He's a going to school!!

So the news is out, it's official- my 5 year old has been accepted into school!! After months of meeting with our local early intervention program, we had our final meeting this morning and drafted and finalized up his IEP. An IEP is an individualized education program, or in mommy English it is his plan about when he's going to go to school and what are their goals and objectives while he is attending. These meetings are designed to help children make a school plan if they are not considered "school aged" but has some sort of disability to allow them to learn.
Back to Conner's story, so we had heard from several of our therapists that this was going to be an intense meeting with lots of big words and a lots of thinking, so we decided we were gonna take our little one to a babysitter so we could concentrate on Conner- best decision ever! Even though everyone asked where the "cutie pie" was I'm glad I took him to my friends house for the morning! We arrived at the school and when we checked in we were pointed to the conference room and WOW there was about ten ladies sitting around the table- talk about overwhelming! We had asked our "big" ABA therapist to come so besides here there was two occupational therapists a speech therapist, a special Ed preschool teacher, an autism specialist, the head teacher at the school, the school psychologist, the principal and conners new preschool teacher. There was probably more but that's just what I can call out. So we listen to their evaluation and then their recommendations signed a lot of papers and of course got some much needed calming information from his actual teacher who gave us the run down of what he will be doing on a daily and how everything works.
After all the craziness we came up with the plan that Conner will go part time for the 3 weeks of school between thanksgiving and Christmas and then he will start full time in January for the rest of the school year! I'm so excited for him to ride a bus and be with other kids while learning but I'm kinda sad at the same time. Not only is my child growing up so quickly that he's gonna be attending school but once he starts full time we won't have our special ladies in our lives- at least not until school lets out and the summer sessions start. But all feelings aside I'm doing what's best. His class only has ten kids and only five of them is full time kids, so he will get plenty of attention from the teachers plus he will receive plenty of occupation, speech and ABA therapies in school. It's basically the deluxe package if you ask me!
When we were done with the information meeting I received a huge folder from the school with a bunch of papers to fill out and then conners teacher took us to the classroom which allowed to look around and also meet the kids. The classroom was amazing but honestly the bathroom was the best part- this bathroom was huge but the coolest thing was the full size fridge and the washer and dryer inside just for his class! Amazing right! Haha!! After we saw the class we walked out to the playground so Conner could interact with the kids and honestly I don't think Conner knew exactly what to do... he did make two friends and I think they'll one day be called the three hermanos- at least that's what I'm calling them!
As we left the school and got in the car I was just in awe. We have had the craziest year but look at how far we have come. Never give up and push for your rights, someone's gotta make sure our kids have the best opportunities available for them.