Susanna's First Day

Last Thursday was Susanna's first day at Special Kids and Families! We fell in love with this program when Madeline was 18 months old. We always say, "Le Bonheur saved her life, but Special Kids and Families improved the quality of her life." Truly, it did. She had never been to a Mother's Day Out program, had very few babysitters and was really sad to be away from me. Most programs wouldn't take her with a feeding tube and were full day - we really didn't want a program that long, and with a feeding tube, what would she do for lunch at a full day program? I knew Special Kids existed from when I used to teach Special Ed; some of my students had gone through it. We decided to try it. It made all the difference in transitioning Madeline to being away from me for a few hours, me feeling comfortable leaving her with an educated (about health concerns), nurturing and intentional staff, and just the overall feeling of normalcy.

We, of course, wanted Eli to go there, too. He loved it and did great! We are sad when the 3rd birthday rolls around, in a way, because that's when they "age out" of Special Kids and have to go to another preschool!

So, now here we are with our third child to go through the program!

Here she is all packed and ready!

She went right up to the door - so excited to go in!

Could not even stop to take her coat off before she started playing!

With our wonderful teacher, Ms. Linda (Madeline and Eli had her, too!). What an amazing feeling to leave her with no crying and just know that she is going to be happy, learn so much and be well cared for!

I said "goodbye" to her, and it was like no big deal - she did great! What a happy first day!

Here's a funny video I took a while ago. Since this is my Susanna post, I wanted to include it!

Happy Monday!