Wednesday 7/3, right before the holiday 4th of July, was William’s last day of summer school at Martin Elementary school. Nothing specially happened on this day, but I took a few pictures of him anyway.
We bought the teachers some sweet treats (fruit tarts from 85 Degree Bakery) on Tuesday as a thank you for their hard work.
“I want to scratch!” is the phrase that William has been using every day for a few months now. He loves to be massaged/scratched on his back. In the morning, in order to get him out of bed, i have to scratch on his back; and few more times before heading to school; and then few more times at night too. I’d count from 1 to 3; and often time he would ask “I want scratch so many times!”, which simply means he wants more.
Why do you want to scratch? – Because it hurts!
But it’s not really because he’s hurt, he just feels itchy.
We always apply lotion all over his face & body after shower; in the morning after washing his face, I’d put more lotion on the itchy areas but he still scratches here and there. Some day is better than the other days. Like today, the teacher said he was scratching all over his body so she took him to the nurse to put on some hydrocortisone cream.
12:10 PM. Picked William at Martin school and while we were sitting in the car as usual; Ms. Birdie saw us and waved to us, then she came up to our car.
I rolled down the window, she said “He’s been very good!”. I was so happy to hear that.
From my observation, Ms. Birdie is a tough teacher, who enforces the rules very good. William has to say “No, thank you!” not “Uh uh” or has to ask nicely instead of just taking the things from my hands.
She’s exactly the teacher that I want William to be with!
Thanks Ms. Birdie for your hard work.
Thursday 8:00 AM.
We only had 3 days of break before the Summer School starts at Martin Elementary School. The summer hour is 8:00 AM – 12:15 PM, about 45 minutes shorter than the Spring session at Lincoln school. This Martin school is about 10 minutes driving from our home.
William woke up around 2:30 AM this morning because he peed in his diaper and wanted me to take off his diaper. I gave him another bottle of him but it took awhile for him to get back to sleep. “I want to scratch”, his usual request to massage/scratch his back every day. I put some oil on the bottom of his feet, on his belly and back and then message his back. I think the mild hot feeling from the oil helped to put him back to sleep faster.
Then I cut his finger nails. He’s 5 years old but still refuses to let me cut his nails so I have to wait until he sleeps to do so.
Then I cut his finger nails. He’s 5 years old but still refuses to let me cut his nails so I have to wait until he sleeps to do so.
Both of us did not have a good straight sleep so we both were very sleepy to wake up to go to school. But as soon as I washed his face, he was so ready to go to school.
His room is 11, with Mrs. Chavez, Ms. Birdie and Ms. Anna.
We were late, 8:15 AM. I dropped him off at the gate with 1 of the teachers from the special ed classes; then I walked to the office to drop off William’s medicine with the nurse. She said the forms are expired so I need to get the doctor signs the form again. “The forms are expired after 1 year”; she checked the date that the doctor signed on the forms that I gave her. “This was signed on 6/2/2018 so it’s expired already!”. His Epi-pen will expire on 7/2019 so I would need to get the doctor’s prescription to get the new one. So a trip to doctor’s office a a must!
Monday morning 8:00 AM. Dropped William off on time. He started to scratch him eyes again, I put some Aquaphor cream on his eyes. There was only Ms. De Leon and the teacher aid that were receiving all the classmates at the gate so they were busy holding hands of other children while waiting for other childen. William sat on the ground with both hands touching the ground, and the teachers did not seem to notice. Few minutes later when they started to walk, that’s when William stood up and walked with the group, I guess to the cafeteria.
11:00 AM, got a call from Mrs. Gloria from school, saying William was scratching his eyes so bad that she gave him a dose of Benadryl. She called to let me know that.
11:52 AM, got another call from Mrs. De Leon while I was driving to school, saying his eyes didn’t get better. I told her I was on the way.
He looked sleepy when I picked him up at his class. When we got home, he laid on my thigh several times. So I cancelled his Speech therapy session at 1:30 PM.
