The Po Show

Goodbye Ms. C.

I wish I'd typed this out the other day as I'd planned, because now my right index finger is in a huge dressing, thanks to the four stitch laceration I gave myself yesterday.

It's an important story, though, so I'll muddle through with nine fingers.

Tuesday was the last day for Matthew's aide, the beloved Ms. C. Her name is Heather Castellani and she's about 23, thin, blonde, and extremely pretty. She was with Matthew every schoolday from lunch through the end of the day. She facilitated his interaction with other students, helped keep him on track in getting his work done, read his "signs" and recognized when he was starting to lose it and moved in to defuse him. She was amazing and he absolutely adored her. She was the only person he asked to buy a Christmas present for. He called her his favorite teacher.

She got a job as a special ed teacher in another district, which is wonderful. She definitely deserves to be a "real" teacher, rather than a teaching assistant. I found out she was leaving two weeks ago, and was just devastated. The school principal let me know as we waited to pick up Matthew from school, and all I could say "But he LOVES her!"

I saw Ms. C. two days later and she asked me, stricken look on her face, "You heard?" I said I had and that it was great that she'd gotten a teaching job.

"But he LOVES you," I couldn't help adding.

"And I love him," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "I cried. Believe me, I cried."

There's is something about Matthew that inspires real devotion in his teachers. I've never entirely understood it. I mean, *we* love him, but we have to :). He's sweet and smart and can be charming, but he can also be *such* a pain in the ass, so much work to deal with. But he's always been intensely adored by his teachers. When he was two and first was in daycare, he became his teacher Olivia's favorite. The other teachers called him "Olivia's boyfriend" and she called him her "little love." She was a wonderful teacher and person, but slightly reserved and not very effusive, but she was intense about Matthew.

I'll never forget last school year, during a meeting with Matthew's teacher and speech therapist. His teacher was saying that she honestly was so glad that we decided to put him in kindergarten instead of first grade, because if he'd gone into first she wouldn't have had him in her class.

"And I just love him," she gushed.

The speech therapist practically bounced up and down in her seat, she was so enthused. "Oh, I do too!"

Ms. C. loved Matthew too. Before Christmas, she stopped us in the parking lot and slipped Matthew a present. She said she hadn't gotten things for anyone else, so she wanted to give it to him privately. There were several different puzzles and games, all very nice. It was so sweet.

Matthew wanted to get her a going away present, so we went to the mall on Saturday morning before the blizzard hit. We walked all around and he finally decided on a pretty costume jewelry bracelet, with pink roses. He clutched the bag as we continued to walk through the mall, stopping once to look inside the bag and gift box "just to make sure it was all right."

He made her a card, with a big heart on the front with "Good bye" written in the middle. Inside he wrote "To Ms. C., I love you. Matthew S."

I'm constantly struck by how indebted we are to our children's teachers, especially those of us with "special" children who require so much more attention and patience. Ms. C. really helped turn around Matthew's school experience, after a very rocky start at the beginning of the year, and we'll always be grateful to her.

Gotta Blog!

Hi, remember me? It's been awhile :). Apparently the only things that bring me back to my blog are post-election traumatic disorder and the weather.

Weather we have. It's the Blizzard of 2005, folks! There is a lot of snow outside, like more than a foot. Winds up to 50mph. Ross keeps saying "Still, it's nothing compared to last year" in reference to the huge snowstorm we had in MA in Dec. '03. That may well be, but it's still snowing, and the "secondary storm" will hit around midnight. I personally find it entertaining to see so much snow fall, as long as I don't have to be out in it.

See, this California girl has gotten jaded to brutish east coast weather. A couple of weeks ago, there was a bit of snow on the ground and some icy conditions. I didn't think twice about getting the kids up in the morning, feeding and dressing them, and piling them in the car to take Matthew to school at the usual time. The streets were strangely deserted and when we got to school, no one was there. Shit! I didn't even think to look if there was a delay in starting. I could have left Tessa in bed (and stayed in bed myself!). Matthew was happy to go home to play GameCube for a couple of hours, but he will never, ever fail to remind me to check for delays or closure in the morning.

I spent the day muttering about snow wimps. Here I was, with one New England winter under my belt, and I scoffed at these Yankees and their snow wimpiness. Me, who used to shiver and fear frostbite if nighttime temps dipped into the 50s. Now I walk around with my coat unzipped if it's 30 degrees.

But it's not the weather that brought me back here today. Talk of blogs on the August list made me go to mine, which I lasted updated back in November. I looked at the comments that had been left for that last entry, and was surprised beyond words to find a comment from someone named Stacy. She said she was from California too, and she missed my blog, and she wondered if I was all right.

Wow. I always sort of assumed that the only people reading my blog were Auggie moms and, occasionally, my friend Darryl (when he can put down his cocktail long enough to check in). But here was a person who was a total stranger to me, and she missed me and wondered if I was okay. That was a wonderful thing to see.

So I came back for you, Stacy, whoever you are. I hope you check back here to see this :).a