Preschool Girl

First day of school

What is that smile all about?? I could not get a real smile out of her that morning. Maybe she was just too excited about school.

Last week the preschool had a carnival. Cicily got her face painted!

She always wears all of her "daytime gear" to school: hearing aids, glasses, orthotics, and trach and g-tube of course.

Cicily started preschool last month. She goes to a district-run preschool about a mile away from our house. We were pretty sure we only wanted to send her if she could have her own nurse with her in class. However, after meeting all the faculty at this preschool we felt very comfortable sending Cicily without her own nurse. There is a great nurse at school that helps 3 of the children who have trachs. She goes from classroom to classroom to make sure they're safe and don't need suctioning. Cicily's teacher is fabulous!!! She signs to Cicily, sings with the class, is very easy-going and even suctions Cicily's trach! Cicily has physical, occupational, and speech therapy at the school. I love her PT, she's always giving us new suggestions and doing new things to help Cis learn to walk. Cis' OT is one that worked with her when she was one year old, she's been a favorite OT, so we're glad to have her back! And her ST has worked a lot with kids with a hearing loss and I've been impressed with her plans so far.

I went to school with Cis the very first day to make sure everyone was comfortable with the trach and to see it all in action. Everything seemed to go well, so she's been going on her own ever since. She cried when I dropped her off for the first week, but now she goes with no problem. She's always so excited to tell her Daddy about what she did at school when he gets home. We're very glad she likes it and is gaining a lot of new knowledge, social learning, and therapy skills.