Lucas James Stisher: School Update!

I know everyone is waiting to hear how school is going... its been a little over month and so far its been GREAT! Lucas loves going and gets so excited to see the other kids. As soon as we pull up to the school in the morning, he starts naming them... "Oscar, Joselle, Lucy, Edwin..." So cute! Oscar is his little friend, he's 4 and the most "mature" in the class. He takes care of Lucas and is always getting his chair and sitting next to him. Since Lucas is the only immobile child in the class, Oscar is kind of like his little helper.

His teacher has been fantastic, she's so sweet with him and is always giving Lucas kisses and me a hug when I drop him off. Everyone we've met there has been the same way... warm, sweet, and caring. Of course, he's charmed them all with his constant good mood. I realize how different he is when I drop or pick him up and other kids are acting up and crying. That's never Lucas! A couple weeks after he started, the assistant stopped me and said, "I have to tell you, we are enjoying him SO MUCH!"

Every day they send home a summary of his day, what they sang, what they worked on, what OT/PT did with him, etc. It warms my heart to read reports like, "Lucas held an earthworm today and was very interested, he held it up and looked at it"... (the "looked at it" is important for this type of class!) They are constantly sending home crafts and projects that he "helped" with... for the first time ever, I have refrigerator art! :-)

Our nanny even mentioned to me the other day that this school is unlike any that she's seen in all her years of picking up children from school. She said they are so much more loving and attentive to the kids and she can't believe how much they make a fuss over Lucas. Very unusual for a public school, that's for sure!

He's changing a lot already, its like school made him more alive. He's energetic, more giggly, talking like crazy, and is even more social (as if he could get more social). The best part is when he breaks out in a song that he's learned at school. He doesn't quite have all the language to belt it out completely, but he'll try to sing a few words and hit the notes (sounding again like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals). His latest one is "Head, tummy, knees, & toes". I learned it as "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes," so when he just said it out of the blue one day "head.... tummy... knees... toooeees" I didn't catch it at first. Then I dropped him off the next day and sure enough, they were all singing that song.

The highlight of my day is dropping him off and seeing the other children. The only little girl in the class, Lucy, can make any rough morning turn into a good day. I wrote about her back in January when we looked at the school and how she stood out to us then. She is not able to see much at all, so she has to ask, "who's there?" The first time it happened I said "I'm Lucas' mom." She screamed with excitement in this really high pitched voice "Lucas's Mom!! Lucas's Mom!!... Hiiiii!" Then she followed it up with "give me a high five!" And when I did she yelled, "that was a good one!" So adorable! Another day she was sitting next to an empty chair for Lucas to begin story time. When she learned I was putting Lucas there, she clapped and flapped her arms, "Lucas is sitting next to me!!!" And follows it up with, "Hiiiiii Lucas's Mom!" and leaned in to give me a kiss. So we go through this every day, but she seldom has to ask who I am anymore, she can tell from my voice. Sometimes I'll just feel her arms wrap around my leg to give me a hug as I'm passing Lucas off. I just love her.

Here's a picture of him before school a few weeks ago and with his new backpack.