One month into school

It has been a rough first month of school with a few talks with Stephanie's aides and the principal. Stephanie seems to be enjoying herself but she is suppose to have an aide with her the whole school day, she is there from 8:40-12:25, and when I pick her up from recess she hasn't always had an aide with her outside. Who knows what could happen if she doesn't have supervision outside. There is no fence outside and she could wander into the neighborhood behind the school, down the sidewalk into the street, or into the parking lot. After the second time the principal assured me that this won't happen again and they have a plan and a back up plan in place. Stephanie has her good days and bad days but overall is enjoying school and adjusting to a new classroom, teacher, and schedule. She does have a new aide as one of the ones working with her could really handle her. At least that is what I took it as. She wasn't a special ed aide and I think with Stephanie's lack of communication skills she was hard to figure out how to engage her with what was going on in the classroom but at her level. But she still has her same special ed aide that she had last year and the new OT finally starts next week  Hopefully she is a good fit for Stephanie.
Emily has been enjoying her first month of school as well. She was just sick for almost a week recently but has recovered and is back into the swing of things. I do think that going everyday is a big adjustment for her. She does like it and is already making some friends. It is so exciting to hear what she does everyday. It is so different than last year when Stephanie was in the class since now I really know what is going on. I'm glad she is having fun and making friends. She already seems more outgoing and last week she held a girls hand as they walked into class. But she has already said that she wants long hair like one of her friends. I'm sure that won't be that last time I hear that.
I can't believe how big they both are and Matthew is sure upset when they go to school in the morning and he is left at home. He is also upset that Stephanie takes the iPad to school because that has become his new favorite word.