Monday 20 March 2017

21st of Trisomy 2017

Golly! It's our fifth 21st of Trisomy with Jacinta in the family.

I find it amusing that my attitude to the whole business changes with each passing year, as my perspective changes.

The first year I didn't even know it was on and the next year she had leukaemia, so I didn't care. Then the next year I blogged early, then I think last year I actually blogged on time! So here I am, theoretically blogging on time, though it's still early in the day and anything might happen between here and the next paragraph to throw me off course until tomorrow.

So instead of waxing lyrical about some very important and serious topic, which I actually started to do and then deleted the whole thing,  I'm going to share my favourite two videos which were made just for today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VV3C_ydak

This one features teens with T21 showing you, graphically, what exactly a Trisomy of the 21st chromosome is.   Highly enjoyable and informative, if slightly disturbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNMJaXuFuWQ

And this one is the super cool video that just cannot be explained. Not so much informative as hilarious.


Monday 13 March 2017

So, how's kinder going?

Now that's a question!

It finally arrived. The day was finally here. Jacinta was starting kinder/preschooll!

Up until the day before she would answer 'yes' to being excited about it. The night before, we started to get some shaking of the head, some 'nooo', and on the morning itself, she was slightly inconsolable. (Because, no, inconsolable is not an absolute....)

The subject of kinder was banned, by an emphatic 'no' and a face palm any time it was mentioned - by anyone, all day - which is a tricky situation when everyone you see knows it was your first day and wants to know how it went!

I really did want to get that shot of the kinder kid with her bag on, leaving house - or entering kinder, hell, even leaving kinder - anything! She pretty much refused to touch her bag the entire time. There was one moment when her hands did make contact with it, when she put it in her locker. It was such a quick moment, I got this photo....

All done!

So from then it was fine. She washed her hands, went to the painting easels, put on a smock, did her first masterpiece, then happily said goodbye to me.


Unfortunately about half a dozen other kids were all going off at once, crying inconsolably (an absolute, in this instance), so when she had the wavering bottom lip as I neared the door, she lost it. I waved her goodbye through the window, as I had done with my middlest, but it didn't do the trick.

An hour later when I was having coffee with another mum whose son was also there, I noticed I had just missed a call asking me to come back because she'd been crying the whole time. I called straight back only to be told she'd now cried herself to sleep (awesome) so we decided I'd wait on call and see how it went. It was only another hour til pickup.

When I arrived back she was still in the arms of an educator but not crying, so that was something.
Here is she ready to leave.....
AKA running for the door....
The next couple of weeks were less upsetting each time. She was still upset at me leaving, but got used to it more and more quickly.
Then the next week the educators decided to begin the day outside - and everything changed!
Straight out, hat on, 'bye Mum', no tears, and off I went. Two weeks of that and it appears we're all settled in. Time will only tell.

So she's loving the arts and crafts and the home corner. No surprises there.  By all reports she is doing what all the other kids do - most of the time. She has been caught trying to let herself outside to the playground once or twice (no surprises there either), but has come back to the group without much fuss. She knows the routine, comes in, puts her lunchbox and drink bottle on the trolley, puts her bag in her locker (I was impressed that she remembered the number and/or the picture on hers without any prompting), uses the toilet, washes her hands and off she goes. At the end of the day she goes off and gets her bag - and anything that's fallen out of it - and brings it back to me which helps reduce the crowd around the bags.

And with friendships, I guess we'll see. Only a few of the kids are actually talking to each other from what I've seen so far, so we'll see how it all goes.

And, you'll be pleased to know, I did get that picture - eventually!