28 Days and Counting

I hope he continues to make me my morning coffee when he's a big tough Kindergartener!

I feel like this entire summer we've been counting down to something: Activations, swim lessons, Tae Kwon Do graduations (HE'S A GOLD BELT NOW!!!), our vacation to Michigan, our vacation to North Carolina....everything.  Christian's been seriously counting down to the start of his lacrosse season and helping Lily figure out when she gets to start ballet again.

Now we're counting down to the start of school. 28 days from today. Which means 28 more consecutive days of anxiety attacks for me. 28 days of me freaking out. I don't think I have the typical "first-time Kindergarten" jitters. He's been in school full-day for 3 years and for all practical purposes, the class he was in last year was a Kindergarten class. He knows how to make new friends, he plays well, he shares, and he's starting to read. Not much to worry about on that front. I have more of the "first-time in a school that he's the only with Cochlear Implants and these teachers have no formal training when it comes to educating my kid" kinda jitters. I thought I was ok, and then BAM. I switched my dry-erase family calendar in the kitchen to August and realized that summer is almost over and this protective little cocoon of easy-breezy days with relatively no worries is just about done.

I am anxiously awaiting not only our teacher assignment but also our itinerant assignment. I'm eager to get into the school and do a little bit of in-servicing. We've really been pushing Christian's newly implanted ear with MANY hours of rehab both with his SLP from The River School and with a county SLP. He's made absolutely astounding progress, but is he at the point where he could actually use that left ear alone in a mainstream public school classroom with NO support....um, probably not. Will we get there soon...I REALLY HOPE SO.

So here I sit...wine in hand, anxious tummy and racing thoughts nesting of sorts. Binders have been purged and re-organized, hand-outs have been printed, and my poor girlfriends have had their fill of my rants about "Omg, is this really happening? Is he really ready? Are we ready?'. I'm thankful I have them, and I know in 28 days they are the ones who will be reminding me to freak out because he's in KINDERGARTEN not because he's the kid with the CIs in the class.