School Has Started!

Maile and Nadia on the first day of school.

Alas school has started. I am so sad to see summer go, but there is something about the fresh smell of new crayons at Wal-Mart that gets me excited every fall. The Houston girls are all at new schools this year. I am teaching life skills at a middle school that is only 6 miles from my home. I am so happy to have left Fort Worth Independent School District behind! I love where I am teaching. It is so refreshing to be back in a school with nice people who love what they do. I have six students in my class and two assistants. I could use another assistant! It is a challenging job yet very rewarding.

Maile also started at yet another school this year. Since she is now in first grade, the full day autism program is at another school. There are three students in her class with a teacher and two assistants. I don't even want to think about how much it is costing to educate her. I am just so thankful that we live in a country that sees the value of educating ALL children.



Maile with her teacher and her assistant in the background.

Maile seems to be enjoying school. They are really working on potty training. She is making it through the day with only one accident. Go Maile, and GO TEACHERS!

After we survived the start of Maile going to school full time for the first time, it was time to get Nadia off to pre-school. We had an open house one night while Keith was at school. That meant that I would have to do it alone. I am not usually brave enough to take both of the girls anywhere by my self! To make matters even more exciting, I forgot to tell Keith to get Maile's stroller out of his car for me so he left for school and I had no stroller. So now I am taking two girls to an open house with no stroller and a toddler that refused to take a nap that day. To say the least I put on a lot of deodorant before I left! I bribed Nadia (Yes! I said bribed.) with promises of ice cream if she would behave herself. She did, we survived open house and I was exhausted so we went to a drive through, I got dinner for me and and ice cream for Nadia. I handed Nadia the ice cream cone and realized she had never had an ice cream cone before. She did not know what to do with it. Mind you she has eaten lots of ice cream, just never in a cone. It was all very cute. The next night, Keith decided to be really brave and get both the girls cones. We had never given Maile a cone either. They both loved their ice cream. Nadia keeps asking for more ice cream cones. Maile is still a little toot about eating, but as you can see from the pictures, she had no problem with the ice cream!






Lastly, Nadia's first day of pre-school arrived. I was very excited for her to go. In some ways I think it is crazy to send your baby off to school at such a young age. For Nadia, I think she really needs some play time with "typical" children. She loves nursery at church, but it is not enough. She needs to be around kids that will play with her. When she tries to play with Maile, she turns her back on Nadia. So, long story short off she went. I was worried that she might cry when Keith dropped her off. No way! She had so much fun at the open house that she was ready to go! She has only been two days but she loves it! Today when we were getting ready for church I asked her if she wanted to go to nursery and she said "No, new school." Very cute. Here is a picture of Nadia at the end of her first day of school. Gotta love the hair!