Back to School

Kiddo broke her leg in March of this year and in mid March had surgery. She was out of school and home schooled the rest of the year. 

So much progress with attachment and anxiety has been made since then.

Needless to say, I was dreading her going back to school.

Back to School night was the day before vacation and she was having anxiety just on the way to the IPad meeting.  I thought we were going to have a meltdown, but she sucked it up and made it inside and found a couple of her best school friends and was glad she went because she missed them. 

We're a week in, 2nd day of school, she was in tears when I dropped her off (but in all fairness, had physical therapy that morning and was late to school as a result, both pain and off schedule was bad).  I was worried it would develop a habit, but she's been fine all week.  

Her and BFF still are trying to talk daddy into home schooling them, but they're not making progress. 

Hoping for a smooth school year. Smoother summer than normal, so optimistic that we're on a good path now.

Vacation

We took kiddo and her BFF on vacation week before last and it was one of our better ones. Only one incident and it was over within the length of time it takes to ride go karts.

We got so many compliments on the girls behaviors, even to the extent of being asked if we wanted to trade.

The girls wanted to ride go karts and when we got there, kiddo backed out and was near a meltdown, seemingly in fear.  Her BFF and hubs rode go karts and kiddo sat on the bench mad.

Not long after they were through, she said "I can't stay mad at y'all when you're making me laugh like that".  We asked why she was mad and she said she didn't know.

Therapy the following Tuesday and her therapist thinks she was triggered by something that reminded her of her birth family. I'm not really buying it this time. Normally I'd agree, but this time it just doesn't feel like that's what it was.

She's been okay ever since too. Not sure what was up there.

As for the vacation, we took the girls to the Great Smoky Mountains and rode first class on a train. The girls loved it, and honestly, it was one of the better vacations we've had on so many levels.  It was relaxing and full at the same time.

Some highlights:

BFF tied a cherry stem with her tongue. (she has a giraffe tongue)

\We all tried frog legs. They really  DO taste like chicken.

We went and saw an Indian dance

The girls and I were disappointed that we didn't see any living bears while we were gone, but we did see this stuffed bear in a store.

We went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The girls were amazed at the amount of racism in the day demonstrated.

The amazing view from our hotel. Oh, and we had a window bench seat in the room that BFF slept in instead of the bed.

Our first time on a scenic train like this, and it was AMAZING.  Anybody wondering what it's like, it's worth it.  

First class seating, but we sat on the side with tables with 2 chairs each so we could all have a window view:

Speaking of window views:

Amazing food on the train too:

 The girls had Shirley Temples. The server was so impressed with their behavior and hair, she didn't even charge us.


And desserts for all in first class....

The gimme's were great on first class too. We all got a Smokies travel cup, unlimited refills on the train from first class.  The girls got nice spiral bound coloring books vs coloring sheets in the other cars.  They got free frisbees.  We all got nice canvas tote bags (and I have a tote bag fetish, so that made me happy).  The above desserts instead of airplane pretzels.

We would do it again.