Kindergarten Life

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Annabelle in her classroom. The teacher uses the first couple weeks of school to focus on how everyone is unique and different in their own way, and Friday was Annabelle's turn to show how she is special too. We have a few books at home that we've purchased to help Annabelle understand what happens inside her body, with more understanding it's been able to alleviate some questions and fears (Mady's too). I thought sharing those books would be a good way to share some insight to the class about Annabelle.

One of our books is called "Eating isn't always easy". This is a wonderful book that explains Eosinophilic Esophaghitis, how the disease moves around her body and why it makes certain food hurts hurt her. While it's a WONDERFUL book for our family and our girls, I choose not to use this one for the classroom just based on the complexity of the material.

"There's More Than One Way To Eat" is one of our favorite books. It illustrates a day in the life of a tube fed kid and how similar a tubey is to everyone else, but how eating is different for them. The book explains the process for how a feeding tube goes into the belly like a straw and the different ways you can eat thru a tube: quickly (bolus) or slowly (feeding pump).

The book also portrays the story of two friends, one of which is in a wheelchair and one friend that isn't. All the while, retaining the feel that all kids are the same, have the same feelings, values, interests, humor.. some kids just eat differently and have special needs, and that is okay too.

I read this story to the class. The kids took it well, their questions were difficult at times but I allowed Annabelle to answer a few about herself after I shared the most age-appropriate answer.

After we finished the quick story about tube feeding, I also flipped thru some of the pages of "Real Kids, Real Tubes", which is our particular favorite of course... bc Annabelle is featured in the book 3-4 times AND on the cover of the book! How cool is that? The kids thought it was quite impressive as well.

Each page is full of children, teens and adults that are playing sports, living life and doing all the fun things just like everyone else, but with a tubey. Pages are themed, for example, "Tubey's like to dance" .. and show pictures of kids in dance performances or dancing around the house. "Tubey's like to go to the beach" .. "Tubey's have to be very brave" in which showed some pictures of kids in the hospital. Annabelle stood up and told her class that she often has to go to the hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio and while she used to cry for shots, she doesn't anymore. All the kids were fascinated and said "Whoa! I always cry for shots! You don't cry?" She was confident as she piped, "Nope! Not anymore!" 

The experience as I sat in front of a Kindergarten class (secretly praying they wouldn't eat me alive) was surreal. I looked down, to my right and saw Annabelle, criss-cross-applesauce, with the most life and sparkle in her eyes as she watched her mommy read a story all about her. She sat so strong and so confident. Bearing an illness that carries the weight of the world, she sat on the floor among peers proud. With her nurse behind her and her mommy in front of her, she absolutely sparkled and burst with pride. 

There is no better gift that I could have given her this school year than just that. A presence in her classroom, confidence in her fight, a voice to articulate to her friends what she is feeling, justification that she is unique and just as normal and weird as the rest of her friends. God bless that kid, she is raising me in more ways than I think I am raising her some days.

 

I've spent hours upon hours glued to my phone trying to plan our upcoming hospital visit (while juggling work!), so when the weekend hit, our family bolted for fun. We ventured to "Field Days of the Past". The girls had a wonderful time, they rode rides together, watched tractor and truck pulls, pet animals and laughed with one another. We did SO much walking and pushing Belle, but we did all had a great time.

This week was tough on our family. Madelynne and I caught a GI bug so Annabelle had to go into quarantine. A few kids in Belle's class are sick so she's been living in a face mask to protect her from germs.. between scrubbing the house in lysol, running Annabelle to the dentist and appointments, juggling a thousand Cincinnati Children's Hospital phone calls.. before we knew it, ANNABELLE TURNED FIVE!

Yes, I can't believe it either. Her birthday was Tuesday, September 20th and although she spent her ENTIRE day trying to convince everyone that it wasn't actually her birthday bc she believes her real birthday is Saturday (party day), it legitimately was indeed and our little girl is no longer little. She's turned into a little lady and we are so very proud of who she's becoming.

From the 3lb 10oz, undercooked nugget that we brought home, to the rockin 38lb fighter she is today, our house has been monumentally changed for the better as we've grown into our niche of the Bishop family.