Murray Update

We are now well into the swing of the school year.  Ella is adjusting and getting better every day.  She still gets nervous in the mornings, but by the afternoon she has a smile on her face and says she had a good day.  Every afternoon I ask her what her favorite part of the day was and every day she says, “Going outside.”  My friends who also have kindergarteners and I have compared notes and we all experience the same thing…we have to pry information out of our children.  I now have Ella tell me her top 5 activities of the day.  By the time she his #3 she’s on a roll.  Her Encore class for the day (either PE, Art, Music or the library) is always one of her top 5.  Recess is always another.

We have now entered the phase of homework.  Each Monday Ella comes home with several worksheets that need to be completed by the following Monday.  She gets 4 worksheets (front and back) so my plan is to do one sheet each night M-Th, then have Friday night and the weekend off.  This week we did pretty well with that plan.  She just has one line of one worksheet to finish up this weekend.  The good news is that usually Ella loves doing her homework.  She is so proud of herself when she finishes the work.  And I have to be honest, there are times that even I’m impressed with how much she knows.

Joe and I are official members of the PTA.  I went to the first PTA meeting last week and have already volunteered my time to work at the upcoming book fair.  I’m not sure how involved I’ll be, but I’m glad to be a part of the group.

We went back last Friday to have Ella’s hemoglobin checked again.  She is now at a 10.  While not as high as it has been, this is still great news and meant she didn’t have to get an IV.  Her veins get another month of rest.  What was encouraging to see was that after her blood check I had planned on taking Ella back to school.  Since we didn’t know what Ella’s day was going to be like, her aide had taken the day off and was unable to come in for the afternoon, so the school had found someone else to help her for the day.  Ella was nervous about being with someone new, so I gave her the choice of either coming home with me to spend the rest of the afternoon, or stay at school and try it out with a new helper.  Let me just say that I was being completely sincere in my offer.  At this point Ella was only going to be in school for 3 hours, it had already been a long day with an important doctor visit, and I honestly didn’t want to put Ella (or myself) through any undue stress.  I wasn’t trying to use reverse psychology on her or anything, I fully intended to let her skip the rest of the day and just hang out with me.  Ella, completely on her own, decided that she needed to be as brave as a princess and try going to school with a new helper.  She said, “Mommy, I think it would be good for me to stay.”  I was so proud of her for making this decision.  It was not an easy one for a girl who likes for things to be predictable.  I really think she wanted to stay and get her Friday prize from the treasure box.

Something I would appreciate prayer on (and this isn't new) is that Ella would start making some friends.  She's still very shy and only responds when others initiate.  Since she's in a new school with all new kids, none of the other kids are really sure how to respond to Ella.  They, obviously, tend to gravitate toward other kids who are outgoing and will play with them, which means that Ella is unintentionally left alone.  I'm not sure if it's all EB related as to why the other kids are hesitant to play with her.  I think there are a lot of factors at play and I just pray that one little girl will initiate contact with her and be willing to look beyond Ella's shyness to be her friend.  I also continue to pray that Ella will come out of her shell even more and start to reach outside of her comfort zone to initiate friendships with other kids.

I still question every single day whether or not sending her to kindergarten was the right decision.  Some days I want to pull her out and home school, other days I want to call the preschool and see if they will take her back, and on other days I want to start looking for a smaller private school.  We have committed to seeing this through so Ella isn't going anywhere in the near future, but I still can't help but wonder if we're doing the right thing.

 

That pretty much hits the highlights of the last few weeks.  If I don’t blog that usually means there’s nothing too exciting going on.  Maybe things will pick up now that the holidays are approaching.