1st Day of School: 2011

Today was Cruise's first day of Autism Preschool at the public school. Last year he was in just the special ed preschool since he didn't have an official diagnosis, but this year he gets to go to the autism preschool which is AWESOME! The best part is he gets the same teacher and same room as last year, so that really eased my preparation. Technically the class runs Monday-Friday, 8am-2:15pm, but since he has his private school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he goes MWF all day and TTh until noon, which then I pick him up and take him to Bridges at Kids On the Move.

I was a little frustrated that it was going to be all day everyday, but after his first day, I am feeling a lot better. That, and I found out that including Cruise, there are only 3 kids in his class. 3 aides and 3 kids...talk about one-on-one!

I read him his social story last night about going to school and getting on the bus, which made him pretty excited. When the alarm went off at 7:15 this morning, I woke him up and said, "You get to go to school today!" He once again was excited.

I got out of bed and heated up a waffle and made him some scrambled eggs with a side of grape juice, but the poor kid was just too excited to eat. He had a few bites, but definitely not as much as he usually consumes in the morning. I read him his social story again, and then got him dressed and gelled.

Gotta take "first day" pictures!

Cruise overcome by excitement as the bus pulls up.

He got onto the bus without any problem and with a big smile! I missed him all day. I kept looking at the clock counting down the hours and had my phone glued to me just in case something happened at school.

When he got off the bus, there he was with a great big smile! I asked how his day was, and as usual I got non-sensical speech with a few words thrown in. So all I knew about his day was..."fun...potty...playdough...bus". So there you have it: Cruise's day. 

After a little snack, Cruise asked for a banana. I handed him a peeled banana and called him monkey, with which he went to the other room, removed his shirt and shoes & socks, and ran outside to climb the tree. Just so you know, Cruise is part monkey and likes to return to his natural habitat after having to conform at school for six hours.

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I later called his teacher and asked her how things went and she responded with a surprising tone of, "He did...great actually." 

He's really excited to go again tomorrow. : )