Peace and Quiet

It's 4 o'clock in the morning and no one else is up in the house but me.  It's kind of nice being in the peace and quiet - it doesn't happen often.  I fell asleep putting the girls to bed (again), and J swears he came in and tried to wake me up.  I vaguely remember this.

I realize it's been three weeks since I last blogged - we have been so busy.  We had our meeting with the care team who evaluated M to discuss her IEP eligibility and without a doubt she qualifies.  So her official IEP will be written on March 31st.  Wow.  It's been 3 years since we first started down this road and it feels so good to finally have an answer.  There are many more things that I still don't have an answer for, but at least having one is something.  The meeting was good - I love her school.  I was composed and tear-free when they were talking about the test results (most of it we already knew and it was consistent with Asperger's), but when the lady from SSD (Special School District for those not in St. Louis), said the thing that impressed her most was what the school was doing for her already without an IEP that they aren't even required to do.  Even though we I already knew this too, I started crying.  It's true - they have been unbelievable in finding ways to help M.  And we know that they love her, and not just because they tell us.  Ever since December, after her suspension (I can't remember if I blogged about that, but probably not), she hasn't had any more incidents.  Just to be clear - the suspension was more about giving the school a couple days to put an emergency schedule in place for M.  A few people I talked to were shocked that they suspended a kindergartner, but the environment was just too chaotic for her.  She spends time one-on-one with different teachers throughout the day and then she's in the classroom with an aid a few times too.  As soon as the IEP is in place, she'll have occupational therapy at school too.  And she's starting to work on reports and projects with the REACH teacher individually.  I think she's doing something on horses.  Have I said how much I love her school? 

What else have I been up to?  I went to visit one of my best friends in NC, which was a gift from J - it was wonderful.  So good to see her since it had been 2 years and because it actually felt like Spring there, which I can't say for St. Louis. Snow.  Seriously.  I am SO sick of snow.  We're supposed to get more this weekend. 

M's birthday party was last weekend and it was so fun to have lots of gigging girls at our house.  She wanted to have stations with different activities so we had necklace making at one, fake tattoos at another, and decorating a little canister that later became their goody bag.  I will post pictures in another post because I just don't want to mess with it right now.  J and I stayed up very late making her cake.  She requested a laptop cake.  Mostly because she asked for a laptop for her birthday and because we told her we couldn't do that, she opted for a cake that looks like one.  That will be the last 3-dimensional cake I ever make.  And I think that fondant is like drywall - a professional should be hired.  Except my husband rocks at drywall - it just takes forever.  But we both failed at fondant.  He was more successful than I was, but it was still 4 a.m. before we went to bed last Friday night.  And we started making the cake on Wednesday night by cutting out the keyboard.  Thursday we baked and Friday we decorated.  I'll post pictures next time - I'm too tired.

Speaking of being exhausted after not getting enough sleep, I think I should go crawl into bed.  Goodnight.