from there to here

In August, you started here: You were five. You had long, plaited hair and two missing front teeth. You rode a yellow bus every morning at 7:10am and you packed a lunch. You got milk every day at snack time and you played at recess with Mrs. Jen (your aide) close by.

In June, you finished here: You are six. You have short, chin-length hair and two missing eye teeth. You tried hot-lunch for half the week and home-lunch the other half, and that was lovely. You still rode the little yellow bus at 7:10am- Daddy took you nearly every time to the bus stop 4 minutes from home. You no longer needed Mrs. Jen to accompany you to recess.

You can count to 10. You can spell your first name. You can write any letter in the alphabet on command, upper and lower case. You met all of your Occupational Therapy goals and about 90% of your Speech goals this year. Girl, you are on FIRE. You loved school, you loved working, you loved being with friends every day. Your body is showing us that it likes to work work hard and that you can DO this school thing. It will be a lot of work, but your school is behind you 100 percent.

We paid for that hard work and progress with a lot of tears at home. Your body was so exhausted every day after putting in 6 and 8 hours of work. It was so hard to see you fall apart, to watch you sink… but to hear you talk now, Child. It is glorious. You can repeat so. many. things. now, Ry. You can SAY so many new things spontaneously. It’s remarkable. Your body is starting to work together, slowly but surely. It’s a roller coaster of a ride, this whole thing.

We’re trying some medicine. This was a hard, hard, hard decision for us… one we just came to about 2 weeks ago. We’ve always treated your apraxia through therapy… and while it was suggested when you were only 4 to try some medication in addition to therapy, we opted to wait. Everything was so new then, and we wanted to tackle one thing at a time. Now that school will be full-time and extended FOCUS is so important, we’re working with a doctor who’s helping us monitor you using a small dose of a non-stimulant that will hopefully increase executive function (focus) and decrease anxiety. I tell you this only so you know it’s only one piece in a large puzzle of options and ideas for you: riding therapy and speech therapy and medicine and down-time and lots of sleep and multi-vitamins and Oreo cookies.

We’re figuring it our, Ry, one step at time. You are a champion of effort with a killer smile and a dedicated helper. No one, not even your father, can match your work ethic… and that is really saying something. Ry, we are all so proud of you. Proud of your first year in school, proud of how you finished stronger and better than when you started, proud of the joy you take in learning.

May it ever be so.

Have a great summer, Kid.

Best Friends Forever.

2 good + 2B = 4gotten

Stay Cool.

Sign Ry’s ‘yearbook,’ won’t you? Leave her a message below and I’ll put it in her Kindergarten memory folder 🙂