Christmas Program

Last night was Claire's daycare Christmas Program.  The kids had been practicing their songs and motions for weeks.  While I wasn't sure what songs they were singing, I knew she'd learned the motions...when we would sing songs at home she would start doing things that really didn't go with Wheels on the Bus!

We were running late (as usual) and when we got to the program location it was *packed*. There were at least a hundred people there with parents, grandparents and siblings.  All of the kids were lining up behind a screen so they could all walk out together.  Morning drop-offs have been going well, but I wasn't sure how Claire would do with all of the people there.

I shouldn't have worried.  She took her teacher's hand and went off to line up with her friends.

Since we were late we were standing in a back corner.  I knew it was going to be hard to see any of the kids, and was hoping for just a glimpse of Claire.  When she came in, she lined up on our side, right in front.  I was able to sneak up the side and kneel in front to see her.

(I had my crappy camera with me, so the pictures are terrible, but they are also too cute not to share)

She made it through a few minutes of the jingle bells song before she wandered off to start shaking hands with the people in the front row.

She bounced back and forth between her classmates, the front row of parents and me (once she spotted me on the edge of the room), but I was so proud of her!

This was the best picture of the girls, but Darren was being grumpy, so he got cropped!

The IEP

Last week was the first of many IEP meetings we will have for Claire in the years to come.  While not really excited about it, I wasn't dreading it either.  Our district preschool is inclusive, and the teacher Claire was placed with had a student with Down syndrome in her class for the last two years.  While every child is different, it's so nice that J (Claire's teacher) is at least familiar with Ds.

Since many of the providers haven't met Claire, I prepared a packet with some additional info on her, how she communicates, and her likes and dislikes.  It also included some general info on Down syndrome and some communication strategies.  The packet I used also included a spot for a photo, which I love as it helps remind everyone that all of this is for *Claire*.

Claire's services in school will be 30 minutes a week each of ST, OT and sign language support.

After the IEP meeting we walked through Claire's classroom to make sure that all places in it were accessible to her, and picked out her cubby.  There is a little person in Claire's class so we were easily able to find a chair and coat hook that will fit her!

Today we finish her behavior support plan, next week is her home visit with her teachers, and the week after that she starts school!

Toddler Bed Transition

It was time to do it.  It had been for a while actually, but I kept putting it off.  Claire's bed time routine was so easy and perfect that I hated to do anything that might have messed it up.  We would have dinner, a bath, a little football to wind down...and then we would head down stairs.  A book or two, a kiss and we'd lay Claire in her crib, say goodnight and walk out the door.

Easy.  No tears, no drama.

There was a possibility we might be moving (we aren't now), and once that excuse was gone, I no longer had a reason *not* to put Claire in her toddler bed.

We were home this weekend, and it seemed like as good a time as any to give this toddler bed thing a try.  Claire fell asleep for her nap, and we laid her in the bed to sleep.  No problems, but she didn't actually fall asleep in the bed.

Saturday night was her first night in the bed.  I decided that if we had an awful night of sleep at least we didn't have anything that had to happen on Sunday.  We ran through our normal routine, except we sat in Claire's new room for her book.  Darren laid her in bed, covered her up, kissed her, walked out of the room....

....and nothing.

No crying or fussing.  No getting up.  She fell asleep without even moving.

I kind of thought it was a fluke.  It couldn't really be this easy, could it?

The next two nights I took her to bed, and once again, no problems.  I had to flop her around once so that she wasn't hanging of the bed before I went to sleep, but that was it.

Last night was a little rougher.  Not the getting to sleep, but the middle of the night.  She woke up fussing, and I let her work it out a bit before I went down stairs.  I sat with her for a few minutes, then told her to go back to sleep, and she did.  A couple of hours later she was fussing again, and this time I found her on the floor next to the bed.  I helped her back in bed, got her covered, and she went back to sleep.

This morning I never heard her, so I went down to check and as soon as I turned on the light in the hallway she sat up in bed and said Hi Mommy!  She has a gate on her doorway (I didn't want her to try to go upstairs if she was half asleep), but she doesn't even get up from bed in the mornings.

She's done so wonderfully with the change that it makes me wonder what I was even worried about!