Halloween and First Day of School!

Last night we took Raul trick or treating for the first time! He LOVED it! He laughed hysterically every time we went up to the houses. Then after a couple he caught on and would take a piece of candy to put in our bag, but then try to shut the door on the people haha. He did blow kisses to some people, and especially liked the houses with dogs! One family even let their dog come outside to see him. Then on the way home we saw that the fire station had their door open and they were handing out candy, so of course we had to go in! Raul was getting tired by that point, but still loved seeing the fire truck.

 

 

 Then today was Raul's first day of school! He was eligible to start on his birthday, but got delayed by going to Cincinnati, dealing with the registration office, and then the hurricane! Today I got to go with him for his first day to observe and to train the teachers/therapists/aide on how to lift him and change his diaper. He has a one on one aide who he seems to really like, which is great! We started the day by going to the PT room and they worked on lifting him. Raul got bored with that, and got a bit fussy, but then we got to head down to the classroom to play. The other kids still had not arrived yet on their buses, but soon arrived. 

They had a while of free play on the floor, and Raul found lots of cars to play with. He tried to steal the fire truck from another boy a few times, but they are working on teaching him that he can't do that! His class has eight children, all with moderate to severe special needs, and they are all adorable! After free play was circle time. Raul sat in one of the tiny chairs, and didn't even cry when they clapped and said hi to each child! After a while of circle time he went with two girls from the class for speech therapy. The speech room is small, so I stayed in the classroom with the other kids and watched them finish circle time and have snack. Apparently Raul did really well in Speech, and they even let him play a car game on the iPad!

Next up was OT for Raul and one other boy from his class. Raul cried in the beginning because he didn't want to string beads, but then amazingly did TWO puzzles! One had a magnetic fishing pole that you used to "fish" for cars, and he loved that one. The other had animals and made animal noises. He actually did really well, and even put all the pieces back in (usually he gets bored and refuses). Then we headed to the nurses office to do an example of a diaper change so they would be prepared should they need to do one. Raul screamed as he always does with diapers, but recovered quickly. After going out to the playground for a few minutes with the other kids it was already 11:40, which is his dismissal time! His class runs until 2:30, but he will only be going in the morning, as he still needs his naps! Starting tomorrow he will be taking a bus!