I have a kindergartener

When I was a kid, we didn't have pre-school graduation. We didn't have kindergarten graduation. However, the last 3-4 days, those pictures and stories have been flooding my Facebook feed. Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I enjoy seeing proud parents showing off their smart kids! It sure beats reading another rant about politics or religion.

My kiddo didn't have a pre-k graduation, but she did have a ceremony where she got a certificate. It was cute watching her wait for her name to be called, spring out of her seat up to the superintendent and give him a hearty "THANK YOU!" when he gave her the certificate.

What wasn't cute was that there were 200 people crammed into a very small cafeteria which, no joke, was about the size of the downstairs of my house. Granted, we've got a good 1000 square feet down here or so, but try cramming all of those people into my house and yeah - no thanks. The school is a special needs school, so the children are hypersensitive to crowds, lights, noises, etc and I have to laugh because even I was going into sensory overdrive with the crowd, lights and noise from the kids crying!

There were 2 actual graduates of the school - the school is ages 6 months through 21 years. One of the graduates has downs syndrome and I can't even begin to tell you what it was like watching him graduate! It was so special and his parents were beaming so much that I thought the smiles would burst right off of their face! It was heartwarming and incredible. Their son was grinning ear to ear the entire time. It brought tears to my eyes to think of all of the things we take for granted that other families struggle so hard to achieve.

I admit much of the ceremony was boring and I found myself thinking a lot about how far Maddie has come in the last year since I sent her off to school that first day. She wasn't a stranger to school. She'd been enrolled in a private pre-k3 program last year, but it wasn't designed to get her ready for real kindergarten. It was just learning and socializing with other kids. This year was the real deal and her teachers/aides worked hard to get her ready to transition to kindergarten. I dropped her off the first day of school and she ran into that classroom and didn't look back. She's gone from being recommended to being in a self contained classroom to being in the general ed kindergarten room at the school she'll transition to. She's always amazing me with how far she's come and people always give me credit for it, but the credit is all on her. She always tries and never gives up. Sometimes I feel like I'm just along for the ride and that my job is to keep her from getting killed LOL.

Here's a comparison pic first day of school vs last day of school:

If you look at where the dress falls in relation to her knees, you can see how much she's grown this year! She looks bigger in the pic on the left because she's closer to the camera, but she has grown probably 3 inches this year if not more.

I'm so proud of her and I can't wait to see her excel in kindergarten, but I won't lie, I am afraid of bullies. Kids already think she's weird because she flaps her arms and says strange things, plus her speech is still far behind - it's more like that of a 3 year old. Hopefully she can make a friend or 2 who will help her in bully situations.

Hope everyone has a great start to their summer!

The Royal Pajama Party

My sweet little baby....the 6 pound, 4 oz bundle of joy that came into this world with a head full of thick red hair at 4:52pm April 28, 2008 turned 5 this weekend.

I brought this adorable little creature home from the hospital 2 days later. Now, hard as it is to believe, she's morphed into this intelligent, funny, sweet, beautiful little girl.

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The 5 years have not been without their bumps, as with all parents and their children. However, we have faced the additional challenge of autism. I'm proud to be this kid's mom, let me tell you. She's polite. She knows how to say please and thank you, usually without prompting. She's kind. She will share her toys eagerly and enthusiastically...most of the time. She IS a kid after all and an only child at that. She's caring. She's the first one to offer a hug to someone who is crying or sad and tell them they can be happy now. She never lets her disabilities stop her from doing anything and we try to ensure she lives as normal of a life as possible. She's a great girl. I'm so happy she's mine.

Her birthday started with gifts from us and a trip to IHOP for her annual birthday funny face pancake. Here were her favorite gifts.  

She's really into the new Disney princess, Sofia the First, so we had a Royal Pajama Party as the theme for her birthday. We had her friends dress up in their pajamas and come over to hang out, play games and eat cake.

It took nearly all day Saturday, but I got the cake and cupcakes frosted and the decorations up. There were a lot of pink and purple streamers in my house. The cake was a regular Pillsbury white cake with a pink layer and a purple layer, then filled with apple filling and frosted with homemade buttercream. 

We played Cinderella Bingo and cornhole-like game with a Disney Princess theme. 

Before long, it was time to cut the cake. But not before a brief outrage over not wanting to wear the Birthday Princess sash, or *ahem* I mean the princess belt. 

After we told her to take it off since it wasn't worth a tantrum, she loudly and proudly declared "I'M WEARING MY PRINCESS BELT!" Ok then. *shakes head*

Pretty soon it was time to blow out the candles and dig into the cake.

She opened her presents and then people slowly started trickling out. A friend who came late stayed and helped us clean up which I am eternally grateful for. Another friend served as my photographer since I knew  I'd likely be running around busy and not have time to take pictures, which I am also eternally grateful for.  We are so fortunate to have such amazing people in our lives!  

We had about 15-20 kids and every one of them seemed to have a blast! They all came in their pajamas, chased each other around, played well together and the girls especially took a liking to going into the toy closet in the dark, lighting up the Tik Tok Croc toy on the wall and screaming their heads off. The party was a smashing success. 

And now over 24 hours later, I'm still trying to recover!