31 for 21: School picture

Ella's school picture - Kindergarten

Sometimes I am reminded just how much I love the blogging community. I did not get a lot of comments on yesterday's post, 3 actually, but the comments I got made me feel like I'm not alone. In reality I KNOW deep down in my brain somewhere that a lot of kids with Down syndrome, and even kids in general, have over stimulation/sensory issues, but I think when you have a bad day and your kid seems to be the only one acting out that you do indeed feel alone. It was a nice little reminder that there are others going through the same thing, and it's nice to hear.

I don't typically write about my frustrations. Honestly I don't have a lot of them, I do have a lot of small moments in which I am frustrated (but that's not all about Down syndrome,) but they are short lived and seem insignificant to me. But maybe I should start writing them down, whether I publish them or not, because I have to tell you today I am feeling better about it all!

I was a little scared that she had had a bad day yesterday. I went to pick up Ella at school, I go in and she walks in line with her class down to where I am (I'll explain school in another post.) Anyhow she is all smiles in line and then sees me and drops to the floor. Her general ed teacher says "Ella says she doesn't want to go home, she's staying here today." I said "well good because if she is going to act like that she can stay." Ella's special ed teacher kind of stands Ella back up and walks her over to me. Ella won't look at me and promptly crosses her arms with a scowl on her face. I look at the teacher and she kind of shrugs her shoulders. I drop down to Ella's level, trying to convince myself to not take this personally, "El, what's wrong?" She says in the saddest little voice "I want to stay here play outside recess." Her teacher says "OH!" and reminds Ella that the class was having so much fun making their glittery spiders and that it took longer than they thought and so they didn't get recess today. I have to say that made me feel happy because it wasn't a direct insult to me but it also made me sad. I guess she just didn't get why she couldn't have recess, after all it is her very favorite time of the day. It also made me sad that this lack of 10 minutes outside totally threw off her routine and therefore upset her. I convinced her that we would be back at the school a couple hours later for Bubba's soccer practice and we could play then. She said ok but still looked so sad. Poor kiddo. But I am happy to report that today was a fabulous day at school, she had fun and ran to me and hugged me and said "I missed you!" That's all it takes to make me happy!!!