Special Lily K?

We all know Lily is special- but is she special in a way that gets her into state funded preschool? No. She MAY qualify for special ed services once we enroll her for Kindergarten, but right now her learning is not impaired enough to get her in the special pre K program. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad she's not developmentally challenged to the naked eye and she adequately answered perplexing questions such as- How old are you? and Do you want to color? and then she spent the rest of our "interview" chanting- I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. At one point she got up and was counting the blinds on the door while chanting- I want to go home.

Apparently you have to have 2 "disabilities" to qualify OR one disability that interferes with learning. Apparently a 4 year old with hearing of only half the sounds in the english language doesn't qualify especially in a place where ESL is standard in the average home. I also got the " well how long are you going to be here for?" implying that my husband's military status and our position here is temporary. I explained that he is Air National Guard- meaning this is our home. Regardless- how is this part of the equation? Standard.

Please bring her in Mrs. Mallory if she has more profound hearing loss that interferes with her learning or if her speech development suffers. Yes, let's not cut this off at the pass, let's wait till we're in full downward spiral. So now I guess I go to the social worker at the hospital and see what services are available in the wake of all this. We'll see if that does anything for us. I guess it could be worse. I guess we go back to normal.

So I sign her up for Maggie's dance class as part of this reintegrating into society thing. She did pretty well- it was Bella that was a roving maniac. 15 minutes into class and 3 trips to the bathroom later- Bella continued to race back and forth across the dance floor. I have flashbacks of our 1st attempts at dance class with Kiera. Not good. Every now and then she stops and appears to be doing what everyone else is doing, but then the fancy passes and she is off fluttering around. About 30 minutes into it I hear Lily pleading with the instructor that she wants her daddy, she misses him sooooo much, he has to work. The instructor says with no sympathy, how sad- now find your spot. I think it's rather funny. Lily shrugs and finds a spot- who's to say whose spot it is- but at this rate it's a spot. She spent most of the time admiring herself in the mirrors and they get to the end of class where they tell a story through dance- today's story, Little Red Riding Hood. Maggie, being the only child in the class who has actually listened to any of the instructions- lands the role of prima ballerina. A little boy lands the role of wolf and the rest of the chorus are relegated to trees and flowers. Lily decides she is going to be a flowering tree and plants herself next to the wall. Bella on the other hand is scattering flowers and continues to run around like a maniac- which actually is part of her role in this play. Apparently flowers run around in the ballet. I am exhausted from the emotional torture of vacillating between silently willing them to behave in public and commanding them to behave in public. Neither seemed to make a whole lot of difference. Fortunately this is a small studio with a very relaxed staff and all reassured me that in a few weeks they'd get the hang of it. I hope so.