Hooray! Alissa graduated from preschool and is readying for kindergarten---On Time!

Alissa "graduated" from her Audubon preschool and is now officially getting ready for kindergarten.  Hooray!  This is a big deal for her since she has been at Audubon preschool since arriving in the US.  She doesn't really understand that she won't be going back to her preschool where she has been for two years, but she does understand that she gets to go to the pool more since it is summer!  She absolutely loves the pool.  There are so many reasons why we wouldn't expect her to, but she just does.  She has no fear of sticking her head in, trying to swim, hanging out under the water spouts, etc.  Summer Fun!

Technical Transition Information

This summer is her third summer with us and second in the US.  I think we all have the opportunity to actually enjoy the summer and do many fun summer things, since I think she is finally less scared of having fun.  She is also finally starting to show some solid progress on making it past insecure attachment to attachment.  We were at her preschool graduation and she was sitting in her teachers lap (which I told her ahead of time she could do today).  She looked around, got up and came over and got on my lap without anyone asking her to, because she wanted to be with her mom.  I was floored.  This was the first time I saw that sort of behavior.  It wasn't like I was paying attention to another kid or another parent and she was claiming me, she just decided she wanted to be with me.  We are getting there - slowly, but surely.

So I thought my little girl was turning into a girlie girl by insisting on wearing dresses every day to school.  In the end, I realized she had just figured out that if she wore a dress no one could tell if she was peeing in her pants and not the potty.  Yes she is brilliant, but I have no idea why she can't point that brilliance towards using the toilet during the day instead of purposefully figuring out how not to.  At some point I assume she will change her mind.....

Her IEP meeting is tomorrow to determine services for school which from what we hear have been going well (at least from the parents point of view).  We have good support from her preschool coordinator and a school that is open to working with all students so hopefully this will go smoothly.  She will go to the same school as her brother so at least they already know us.