time off from writing, I've been finding it VERY difficult to get back into it. It's kind of been that way all year.
But I do have to share an AMAZING thing that happened this week. It's about Ballerina.
For those of you who read my posts regularly, you KNOW how worried I was about her entering a general education kindergarten classroom. And you know that my worries were not unfounded. You know how many problems she was having at the start of the year to the point where the school was seriously considering changing her placement to be with Music Man. Then things started to turn around in mid-October or so.
Well, the school year is about to end. The last day of school is on June 14. Big Brother was in the 2nd Grade play, "Going Buggy". There were 3 performances of the play on Wednesday.....two during the school day for their fellow students and one in the evening for the parents who couldn't attend the daytime performances. I saw the two during the day and watched both Ballerina and Music Man behave well as audience members. I was very proud.
Dad was planning on taking Big Brother to the evening performance. To both of our surprise, Ballerina asked to go too. We saw no reason that she SHOULDN'T go, so Dad took her when the time came. When she arrived, Dad started sending me texts and pictures. She immediately found her classmates with older siblings in the show. She ran over to them and gave them a GREAT BIG hug!!!! And they played together until the performance started. They were running up on stage (before the show) and just having a BLAST!!!!!
And when the performance started, she sat down with Dad to watch. She stayed there quietly for a while, but then decided to sit on the floor in front.....with her FRIENDS!!!!!! Her behavior was near perfect. She just decided she would rather experience this moment with her friends rather than her Dad.
This year has been AMAZING for her. Not only has she done well academically (her report cards are more than acceptable) but she has really started to understand the mechanics of social interaction. She WANTS to be with her peers rather than her family. She WANTS to play games (Red Light Green Light being her current favorite). She loves to "hang out with the girls". All of these things that I really never thought I would see with her. I still see no signs of it in Music Man, nor do I ever really expect to. But with her, it's so nice to see her looking like EVERYBODY else!
I know that people say that you shouldn't work on blending in when you were born to stand out. And that's all well and good. But it also puts you at risk for other problems down the road, such as bullying behaviors. Sometimes, it's good to be part of the crowd. I still want to see her be her own person.....don't misunderstand me. But I don't want her to feel alone. I want to see her fit in with those around her. And I want to see her achieve success with everything she does. And it really looks to me that she is on that path right now!
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