Duhdee is snowmobiling in Maine this weekend. Monkey and I dropped him off at the train station last night which means Umma got to do the morning drop-off solo. To quote Great Grampy, “Ohhh, boy!”
Our morning drop-offs have been improving, it is true, but they’re still not what anyone would call fun. It takes BOTH of us to get him in the door, down the ramp and to his classroom. I walk ahead with bribes (M&Ms) and coax him to walk to me. Duhdee walks with him and peels him off the floor whenever Monkey does his “Look Ma, no bones!” trick.
Once we are within 6 feet of the classroom door, Duhdee has to drag/carry him into the room. He used to carry him ALL the way into the school but then Monkey started hitting Duhdee in the face trying to get put down (it was a brilliant delay tactic but we saw through it) so now he has to use his OWN feet and walk like a big boy.
You can imagine how excited I was about this morning. How was I going to both walk ahead to coax him *AND* keep him on his feet? I improvised. I would aim him in the right direction and only get a few steps in front. I promised M’s at all the normal spots. It worked pretty well too! He only flopped to the ground 3 times and the last time was when we were right outside the door like every morning. So not too bad.
Once we were in the classroom one of his lovelies came to see him. He sat on the floor and let me take his coat off with minimal fuss. THEN instead of going to the sink for his morning bubble play he signed “Baby Fish” and pointed. He wanted to show me the fish tank! After we took a peek he went to the reading nook to visit with the HUGE stuffed bear and his friend joined him again for a bit of tickling. I said good-bye as he grabbed his friends hand and brought it to his belly to ask for more, lol.
The teacher wanted to share a cute story as I walked out so I lingered just long enough to see his friend bring him by the hand to the “swing room” (the OT room which is connected to the classroom.) They were redirected by one of the aides because it is NOT swing room day and they took off, hand in hand, to find something else to play. Just so sweet. He’s going to miss “his” girls next year. They will be old enough to move up to Jr. K next fall and Monkey will most likely be staying in the same classroom for another year. He may catch up to one or more of them again in Kindergarten but we have school choice options so they could end up anywhere in the city. We’re not yet certain which school we will be requesting for Monkey.
Monkey did awesome for having a change in his routine. Wtg mom for improvising. 🙂
Go Umma! I have so lucked out in the school department. While he likes to flip out at other times when I leave him, he doesn’t care at all at school. Maybe it’s the promise of breakfast? =)
Uhm…Where can we get a swing room? That sounds AWESOME. I would run in there every morning, too!
Having an attached OT room is awesome, swinging is so calming for Monkey.
After I left they decided that as long as Monkey was taking a friend with him that it would be OK for him to spend time in there first thing. They decided that rewarding his effort at being social was more important that him sitting down to do some “table” work, lol.
I was very pleased with how we both managed this morning. Umma is not a fan of changing the routine either, especially when the change involves having to get up earlier!
Blake’s early intervention class had an attached OT/PT room. It was great.