60 Years Are Too Many: Week One July Pony School

     12 July

        Okie dokie...water days.

        I cannot get the timing right, but July kids are definitely moving at a much slower pace than June.

        I did have a panicked day Thursday. One of our autistic kids who is "non verbal"--he makes sounds and he knows what he's saying--and is the sweetest kiddo in the land, also has suffered a major concussion. Technically his cranium is fractured.

        So he has to wear a helmet on the tricycles. But he's "OK" for everything else.

        Enter kryssi.

        The pony wranglers disagreed on whether he could ride or not. Every kid has a helmet, so that's not the issue. He shook his head and said "no pony" which lowered my blood pressure, but when he was asked again by the teenage pony wrangler he nodded. The teenage wrangler and the adult wrangler disagreed-they have both talked to his mom but seem to have received opposing information-and they chose to let him ride, and I had to breathe and force myself to stand still. He only did one time around,and was ready to get off. 

        Let me clear up the disagreement. Nobody shouted. Their voices were projected because they had ponies between them. But not anger. Just two caring humans trying to suss out what is best for a kid. All My Love.

        Once he was off the pony I was fine.

        While the wranglers celebrated how brave he was, I almost cried.

        This is new. I've never been this stressed out before about a preschooler at pony camp, and I have no idea what my own addled 60 year old brain is doing.

        I had relaxed about water day because the castle didn't get blown up in the morning for some reason. Word was we weren't using the castle and slide, just the pools. Cool. No worries. But then the castle got blown up.

        Is he supposed to wear his helmet to go down the slide?

        Is he even allowed to go down the slide? Kids hella head first ram down and if another kid is standing at the bottom of the slide, not paying attention, it's ugly.

        So he'd have to wear the helmet.

        But he's heavier, and my experience on the ladder has been that heavier kids struggle mightlily.

        Multiply these thoughts over 30 minutes of me standing next to him in the pool. I said he couldn't go on the slide, and he was fine with that, he played with the sprayer and stomped in the water. Once he was at the bottom of the slide when a hella head first kiddo raced toward him, and I reached out to grab him and yelled his name. 

        Everyone stared at me.

        Oh my god...I have no real experience with head injuries, so this is not PTSD. I don't have any idea what it is, but it's exhausting.

        So I had someone over my pay grade talk directly with his mom, who said he's fine without a helmet on the next water day. "He can do anything,"  she said.

        Yes, he can, the autism does not impact anything in his behaviors. He does craft, plays on the playground, has a friend who plays with him--honestly, he's A Great Kid. He can do everything, but if his cranium is fractured should he do everything?

        Again popcicles took forever,and it was 92 degrees out. These kids are just soaking it up I guess, but getting them out of the pools was easy. They were tired.

        The FAFO kid from Monday who had the door slammed on his fingers didn't come back. Sometimes there's a scheduled vacation and they forget to tell us. Sometimes they have a bad experience and don't wish to return.

        Next week we have "field trip"--in quotes because they come to us---from Rocky Mountain ...Something Animals Something.

        Likely snakes and lizards. I wanted a puma.

        My coteacher wanted a lemur. After announcing it with her outside voice, she laughed and said "Yes, from the Rocky Mountains- I'd like a lemur", to which I responded "I demand a panda".

        Ugh. Snakes. So I got that to look forward to.

        Last year it was the Aquarium and the Arvada Fire Department. 

        Hoping the Rocky Mountain Something Animal Something has a good representative. The ones from the aquarium were great, but their content was a bit too old. Yet they had a shark's jaw, which is always A Win.

        Tomorrow it's supposed to be anywhere from 95-102 depending on who you talk to.

        Once more, into the breach.

        Scene.