Back to School Night 2019
(August 2019) Payton had back to school night for the 2019-2020 school year. Once we got closer to the doors she recognized where we were and she got really excited. She absolutely loves school which has been a complete blessing. Once we got inside, her teacher took her picture to put on the wall of student pics. Then like a magnet both our girls were right over at the play kitchen set. Payton was just roaming around like summer hadn’t even happened. You could tell she was completely at ease in her classroom. Our meeting with her teacher was easy and painless. She’s great with Payton and really helps turn down our worries. Now comes the dreaded departure. This is almost always a struggle. Payton is having a ball; and she definitely hasn’t had her fill. We set the timer on our phone for ten minutes. As usual Payton says “ok ok.” It’s her way of letting us know she gets the drill; but she’s not happy about it. It’s actually really cute. We are planning our escape route there is a door that leads to the outside off the preschool room perfect we are going that way instead of down the hallway. Timer goes off and it’s moment of truth time. SHOCKED she walks right out the door with us! Success!
Now we’re walking out and we run into her friend from last year. Her friend has been a blessing to us. She always seeks out Payton to play with and help no matter what Payton’s mood is. This little clearly loves Payton despite her difference from most of her other classmates. It warms our hearts. Both girls run up and give each other hugs. Her mom was telling us how all J, that’s what we’ll call her for the purpose of the blog, could talk about all night was wanting to go down to the preschool room to see if Payton is there. You see J moved on to Kindergarten. My heart is now a melted gooey glob. To know she was looking for her. Payton even says her name. I looked at the mother and asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to hold her back another year?” I couldn’t help myself. She jokingly replies that she might have to now.
We’re now walking together towards our cars and neither of us have our phones on us. Great now how are we going to get connected again. Payton’s birthday is coming up and I want desperately want to get a birthday invitation to her friend but how? A friend of mine suggest giving it to the teacher and then having her give it to the little girl. Genius! So I do. I get a text message a couple days later from Jaclyn’s mom and she said they will be coming and Jaclyn is so excited! She’s excited I’m ecstatic! I’m crying now because someone accepts Payton for who she is no judgement truly her friend. It’s so hard to not be able to know if Payton has friends, because you can’t ask her. You can’t ask her how her day went or what she did. When you ask her though her face does light up and so you know in some way her day was a good one. Having another child accept your special needs child for who they are is so huge. I would have never known this if I hadn’t volunteered one day last year and witnessed it. Sometimes it’s tough that as parents we don’t have the access to know exactly how her school day went and if she had a good day. I’m sure that’s a universal parent issue; but maybe it’s just part of growing up.