Summer & School!

Summer has whizzed past and I seem to have blinked and most of September has gone by!  I have tons of pics of the fun we had over the holidays and here are a few :)

All dressed up as the crazy doctor and nurse for their Little Rocker's Hospital Dress up Party! They both won prizes for their costumes so were very happy (as was Mummy!)

Caitlin was determined to get up this hill and she got there in the end!

Messy play...it got a bit too messy for my liking....

The zoo! Caitlin didn't want a photo lol

The beach with the family :)

Sleepover with her pal Alexa :)

Caitlin the Jockey!  She's so comfortable and happy on horses, a country girl at heart :)

                                                                       Sailing!

It was such a great summer and I wish it could have stayed longer!  I start back to university next week - I have no idea how I will fit it in but I think it's kinda cool that myself and Caitlin will both be getting homework now!  I can't quite believe she has started primary school, a big P1.

 

I was a mess the whole of her first day, I just couldn't get it together!  My hands were shaking and my stomach was bundle of nerves.  It wasn't a big deal to Caitlin, (she was more excited over the fact her school shoes lit up) but it meant so much to me.  I kept thinking of when we got the diagnosis 5 years ago and back then I thought id never see my little girl walk into our local mainstream school.  I kept thinking of the diary I kept in the days and weeks after Caitlin was diagnosed.  I came across it during the summer and in it I had wrote a list of questions for the doctors, among them was, "Will she ever be able to talk?" "Will she ever smile?" "Will she ever be able to go to school?"  It reminded me of how desperate I was back then, desperate for a glimmer of hope.  It reminded me of how terrified and heartbroken I was.  I truly believed the hydrocephalus was going to leave her unable to communicate or be educated.  Thankfully it wasn't long before I discovered support groups and they quickly made me see that hydrocephalus rarely causes severe brain damage.  Still, I thought with the increasing hydrocephalus throughout my pregnancy coupled with several shunt revisions in the first few years in her life there was a fair chance mainstream school would not meet her needs.  I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision to move her from a special needs school with so much support and services as well as a small class size to a mainstream school with a class four times the size of her nursery class and with much less services available to her.  So far, (we are almost 4 weeks in now!) she has coped so well with all the changes.  Caitlin's classroom assistant said she has settled so well, she is included in everything and when they are outside playing, games are adapted so Caitlin can take part.  The staff are wonderful and have went above and beyond their duty to ensure Caitlin's needs are being met and best of all, Caitlin is happy there (and looks so frickin adorable in her school uniform!).

Caitlin also attended a very special event last weekend, Disability Pride in Belfast.  It was the first time the event has been held here.  It was an amazing experience and something I intend to bring Caitlin and Aoife too every year.  It's aim is to change attitudes towards disability, to encourage more of a positive attitude towards disability and to help people see the ability in disabled people, a message I wholeheartedly support.  I have seen so many times how people's disability or impairment are not what causes difficulty but more so other's attitudes, actions and how society is shaped.  It needs to change and to echo Disability Pride, we need to celebrate disability as it is simply another form of diversity :) 

Caitlin was a bit scared of the whole thing if I'm honest, it was crowded, noisy and there was tons of balloons which did not go down well with her.  I took her out of the really noisy part and she settled down and was delighted to meet characters from Frozen!

We got some exciting news this week too - Caitlin was picked as a special very important positive person this week by the Itty Bitty Book Company (who do a fabulous range of products by the way!)  Caitlin really is such a positive little girl and I was so happy she got the recognition she deserves.  I am proud as punch to be her mummy :)  When I told her she called after her Dad, "Did ya hear that Daddy, I got picked to get a prize!" She can't wait to see her positive quote for her bedroom wall :)

And on that note I'm going to finish up with a funny little video I took of Caitlin demonstrating how she is picking up the Irish lingo lol!