Bye Bye Creme' - We will miss you!

Today was Cameron's last day at Creme' de la Creme'. I have to tell you I am really sad! I will so miss the teachers there and I know Cam will too.

We really thought long and hard on how to handle Cameron's "behavior" situation. We now know it was a phase that he has gotten over but when it first started we talked to TONS of friends and family and his pediatrician about the situation. Cameron is such a sweet child that it was weird to see him "act out" when he couldn't get his way. Instead of him just asking for a toy from a friend, he would just TAKE the toy he wanted! We heard time and time again, "this is just a phase, he will get over it". Dr. Pitts did say however that sometimes these phases are triggered by over stimulation from pre-schools. He suggested that we look into other alternatives for Cameron to see if this could help. He also provided (plenty) of articles/journals to read on how the "type" of pre-school can help/hinder a child from a behavioral standpoint. After reviewing the readings we thought that changing his program could help him. So the search was on! We originally planned to hire a part time nanny to work with him 1:1 and then the other days he could go to a pre-school program to get the social interaction. But after more conversations with folks who had done this as well as talking to Dr. Pitts it was recommended that this may not be the best fit because while 1:1 time is good not having that social interaction that he was used to may backfire on us. The way they explained it was it would be like he is going backwards in his social interaction (which is what we were trying to work on) vs. forwards. Had he started with a nanny and then moved to a part time pre-school would have been okay but going the opposite way didn't make sense.

So we didn't know what to do! Well let me tell you how good God is and how he works in mysterious ways! When we first moved here we were trying to find a place for him to go. Because Jante' is from the area we knew we wanted him to go to Lakeview Academy when he reached school age. So I reached out to the director at Lakewiew to find out where most of the kids that attend there go to pre-school. She shared a few places and one of them was Winnford Academy. Because Winnford is less than 10 minutes from the house I contacted them. But besides the fact that I would need to get another job to have him attend, of course there were NO openings. Well wouldn't you know it something told me to contact them (that would be the Lord) just to see and when I did the director told me they have ONE opening coming but there was a wait list. She told me to not be discouraged because since it was the middle of the school year I may have a good chance of getting in. And low and behold 3 days later she was calling back to let us know we got it!

We're excited for several reasons but the main reasons are 1. The program is different than Creme' so hopefully the things that may have been "over stimulating" from Cameron at Creme' will be better at Winnford. 2. Most of the kids in our community go there and now he will have an opportunity to be around kids from his same neighborhood. We are really excited about this because it is similar to how Jante' and I grew up. Kids from the same neighborhood going to the same schools starting really young. This way they grow up together. Lastly, it is so close! This means more time with him in the evenings. I have to say honestly there is nothing more disappointing than to be away from him for 9 hours during the day and then have to pick him up, sit in traffic and only have a couple of hours with him at night.

He will transition over the next 2 weeks and be there full time starting the week after his 2nd birthday. I will keep you posted on the transition!

We will SO miss Ms. Thina and Ms. Jackie. Here is Cameron saying his goodbye's to his friends!