Goodbye, Old School-Hello, New School!

I hate goodbyes. They make me sad and they're just so AWKWARD! But today we had to say goodbye to Liam's private pre-school, The Aspen Center. Tuesday he'll be starting a new preschool through the public school system. 

The new school is great! The teacher and assistant are amazing. In fact, they were Coby's teacher and assistant nearly 10 year ago, and made a HUGE difference in his life. When we were going through the process of getting Liam an IEP (Individual Education Plan) for his Autism I specifically made a note that I wanted him placed in this particular school.  Surprisingly, we got our wish!  I spent this week volunteering at the new school, helping to set up the classroom, etc. It was so much fun! Once again, I felt so blessed to be able to stay at home now and do that. 

Liam's IEP contains many goals. But when I look back at the IEP Coby had at that age, I see many similarities. They both had speech goals, both had fine motor goals, appropriate play goals, and social goals. Liam also has some feeding issues that need to be addressed.  I won't lie-it's a whole lot to deal with. But I see how much progress Coby made during that period in his life. Between the ages of 3 and 5 Coby blossomed and entered Kindergarten in a mainstreamed class with no one on one aid. He was pulled out for speech therapy and occupational therapy, but that ended a couple of years later. I largely credit Coby's amazing preschool teachers for his achievements, which is why I was so hoping Liam would get into the same classroom! 

Changing subjects for a minute: Many of you saw the Facebook post I made last night about Liam and his nap/sleep habits. Today is a perfect example. He came home from school and ate lunch. He actually finished early! So we were ready for nap by 1:40. I told Liam we could go upstairs and get a paci. "NONONONONONOOOOOOOOO upstairs, NO paci!" was the answer I got. I tried being stern. He started to cry then reached for my hand and used MY hand to wipe HIS tears. Ok. Then he said "go play." Since he used such good words, and since I'm leaving him with my hubby tonight while I go out with a girlfriend, I figured that was not a battle worth fighting. He'll go to sleep early tonight. AND for good measure, his socks were already off so we didn't get the pleasure of playing the "socks on socks off" game. Phew!