here it is

I'm choosing to write this so many years from now when my son is ridiculously successful we can have a good laugh.  And because 2012 is a day away and I want to focus on the future and all the awesome things it has in store for us.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about one really horrible day but didn't go into any detail.  Well, here it is.  The Mayor was kicked out of preschool.

This school year has not been a very good one for The Mayor.  It has been a combination of many factors.  He is a little bored (academically) at school; he has some speech issues (nothing serious.  He has a great vocabulary and a lot to say but doesn't know how to articulate verbally what he is feeling.  His brain goes faster than his mouth and when he can't verbalize why he is upset, he gets frustrated and acts out the only way he knows how - emotionally); he has a teacher who although is extremely experienced, is extremely type A and not flexible.

Let's be honest, The Mayor is not in preschool so he can get into Stanford early.  He is in preschool for the social aspect.  The letters, Spanish, writing, etc is all gravy.  I want him to learn how to socialize and take instruction from someone other than me and D.  I want him to be able to be creative and free to be a 4 year old boy.  His teacher was very sweet but prided herself on keeping a really clean classroom instead of letting them play outside.  She prided herself on doing 4 worksheets, each sheet having the child trace the letter 'M' instead of finger painting.  Not a great combination for the very creative and free spirited Mayor.  But that was ok.  I had a couple of conferences with his teacher and the preschool director on ways we could try to make this school year successful for him and the teachers.  After all, at some point in all of our lives, we end up having a teacher we don't love, or working for a boss we can't stand...but you just can't quit.  You need to learn to adapt and work through it.  So I didn't want to pull him from the class (or the school) without giving it a try.

About a month ago, I started doing some research and talking to some experts/doctors and realized The Mayor has sensory issues.  Little things are what triggered me to look into this: he would cover his ears and became very sensitive to sounds; he started gagging on foods because he was bothered by the textures; he was regressing in his behavior, his tantrums were almost like a 2 year old instead of a 4 year old.

I took him to his pediatrician to have anything medically ruled out.  After all, it could have been an ear infection causing his ears to be sensitive or strep throat causing him to gag on food.  Everything came back negative...he is perfectly healthy.  We left the pediatrician with a referral to have The Mayor evaluated by an Occupational Therapist.

Last week he had a 2 hour evaluation with an Occupational Therapist (OT) and 2 days ago he and D went for an hour session to finish the evaluation.  Starting Monday, he will go every Monday for one hour therapy sessions.

The FANTASTIC news is all of his sensory issues (and there are quite a few...fine motor and gross motor) he should outgrow.  So with maturity and therapy, most of these issues should fall by the wayside.

The SAD news is his school misses out on having the opportunity of being with my wonderfully and amazingly sweet boy.  Their loss.

I cried my eyes out for days after he was kicked out of school.  (They said he could finish out the month of December - I didn't send him except on the last day for his school party.  And I was in the class the entire time).  Then I became angry.  Because I was completely blind-sided by this decision.  The last conference/meeting we had was the first week of November.  I NEVER got a phone call or email from the teacher or director in the month and a half that followed.  Wouldn't you think a parent would get a phone call or email if their son was on the brink of being kicked out of a preschool?

But now I am happy.  I am happy he is out of that environment.  After some conversations with other parents and his OT, him being in that classroom was not a good thing for him.  The Mayor will come out of this an even better kid than he already is.  I am happy we caught all of this so early.  Had he not been in this class, we may not have noticed all of these issues until he was in kindergarten (or later).  I would much rather find these issues now and work on them now so when he is in kindergarten he can thrive and be successful.

Our game plan is keep him out of preschool for about a month or two to just focus on his therapy (OT and speech).  In the meantime, we will interview potential preschools for a good fit and enroll him for next year (which will be his PreK year).  Once he has been in therapy for awhile, then we will enroll him a couple of days a week in his new preschool so he can get back into a structured environment.  After all, that is where he is going to learn and be able to implement what he is learning in therapy.

I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, I am going to have one HUGE, MASSIVE ulcer by the time my kids are out of college.

But I love those monkeys with every fiber of my being.  So bring on the ulcer.