We arrived home today from our week in the big cities of Boston and NYC. It was a great week, full of history, post high school possibilities, enjoyable food and incredible sites to explore. It was also a week of what I call encouragement and Izzy calls nagging (put your phone down Iz, catch up with us Iz, time to get up/go/get on the train/get off the train Iz), constant chatter, tight sleeping quarters, walking miles in the city and cold windy weather. We bargained, sassed, exploded, apologized, laughed, teased, loved. I watched Izzy pace and pull hair when she was anxious; curb her temper as well as let loose and explode. I watched Jackson confidently explore and take charge of subway routes and walking routes like a pro. I saw a son who could thrive in the big city and a daughter who would sink there. I saw faces of excitement, fear, happiness, annoyance and every facial expression in between. And I will tuck all those memories away to revisit them over and over again. I pray my kids do the same.

Izzy spent her week with headphones on listening to music or playing her favorite games. It was frustrating to me at times because I kept thinking she was missing out on things she should have been seeing, but last night she came to me and said “Mama, thanks for taking us to Boston and NYC. I know I was on my phone a lot and you didn’t always like that, but when I wasn’t, the city was really overwhelming to me. It’s a lot more busy there than home and it made my busy mind go even busier.” She didn’t sleep at all last night and I wonder if it wasn’t her brains reaction to all of the stimuli of the last week.

So now we’re in the home stretch to summer. 3 more days of Spring Break followed by 8 weeks of school and then we will have a Senior and a 6th grader. Between now and then we have Izzys Psychology Eval that begins today, results of that eval and hopefully the writing of her IEP for middle school.

I’ve been dreading this last quarter of elementary school for, well, for years. But I need to start showing excitement not dread for Middle School for Izzys sake. And so that’s what I’m going to do. I can’t say I won’t be emotional as we wrap up elementary school-that would be an outright lie-but I can help build her excitement and of course continue to advocate for Izzys needs before we get there.

We’re off to start the Psych Eval. Prayers for Izzys peace and cooperation…and some good results.