Week 1.5 in Review

Wow, it is so hard to know where to begin! The past week and a half has been exhausting, exciting, engaging, emotional, educational and most of all excellent in pretty much every way. There is so much to tell!

So after that first day, with it’s few rough spots, Noa was nearly a rock star on Day 2. I say “nearly” because she really did NOT like morning meeting time. Not sure what it was that bothered her so much, but I’m guessing it had something to do with sitting in a chair without a desk in front of it. If you have a desk you can be sure there will be something to do; even if it’s only to bang on the desk. But with no desk… you may have to sit patiently and listen. Not Noa’s favorite activity. She was furious – screaming, jumping up and down, hitting herself, hitting whoever was near her. She was so angry that she actually managed to topple her poor teacher right out of her chair (and herself as well). Luckily the teachers at Perkins have seen it all and she wasn’t too phased. It’d been a long time since I’d seen Noa that mad – and she’s much bigger and stronger than she used to be back in the old tantrum days.

But the teacher was great. She stayed calm and insisted that Noa at least sit down, say hello, and touch the cue with her name on it. The rest of the day though… Noa was a rock star. I stayed with her all day again, though I tried to fade back as much as I could. A couple of high-lights: going to audiology and discovering that the therapists had Noa’s favorite sound machine toy, and then spending half an hour on the swings in the sensory gym. Noa ate the school’s lunch – Tacos, which they pureed for her – and then learned how to clear her dishes and take them into the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher.

Ben, in the meantime, was madly making calls and appointments for us to look at apartments on Friday.

Friday morning, Noa was very excited when we told her it was time to go to Perkins – she couldn’t wait to get up and get going. When we got to school, the teacher said she had a plan to get Noa through morning meeting.

She started off just chilling with Noa, putting lotion on a her hands (which Noa loves) and then she showed Noa a box and asked her if she wanted to see what was inside. Noa said yes. The teacher told Noa they would open the box at Morning Meeting and asked her if she wanted to go. Noa said yes again. When they got to morning meeting she started with the hysteria again. The teacher calmly told Noa she had to at least say hello and feel the cue with her name and then they could open the box. Angrily and with plenty of complaining Noa did as she was asked. When she finally got to open the box her swim suit was inside (since they were going swimming that day). Noa picked it up, ready to toss it in the teacher’s face… recognized the fabric, smelled it, figured it out and the next thing you know she was jumping for joy saying “stand up stand up stand up – pants finished!”

We could see all was fine, so Ben and I went off to look at apartments and there hasn’t been a problem with Morning meeting since! Aunt Pate and her crew – now living in Acton (about 40 minutes away) featured large in our weekend plans with Aunt Pate and cousin Abby coming over to hang with Noa while Ben and I looked at some more apartments, and Sunday we went out to Pate’s where Ben and I did laundry while Noa played a game of throw the blocks with Cousin Aidan and one of his friends (which was a big thrill). When we put Noa down for a nap in Pate’s room she took the opportunity to overturn Pate’s laundry basket and throw her clean laundry all over the place.