Et ensuite, la petite Z...

Aside from her major meltdown and being sent home from Ecole yesterday at noon (yes, really...apparently she threw her lunch 3 times), "Zelda is blossoming". Those were the words of Madame H. Ever since her latest seizure, she's been chatty, interested, social, silly and overall, happy. Now mind you, Zelda can be an opinionated, willful little pissant. But overall, she's a delight. The therapies seem to be working and Ecole is more than willing to receive her team of specialists into their environment, even when the Braille teacher doesn't speak French. She's even learning to count with an abacus!

Zelda's latest adventure is going to Speech Therapy. Each Monday, Evan drives to Ecole, drops off Creed and then continues on to a nearby elementary school where Zelda meets with Miss Sally and other toddlers for a half hour of speech. At 9am, ma petite puce leaves the classroom with her long white cane, boards the bus, gets strapped into her carseat with the help of a traveling aide and then they drive her back to Ecole. She is the envy of all the students in preschool. Zelda gets to ride a bus by herself! Zelda gets to go to another school! It's all so mysterious - they run up to her and hug her and welcome her...which leads us to another therapy: socialization. Andrea is her TVI - as I've mentioned before. She goes to Ecole 2x/week to work on pre-Braille with Z. On a 3rd afternoon, Andrea works with Zelda and the other kids after school on "How to play with Z". Zelda obviously doesn't have the visual imitation skills of seeing children. Her imaginative play is almost non-existent at this point. Her play tends to be functional: sorting, building, working...As for the other children, they tend to see her as an adorable little doll. They want to do everything for her, sit her on their laps, lead her by the hand. She tolerates it for a bit but is far too independent for that. On play dates, she stays by herself with music or leggos or a puzzle. She is just starting to interact with other kids but only on an as-needed basis. She'll say hello, give a hug or a "bisou: and say their name. She's much better with adults who can direct her play and are patient. The other kids run, move quickly and lose interest. So, Andrea is working on all of this with them. The other day, Andrea had a tea party with the children. She had the other kids close their eyes and pass around the tea cups. They are learning to identify themselves to Z and put things directly into her hands when sharing. Whew...it goes on and on...it will get more difficult as she gets older. Children will become more judgmental and more exclusive as opposed to inclusive. I just hope we can prepare both of our kids with the necessary tools to withstand the socialization process. I just hope we can prepare ourselves.