The Last Day:(

Tomorrow is Tucker's last day of school:( Tucker started school at age 3 due to his developmental delays, and wow! what a difference school has made for him! He started last August in a small class, with 3 kids and 3 adults, one of the adults being his own specific aide since Tucker had his trach. The principal, nurse, teacher, and two aides made us all feel so welcome at school, and learned all about trach care so that our son would be safe at school. I spent the first two weeks at school, because we had certain training protocol to complete before Tucker could be left at school. I think they said Tucker was the first trach kiddo the parish had in about 9 years, so the whole district came around to get trained on Tucker. Tuck has always been such a "model trach kid," so he was great for them to train on. I would sit in the next room, so Tucker would think I wasn't there, and listen to the teachers with their class. It was at times hilarious, and at times frustrating, as the teachers required certain things of Tucker that I had never thought to try. When Mrs. Mary would come into the back room, I would give her "advice" about Tucker! She would explain that they were getting the kids used to the classroom, and that Tucker was doing great. After a few days, I felt totally great about leaving Tucker, and he loved school! He learned so many things this year, and I was always up-to-date with the units they were covering from the class newsletter. When someone would say one of the vocabulary words, Tucker's eyes would light up. Around Halloween, my mom pointed out some "jack-o-lanterns" and Tucker repeated after her and loved it. They had a great Thanksgiving dinner at school, and a fun Christmas party. After Tucker got his trach out, Mrs. Nicole was no longer in the class, so Tucker had to step it up! After Christmas break, Tucker started going to school 5 days a week instead of 3. Having the same routine every day, and having his "feet to the fire" everyday (as Mrs. Mary called it) made so many huge changes in Tucker. Admittedly, Chris and I spoil Tucker rotten. Mrs. Mary has given us many tips and rules to help carry Tucker's good classroom behavior into our home. Mrs. Mary did not let Tucker use his "Cuteness" to get out of any tasks, even though he tried! As a preemie mom, I was nervous about having Tucker in school. I knew he needed socialization and to be taught things I could never teach him:) However, many preemies can not handle the germs of so many kids all together, and I know many medically fragile kiddos who take years and many absences to get used to school. Tucker missed quite a few days this year (we had way more surgeries and specialist appointments this year than I ever would have thought!) but almost none of them were due to illness. That is a HUGE deal to me, and gives me hope that Tucker's immune system is pretty great, and therefore he will not deal with chronic absences. Two of his missed days were Thursday and Friday of last week. I was so sad that he was missing those last few days, as well as the big class Water Fun Day on Thursday. So last Wednesday Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Angie held a parents' luncheon for us to all get together one last time. We ate together and discussed summer plans, and watched the class video they put together. They made individual videos for each kid, and then one big one with all the kids (over the year, the class grew to 5 kids). Tears were flowing (of course!) as we watched the kids progress from the year set to music. I want to post it to the blog, but I haven't figured it out:( Tucker's teachers and classmates have become like family this year, it will be really hard to leave them for the last time tomorrow:( Tucker has no idea, poor kid, and he really loves going there every day. We will keep in touch, of course, once someone gets to know Tucker, they are ours for life!