It's that time of the year.....

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It's October and you know what that means??? It's Down syndrome awareness month!! With that comes the 31 for 21 annual challenge, so that means I will be posting everyday for the entire month (at least that's what is supposed to happen!) I have SOOOO much to post, mostly pictures, and I am hoping to get caught up. These will be in no particular order!

I figured I'd start off with the first day of school. The kids started school on Wednesday, September 7th and amazingly it was 91 degrees that day! Hunter is in 2nd grade this year, which just does not seem possible. 1st grade was rough for him, he got in trouble a lot for talking (and he really is a really good kid), on his report cards he would get 4's for academics (the highest you can get) and 1's (the lowest) for effort, he was BORED. So far this year is going really well. I spoke to his teacher at curriculum night this past week and she said she LOVES Hunter and that he is so smart and he has spunk and that she loves a boy with spunk! Seems to be a great fit!

Ella is in her 3rd year of preschool, integrated with "typical" kids. Looking back I don't see that I ever updated this as far as her schooling goes but we fought to have Ella stay in preschool this year. Ella turned 5 on August 30th and the program that she is integrated into says that no child can be 5 before September 1st, so they wanted to send her to Kindergarten. I objected to that for oh so many reasons and it all seemed so obvious to me that she should stay in preschool. Long story short they made a special exception and she was able to stay at her school but would not be able to keep the teachers that we had had for the prior 2 years that were SO good with Ella. I was a bit nervous going into this year, we really really loved her prior teachers and I was so afraid that the new ones might not be a good fit, may not understand what Ella says etc etc. But I am so very happy and relieved to say that Ella is doing fantastic this year. She has transitioned into this class with no problems. Her teachers reported the first week that Ella was a leader in class, she is paying attention, participating, having conversations with her peers (in which they are understanding her) and that she is "so good!" Phew! I knew before hand that I made the right choice to keep her in pre-k but this really made me confident in that decision!!

Here are my babies on their 1st day!



My excited and confident pre-schooler

Poor Hunter....I didn't realize it at the time but I can see it now his little eyes are swollen. He has been having allergy issues but perhaps even worse the skin under his eyes has stayed consistently burnt all summer.

The big 2nd grader!

When I was uploading this year's first day of school pics I noticed that two of the shots of Ella walking into school look a lot like ones I took on her first day 2 years ago! So here is a little comparison : )

2 years ago - her first day of public preschool

This year....she grew some legs!
2 years ago
This year
In her classroom