First Day of School for Bellamy
Bellamy starts school today, a little more than a week after she turned 3 years old. This is a picture of me saying goodbye as we have a bit (read "a lot") of separation anxiety even when I leave the room, so we felt it best for Mom to take her alone. Bellamy is entering the program for kids with Autism in the Clark County School District. She'll be going from 9 AM until 3 PM, 5 days a week. My wife talked to the mother of a child that went through the program and now he's a "typical" kid (by standardized tests) that is actually in my 7 year old daughters class. You'd never guess that when he started the program he was diagnosed with Autism and had zero speech. We will also continue with the private occupational, behavioral, and speech therapies that we've been doing since about March. She's going to be one busy 3 year old.
We are hopeful, excited, and scared all at the same time. We've seen great progress over the last 6 month, and can't wait to see how she will grow. Maybe in a couple years you'll be reading this blog and the topic will be about coaching her soccer team and how she scored her first goal. Fingers crossed!
Such a great photo of the two of you. :-)
Posted by ditucci on September 24, 2008 at 10:46 AM PDT #
Awesome, I pray that all goes well for Bell and you all.
dl
Posted by Dan Lacher on September 24, 2008 at 10:46 AM PDT #
Go Bellamy! Enjoy your first day of school and know that people all around the world are cheering for you! :)
ThinGuy I'm looking forward to that post 2 years from now. I really believe you're going to write it.
Posted by melanie gao on September 24, 2008 at 05:07 PM PDT #
Hello,
This is my first time on your blog and I am glad to be here.
Your daughter is a treasure and enjoy her. What a cutie. And
I can see the joy in your eyes too:)
Posted by Carmen Vj on September 25, 2008 at 11:26 PM PDT #
Nice Pic!
I hope it all went well...
Posted by David Lewis on September 30, 2008 at 11:59 AM PDT #
I get separation anxiety just going to work for the day, so I can't imagine what sending her off to school would be like. Great news tho!
Posted by rama on October 01, 2008 at 04:07 PM PDT #
I've read the last few entries about your daughter, Bellamy, how adorable!! My son was recently diagnosed with autism. We live in Las Vegas, and early intervention wants him to start the preschool program as well. I just have a million questions for you and your wife!! We have a final evaluation on Wed Nov 5, and I guess that will be the day we decided where he will go to school. I always thought my son was different, but just never thought it was autism. I can sympathize with the "freakouts", that's what I call them. If you guys have time to shoot me an email, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm glad to hear that your interventions are working. We were also reassured that it is possible for our son to be in a "normal" 1st grade classroom. But we want to take it one step at a time...
Posted by Rachel on November 01, 2008 at 02:18 PM PDT #