So the concern was quite palpable after yesterday’s post. Let me reassure everyone at the outset that we’re all okay.

I’ll also assure you, just in case there was some confusion from my description of the proceedings, that I did not physically injure Daphne as we were leaving the water park. I had one hand on the umbrella that was keeping her dry and the other was held fast at the base of her neck/sweatshirt hood to keep her from wresting away from me and darting into the parking lot or road where she might’ve actually gotten hurt.

It was not punitive. She has no marks nor bruises.
But prior to that moment I’d never had to physically restrain her from elopement, which is why I felt it merited mention.

I’ll leave it at this. Parenting is already a difficult job. And being a special needs parent is, on average, significantly more difficult. As such, there will be times in reading about our lives that you may be shaken or bothered by the trials that I recant here. The things we deal with are likely quite foreign to those of you with neurotypical children, and they will seem sad at best…hopeless at worst. That same Sisyphean sentiment may come through when I talk about it.

But we work through these things (in my case, writing about them helps), and we do our best.
It’s often hard.
It’s rarely perfect.
But we love our daughter, our family, and our lives here together.
Without exception.

Okay! Moving on…

So Daphne started summer school today. She’ll be there twice a week for 3-4 hours of speech & OT over the next month. This is actually a first for us. In the past we’ve opted against sending her to summer school since we felt she needed a break.
This year, however we wanted to ensure she stayed in the behavioral habit of regularly attending school. That does mean the house is strangely quiet this morning, though.
Oh, and here’s a fun fact that will likely blow some Texan minds… Generally, public schools up here don’t have air conditioning.

Fortunately, July has started off with back-to-back beautiful and sunny 70° days…

So they’ve just to open a few windows here and there and they’ll be all set.

The other new development for next year, and one that will require some practice, is: 3rd grade classrooms don’t have their own individual potties. Which means Daphne is going to have to learn how to ask to leave the class to use the same bathroom as the rest of the older kids. Hopefully she’ll get a solid grounding in that process this summer.

As for the nighttime potty training, I’d say we’re running at about a 60% win ratio there. For a little while she was actually getting up to pee at some point in the night. But over the last week we’ve had more in the way of in-bed accidents. Those bed pads are putting in some work though.

Okay, see you tomorrow.

j.s.