DeSoren Family

7:30am a loud thud and a crash is heard by Anthony and Joshua who are in the kitchen working on breakfast. The thud is then followed by the sound of a large cattle drive pounding down the stairs, Jayme was up and ready for big boy school.

After a very hyper 15 mins of using the restroom and putting on some clothes, Jayme sat down for a special french toast “first school day” breakfast. While Jayme ate, Joshua filled out the name card for Jayme’s brand new pink school backpack.

Once breakfast was over we headed upstairs and finished getting dressed and took a moment to measure Jayme on the wall. Since the day he has moved in with us he has grown OVER and inch and a half (not including his faux hawk). We then headed downstairs and did a little photo session. When Jayme left his treatment school, they presented him with a book showing him from day one to his last day, we want to do something similar for his big boy school days (PS photos on shutter fly email for an invite).

Joshua headed for work and Anthony and Jayme sat down and watched half an episode of Doctor Who. Since we have not yet heard from the school bus system on when and where his pick up will be, Anthony will be dropping off and picking up for a bit. At 8:05am a very excited and hyper boy left the house left the house with a nervous and emotional dad.

Arriving at Jayme’s new school we found the parking lot to be a madhouse, every spot was filled and some cars even double parked blocking other cars in. So we drove down the road a bit and parked on a side street and walked in. Seems a lot of other parents had the same idea, the sidewalks were full as walked in.

Once we arrived at the school’s front door we started the hunt for the correct classroom. Joshua and Jayme did the open house the week prior, but with the hallways full of rushing students and parents, Jayme had no clue were to go. We must have looks pathetic or utter lost as we were almost instantly met by a teacher with a huge dog on a lead. He asked if he could help and then guided us to the correct classroom. He had Jayme take the dogs lead and really the dog walked us to the correct room.

Jayme recognized his classroom right away and zipped right in. His new teacher met him and helped him over to his new cubby. She had a big envelope of paperwork to review for Anthony. Jayme was smiling from ear to ear, so after a big hug and kiss from Dad, Anthony headed out. The last look over his shoulder was of Jayme shaking hands with one of his new classmates.

So dad Anthony was off to work, he too had a new schedule, now working almost full time again. So big change for both of them.

Pick up was easy, Anthony met Jayme in the hallway and the two of them hung around to talk to teacher to check in and see how the day was. Jayme had a good day. But once we got home that day started to spiral out of control. In retrospect it was clear the day was just to much for him emotionally. By dinner time we had a huge meltdown and it took Jayme over an hour and half to calm his body down enough to hear words and process them.

Even though the end of the day was hard, Jayme loves his new school and is still very excited about it and so are his dads!

Today (Aug 25th 2011) Jayme Graduated from his day treatment Kindergarden. For the past few weeks, each day Jayme has been counting down to this moment. At school they had a paper chain and each day Jayme removed one chain. Jayme has been very focused on and very ready to graduate to “big boy school”.

Jayme’s graduation ceremony took place at 11:30am, we arrived early and met up with Jayme’s Attorney and Caseworker, who both attended the ceremony. The ceremony took place in Jayme’s classroom, as we all entered the 3 other kids in Jayme’s class gathered in the circle area, with Jayme the center of attention. Us “adults” had chairs in the backrow.

The graduation cermony started with music that Jayme preselected to be played, the chipmunks christmas song. Jayme’s teacher then showed the class a huge binder filled with photos of Jayme, from his first day at school all the way 2 years later to his final day at school. The binder also had his certificate of graduation in it and letters from all his teachers and classmates.

After the binder was shown. They passed around a little doll, which Jayme had named Thomas (because it has a train on it’s shirt). Everyone in the room gave the doll a hug and said something nice about how they would miss Jayme. The doll came home with us, so if Jayme is feeling sad he can hug it and get all of the hugs from his old teachers and friends.

Then the presents came out. The school gave Jayme a big pink backpack filled with school supplies and several board games and assorted educational items. Out of everything the biggest hit so far has been the pink backpack. The other kids all then said their last goodbyes to Jayme and headed to their busses or to play outside to wait to go home. Jayme did one last walk around his classroom and gathered up all his stuff from his cubby.

This was a pretty emotional day for the adults in Jayme’s life, but he handled everything amazingly well. Joshua headed back to work and Anthony and Jayme then headed home.

Once home Jayme needed to open up all his gifts and thoroughly inspect everything. Jayme’s attorney gave him some little lego motorcycles, so they had to be build at ONCE and played with. Uncle Sam then stepped up and watched Jayme as Anthony headed out on a secret mission.

First stop Balloon pick up from party city, then a chocolate graduation cake from Baskin-Robbins. Once back home Sam took Jayme to the park and Joshua and Anthony decorated the house. When Jayme and Sam came home the whole downstairs was covered with balloons and pink streamers and a big silver mylar CONGRATULATIONS sign.

At 6:15pm our first guests arrived and Jayme’s graduation party started. We had pizza & soda pop and watched a movie that Anthony made for Jayme (online at our shutterfly site, email for invite). Each of his guests had a present for Jayme and Jayme loved each of them. The Dad’s had two gifts, first 5 new block train track packs from Ikea. Enough to build a train from one end of the house to the other. The second gift was an X-wing Star Wars set. Yeah…. his head kinda blew up a bit.

He loved having all his adult friends and Jaden and Ava over. All in all a VERY good day for our little guy.

Lot’s of photos and videos from the day up at our Shutter fly account, shoot us an email for an invite.