This year we have Kaylee starting 4th grade, Natalie starting 2nd grade and me entering my last year of regular classes before starting nursing clinicals.
With Phoebe turning 4 in October, this should be her second year of preschool with her going 3 mornings a week. Instead, she is on the schedule for just one morning a week. And even that depends on what her body will allow.
Phoebe so desperately wants to go to school like her big sisters. She even insists she has to get a backpack and other school supplies just like them. She picks out a special outfit to wear on the first day and packs a lunch in a brown paper bag.
While she excitedly talks about going to school, I prepare what we call her "special kit" that will stay in her backpack. To accommodate her medically, I transform her backpack into a first aid kit. It has a thermometer, tylenol, bandaids of various sizes, gauze pads, cloth tape, neosporin, neosporin foaming wound cleaner, antibacterial gel, wipes, doctors numbers, and a detailed list of what to do in each possible scenario.
Before she went to bed tonight all she could talk about was how she is a big girl and going to start school tomorrow just like her big sisters. She even told Naomi that she would miss her. On the outside I have to show her smiles and excitement while on the inside all I have are nerves and fears.
I don't want her to feel like she is missing out on anything or being left out of anything, but I also don't want her to know that we just don't know if she will ever move past the 3 hours one morning a week.
All we can do is make each day she goes as special as possible, and pray we don't have to use anything in the kit.