From Special to Octopus in a day

In Sister's class the kids who have birthdays in the summer months get to celebrate their birthdays on "special days" during the school year. This' was Sister's Special Day and she was so excited.

She was so excited and anxious to tell everyone about her favorite things. Here Miss Charlotte is helping her tell about herself in front of her class. (I love seeing Sister's "nervously happy" hands in this picture.

This grin, basically, sums up her whole day.

Then she got to pass our her treats and coloring pages. (That's Baby off to the left... she was happy to share the day with her.)

I wanted a fun activity for the kids to do in class so I asked my sister, Jessie to draw up this characature of Sister for a coloring page. I added some words to it and emailed it to the teacher and they got them all printed up. Sister was so proud and excited that everyone was coloring pictures of her.

Sister even got to go into her "inclusion" class (inclusion is where she goes in with her mainstream peers) and pass out her treats and coloring pages to them. It was really fun for me to see this class because I haven't really seen her interaction with these kids and it was so sweet and endearing to see the love they all have for Sister. The teacher even had the whole class draw pictures for Sister and sent it home with her in a book. So sweet!

It was such a fun experience for me to see Sister being so confident in both of her classes, to see how much she is doing on her own and how smart she is.

It is so wonderful to have times like these that make the hard times easier because it wasn't long after this that in the tub she had a complete and total fall-apart when I washed her hair.

She had decided that her wet hair looked like an octopus. I thought that was funny.... she didn't. The world ended right then, and there was no consoling the octopus-haired girl. She was melting down and there was no brushing, drying, pony-tailing or braiding the "octopus do." It had been done and there was no going back.

So, through tears, flailing, and top-of-the-lungs-screaming I was able to get her dressed and wrapped in a blanket for a good rock in the rocking chair. It took about 15 minutes, but her screaming finally subsided down to a loud whimper and we were able to move forward.

Lessons learned:

Every girl needs a "Special Day" every so often

AND

Don't ever laugh when a girl has an octopus hair day