Not sure what’ s going on with his eyes but he’s been scratching his eyes for the last few weeks. Some days it’s worse, some days it’s better. But his left eye lid always look swollen and red.
Friday Morning; it’s the last day of 3rd week. Mrs. Birdie said he had fun playing with water today.
Monday morning 8:00 AM. It’s 3rd week of Summer School already. William seems to be fine with everything. When we approached Mrs. Birdie, he reached out for her hands immediately and turned around and waved Bye to me.
Thursday Morning 8:00 AM.
I was informed by school yesterday that William will be moved to a new class room #49 with a new teacher today, with Ms. DeLeon; Mrs. Newman Heather ‘s class will be closed and she will no longer teach summer (it’s understandable because her class only has 3 students). However Mrs. Birdie will go with William to new class.
So after I sent him in with Mrs. Birdie, I went to the office to get the pass to check out his new classroom and say hi to his new teacher.
Knocked on the room #49 3 times, no one answered so I attempted to open it. It was locked!
So I looked around, he was not out there at the pick up location with Mrs. Birdie, he was not there at the seating area where children were having breakfast. Then finally I found him standing in line at the cafeteria holding his breakfast tray that was full of food ! Ms. De Leon were there so I approached her and said hi; she’s a very young lady, I think about the same age as Mrs. Hana from Mitchell.
Then everyone walked to their classroom with their breakfast trays. I’m so surprised that William did follow thru, walked in line with the breakfast tray in his hands without any frustrated signs. I was like “Wow, how did he cope with the new changes? At Mitchell school, breakfast was brought to them!”
I’m just simply happy that he seems fine for that past week, despite all the new changes that he has to follow.
Tuesday Morning. It’s 2nd week of summer school already. This morning when I washed his face and told him that we were going to school; he said “Gary” (what he meant is Children’s World Preschool, where Mr. Gary is the director).
– School first, and then we go to Gary after lunch! – he seemed to be upset a bit; tears came to his eyes. “Gary after lunch OK William?” I said it again.
After that he was fine. When I dropped him off and handed his hand to Mrs. Newman, he turned to me and said Good Bye; and then walked with her.
After 2 weeks of break, William goes back to summer school at Martin Elementary school in Santa Ana for 1 month (6/11 – 7/6/2018). The school is big, we did not know where William’s classroom is; all we know is that he’s with Mrs. Newman Heather, who we met at the IEP meeting at Mitchell Child Development Center a month ago; so we went to the school office which requires some walking from the parking lot. William held my hand and walked nicely. He did not cry or show sign of afraid of the new school.
William’s classroom is room 22, which is not that far from office, but walking to the back door where the parking lot is, and also where we’d drop off and pick up him everyday, is a little bit far, but looks like William is ok with that. The classroom is big, almost as twice as the one at Mitchell school but it’s not clean: the carpet, tables and chairs look old and dirty. I’m just hoping that William won’t get sick or get allergy reactions.
There’s only 5 boys (including William) in the class with Mrs. Newman Heather and 2 other female assistants. Mrs. Newman said she had not had girls in her class for the last 9 years!
First day at the new school went well; “he ate a few bites of pizza” for lunch. I waited for him in front of his classroom; he was so happy to see me, held my hand and walked with me and the rest of the class to the parking lot where the drop off location is.
The school has a nice size of parking lot which so far I don’t see any problem of finding a available space to park, unlike Mitchell school. There are lots of school buses so I guess most students use the school buses because I don’t see that many parents drop off or pick up their children; which may explain why the parking lot is not too crowded.
The class starts at 8:00 and ends at 12:00 PM, so I need to leave work around 11:45 PM to pick him up. As usual, I’d bring him juice and corn dog in case he’s hungry and let him eat in the car. We’d leave the parking lot around 12:30 PM for Children’s World Preschool. So the routine is not changed, it’s just the time that changed; and it’s a little bit farther going from Martin elementary school to Children’s World preschool than from Mitchell to preschool; but summer school is only 1 month so I think I can handle that.
