Dandelion Days: Day 2 of School, Dinosaurs, Pumpkins and Freak-Outs!

On Thursday night (September 6th), Garry sent me a text to come down to the backyard at around midnight. When I walked outside, all I saw were his feet sticking out from under some bushes..which is weird even for him. It turns out that he had cornered a cute little hedgehog in a tree and it was all curled up to avoid him. So I ran to get my camera and I too crawled under the bushes....at midnight...to see the little guy. I didn't get a very good picture but Garry did pet it. I am surprised it didn't turn around and bite him. He gets bitten by weird stuff like badgers and otters, so I guess a hedgehog is too mainstream for him.

Day two of Jack's school seemed to go well. I dropped him off and came home to unpack. Haha, just kidding -- I totally came home to take a nap! I slept for an hour and a half with my ear practically on the phone but it never rang and I got up and unpacked my room for the rest of the day. I had to take his old IEP to the school and take his albuterol and doctor's note to the nurse's office, so I got to the school pretty early and was able to look around a bit. That place is INCREDIBLE. It all looks brand new, has tall ceilings and lots of natural light and all of the latests gadgets and gizmos. The nurse's office looks like a cheerful Children's Hospital and the OT rooms are giant and filled with special toys and blocks and equipment. I am really happy that he is going to school there.

I walked to the classroom to pick him up and ended up talking to his teacher for a long time. She is a hoot! She said he only had one little issue and it happened in art class (the kids actually go to REAL art and music and PE classes!). Apparently, the art teacher wrote Jack's teacher's initials on his paper without explaining to him why she did it and he FLIPPED OUT because she "defiled his artwork"!!! LOL, his teacher explained what the initals were and she said Jack went from furious to completely okay with it. I love that she stays calm and talks to him in a way that he can understand. I am positive that he is going to have really great days and really bad days but this seemed like a good indication of a middle of the road day. She also said that Jackson LOVED doing mosaic artwork of his name and he spent over an hour placing the pieces just so and was very happy to be doing that. She showed me the name and it looked wonderful! He did such a good job. I think he will be just fine there.

His Day 2 outfit below:

I bought him some ice cream after we left and we went home and played outside until bedtime. He rode down the hill, played in his house, rode his scooter, played with marbles and added things to his collection of things that he finds in the backyard and thinks he should save. He has pinecones, marbles, snail shells, leaves and sticks in there, along with a few beads he found. It is a very boyish collection for sure.

Today is Saturday and we decided to take Jack to the DinoPark in Kaiserslautern. It was pretty warm and that made Jack act wilder than he has acted in a while. We had a lot of fun looking at the dinos and "Rapunzel's Tower" and the pumpkin sculptures until he had a freak out and we had to leave. And OH BOY did he ever freak the heck out! We had to walk a long way back to the car and Garry had to actually carry him while he screamed and fought. And guess what he decided to start hollering as we were approaching the car:

"YOU ARE NOT MY MOMMY AND DADDY!!! YOU ARE STRANGERS!!!"

Oh.My.God.Yes.He.Did.

I have no idea why he decided to do that but I am honestly so surprised that no one tried to stop us and make sure we weren't kidnapping him, especially since he was fighting so hard. As punishment for that little stunt, he lost his DS for good and had to spend the rest of the night in his bedroom before he went to sleep (only an hour and half but still...). But..here's the thing: as soon as he got in his bedroom, I took his shoes and socks and shorts off of him and turned on his fan and he was just fine. He calmed down and played mostly happily in his room until he went to bed and it has me wondering if his sensory issues are aggrivated by the heat. He has ALWAYS reacted negatively to being too warm and I thought he just took after me because I enjoy being cool/cold and hate being hot but I wonder if it is more than that. That is something I intend on bringing up with his developmental pediatrician when I see him/her in the next few weeks.

Anyway, we did have a lot of fun before the freak out and here are the happy pictures.