My mom painted this beautiful Winnie The Pooh picture with my favorite quote on it for Courtney’s nursery when she was born. It reads, “As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was about to happen.”
Oh, Courtney, the adventures you have brought us on these past 8 years. Adventures that have brought us heart ache and joy, tears and laughter, fear and excitement. Some adventures I never even imagined we would go on that first day I held you in my arms. Most of these adventures have been far from easy but every single one of them I would go on with you again because each one of them have made me so proud to be your mom.
You are 8 now and there are still so many adventures to go. No matter the adventure, you keep being the beautiful little girl that you are.
We love you more than words can say. Happy 8th Birthday, Courtney Cathryn!
I got the most beautiful email from Courtney’s teacher. Instead of paraphrasing it, I’m sharing it. It read…
Hi Mrs. Cranston, I just have to tell you about this fabulous experience that I had today with your sweet girl! She makes me so very proud! I hope I can explain it all. I was able to go to her general education art class today! She was a bit cranky…bc it turned out she went number 2. But we didn’t realize until we were there. She came in for her 25 minutes of art. She immediately sat down and asked for play doh…she knows that is Mr. Arndts routine. Project than play doh. She was using her talker. Which of course got the interest of all of her peers! They started asking Mr. Arndts questions about it. Then I invited them over to look at her device. They started asking Courtney questions! I prompted and modeled ‘hello’ on the device. And then the questions kept coming. What’s your favorite pet, favorite color, favorite food…in which Courtney navigated her device to answer some of those questions. Because she was a bit crabby, I was close by, but she was able to keep herself pretty level as far as meltdowns go when there were so many questions and people around! Safely though! I was so very excited to navigate and teach these students how Courtney communicates and to help foster friendships outside of my classroom. (End of email)
I cried as I read it. Cried so many happy tears. I’ve struggled some with the idea of her going in a regular classroom. I question how much she actually gets out of it. But here’s the thing. Inclusion is not just for the students with special needs. This is a beautiful example of how inclusion is for everyone involved.
To the students in that general education classroom…thank you for wanting to learn how truly awesome Courtney is.
This was the first full week of all 4 of us being back in school. So how did it go?
Joe is in his usual groove. Happy to be back with all of his students in person.
This year is the first year um starting with half of my day having a full case load and boy are we feeling it. You can tell everyone is still trying to recover from the craziness of last school year.
Grad school kicked my butt this week. I was definitely surprised on how much work was involved. I wasn’t joking in my last post when I said I almost backed out 3 times. I think now that I know what is expected I’ll be able to make it work but that definitely made this last week difficult,
Alyssa is starting off kindergarten beautifully! I couldn’t be happier. We are struggling with her not wanting to eat anything while there but we will figure that out. Her favorite thing so far is music class. She said her music teacher is super funny!
I was so consumed with Alyssa starting kindergarten that I didn’t worry much about how Courtney’s year started. She has the same team for the 3rd year. I went with the attitude of no news is good news. Needless to say I was a little surprised on Thursday this week when I received an email in the middle of the afternoon from her teacher saying it’s been a tough week for her. This made my heart sink. That news was followed by a happy Friday and news that she actually peed in the toilet! Not sure what others think but that news easily trumps the tough week!
As much as this year is starting a tad bit more normal than last year, you can still feel the aftermath of it all and the anticipation of how it will continue but to keep this post from attracting an argument I’ll just keep it at that.
It was a stressful week. It was an exhausting week. But overall I think you can say it was a successful week since we all made it to Friday.
We did it! All four of us are back to school. This week included getting use to mommy and daddy being back at school, a new nanny, full day kindergarten, 2nd grade and grad school. There were tears, anxiety, aggression, smiles, and laughter. BUT…we did it. We got through this first week that included so many new things and we finished with smiles (and a look of exhaustion) on our faces. I am one proud mom!
My very best friend in the world is my little sister. So when Courtney was born, I knew immediately I wanted her to have a little sister. I wanted her to have a sister to play dolls with, play school with and always be the teacher while her younger sister was the student, ride bikes with and all those other fun sister things. She has a little sister but their bond is quite different then I imagined.
Their bond is complicated but special. Most often they are happiest when they are no where near each other. Their sensory systems can’t always tolerate each other. They don’t play dolls together, they don’t play much together at all.
Then there are these moments. Moments where they rough house and Alyssa tickles Courtney until she is belly laughing. There are moments when Alyssa gives Courtney her hand to rub. Moments where Alyssa helps Courtney with something that is hard. Moments where you see they truly love each other. It is those moments where I stop and smile. Their bond may not look like the one I have with my sister but there is a bond and it is beautiful.
Courtney had a a strong love/hate relationship with water. It’s a relationship that baffles many. In some ways playing in water is her favorite thing in the world but in some ways water is her enemy.
She loves pools and beaches but it has to follow certain requirements. First, it has to have an ascending depths to it. Meaning it had to start at zero depth so she can slowly walk into it and feel where her feet are in the water. The moment it gets up to get waste, that’s it. She won’t go any further. Second, whatever you do, DO NOT PICK HER UP! If her feet come off the bottom of the pool she freaks out. She needs her feet grounded. This makes things like swim lessons and aqua therapy difficult. We’ve tried both and pretty sure it gave her PTSD. Third, the louder it is at a pool the less she will enjoy it. Even with her headphones. Indoor pools are VERY difficult for her for that reason. Forth, the hotter it is outside the less likely she will enjoy it. She takes after her mom. Fifth, keep it off her face. So, if all these requirements can be checked mark, you will find Courtney is happy as can be in the water! Baths are a whole different love/hate relationship.
Year 3…the year Courtney started preschool in a special needs class. The year she started with her talker. The year most of her therapies were put in place. The year her aggression started. The year I had to truly learn how to be her voice. The year we went from only family ever watching the girls to a nanny watching our girls. Yes, year 3 was a big year. She was diagnosed with autism just bevies her 3rd birthday so year 3 was the year our journey with autism truly took off.
A dear friend of my family is married to, well, Santa Clause! Her and her husband have followed our journey and decided one Christmas that Courtney needed a special personal visit from Santa. “Mrs. Clause” even made a beautiful rainbow infinity scarf for Courtney!
The trait of autism that probably stands out the most for Courtney is her sensitivity to noise. Severe anxiety goes along with it. The two of these things combined make it that Courtney wears headphones all waking hours:. She has them on from the moment she wakes up to the moment she falls asleep.
Joe struggled the most at the beginning with truly accepting that Courtney wasn’t meeting milestones like typical toddlers. In his eyes his little girl was doing everything she needed to do. His little girl was perfect. He had this vision of what his children would be like and anything different from that he wasn’t ready for. As the poem describes, he was imagining a trip to Italy but instead we were headed to Holland.
Oh has he found Holland to be just as beautiful as Italy if not more beautiful. Just look at the twinkle in his eyes as his little girl embraces him.
Autism: A Little Wild 