First Day of School

Today Nate started a drop-off playgroup! It's through early intervention, and it's a developmental playgroup. The goal is to let Nate socialize and learn to play with other kids, and to use "peer pressure" to encourage him to walk and eat like a big boy. There are two other kids with developmental delays in the class--both just socialization and speech delays--and three typical kids from their preschool.

On our way there, I told Nate that we were going to school and that he was going to play with some new friends. He was very excited, and pronounced "school!" when we pulled up to the building. He walked in in his walker, and the staff was very impressed with his walking and constant chattering! Nate was super impressed with their toys! He and the teacher, Miss Leslie, immediately started pulling toys off the shelves to play with. Then two more kids got there, and Nate pointed and said, "Friends!" He was having a great time as I left.

Miss Leslie says they have story time, snack time, go to the "gym" (filled with all sorts of slides and tunnels and fun toys to romp around on) and back to the room for coloring and more playing together. When I got back, she told me that he played so hard and had a blast the whole two hours! He also colored daddy a picture, walked to and back from the gym in his walker, and ate his cereal bar by taking bites off of it and his pears with a fork.

As we walked out, he made sure to say bye to everyone and provide commentary on all the pictures in the hallway. I asked him if he had fun, and he thought about it for a second and said, "Yes!" Here are a couple of pictures, because I'm a dork.

Oh, I also wanted to share what Nate said this morning. As I was changing his diaper, I was singing the hokey pokey, and when I got to "shake it all about," Nate said, "Shake shake shake, shake your boo-day!" (booty)