First day of school!  Check out the photos - too cute.  Don took the morning off and wanted to be a part of it.  Cody was set to go wtih his big boy backpack (stuffed with diapers and wipes)

 Cody gave mommy a big fat smooch and off we went!  His "little boy-hood" diminishing before my eyes!

 The beautiful blonde is his teacher, Ashley.  Cody instantly took to her and she is just his cup of tea!  She's smiley, sunshiney, nice and fun!  She met us at the door to the school with a welcome wagon - literally! 

Once in the class, Cody had his own chair with his photo in front of it - complete with bumpy seat wedge to keep him in place plus a 15 pound sack of rice to put on his lap to weigh him down!  They already know my boy!  and it worked!  He sat all the way through circle time!  Way to go buddy!!!

Cody did really well - he stayed from 8:30 to 11:30.  He had circle time, snack time, playground time, even swing time!  He was never fussy and seemed to really enjoy all the new stuff to explore.  There are only about 5 kids in the class so that's nice.  He's getting used to this morning class and we'll gradually include the afternoon SNAPS class which focuses on autistic behavioral therapy.  I stayed the whole time today so I didn't have the usual 1st day of school blues like most moms where you watch them walk in the door and bawl your eyes out and drive away.  I went in, instead!  It would have been SO much more traumatic if I'd have had to drop him off.  But his teacher is gracious enough to let me hang out for a few days and help the staff discern what's a seizure and what's not - and also to clue them in to Cody's various quirks.  I'm going back tomorrow to do the same.  All in all, it was quite nice and it felt good to get back into the swing of a classroom setting after 2 weeks off!  So it was a good day.  He had about 4 seizures during class but all small ones.  I'm so grateful - I pictured what a crummy deal it would be to have to go through a big seizure on day 1.  But we were spared!  So there's some great news - Cody is officially in pre-pre-school!  :)

Thanks to Ashley, Susan, Carrie, Mary, Kamal, and everyone else who helped make this first day a success. 

love, Shawna