Today is Joe’s Grandma’s birthday. She’s too far away to drop in, so we had a party for her in absentia.
Happy Birthday to the best Mom and Grandma ever!

The first day of kindergarten was a success. Joe wasn’t too tired when he got home, and we had great communication from his teacher and school staff. Go Tussing!

Buckled in for the ride to work.

His beautiful mama waiting impatiently for the end of the day.

I’m home. Time for a martini.

The Three Bus-migos!

Usually I write a post because we had a good day or something interesting happened. Maybe we went to a museum or played in the pool.

This site has become a pretty neat little archive of Joe’s life, a terrific online scrapbook of the past few years. This makes me proud and happy.

This post is written knowingly as not a snapshot, but rather a start of a new chapter. It’s important. We’ll read this one again decades from now (hi future self!).

Tomorrow Joe will start kindergarten.

He’s not new to school, but this is different. In the past he’s had only a few classmates, a short school day, and teachers who specialized in developmentally delayed kids.

That was all to get him ready for the big K, where he’ll spend a full school day surrounded by 20 other kids, most of them typical kindergartners, many of them encountering a guy like Joe for the first time. They’re all there to start formal education, slowly building skills to become writers, doctors, welders and hopefully good people.

We’ve done the right things as parents. We (and Joe) are as ready as we’ll ever be, and know it’s a marathon, not a sprint, to get him through the next 12 or 14 years of school. It doesn’t make it any easier, but the time has come.

As always thanks to all the teachers, therapist, family (and more family!), friends, advocates and neighbors who have helped us get this far. I hope Joe has been as positive an influence on your life as you have been on his, and ours.

Go Joe!