E was thrown off the Reg Ed bus

*sigh*

The first we heard of the issues E was having on the bus was when the aide called me at home Friday one week before break.  He’d been acting out for a couple of weeks, but no one thought to let his autism teachers or me know about it until after a bad pattern had developed and the bus driver was left with no recourse but to write him up.

After a few more weeks of issues and an inability to work effectively with the aide, we had to have an IEP meeting to arrange for Spec Ed transportation for E.   We really want S to stay on the reg ed bus – with the bus stop 2.5 blocks down the street – so it is tricky.  We had agreed that the spec ed bus would pick E up first, and then I would walk S down to the bus stop.  In the afternoon, the spec ed bus will drop E off at the reg ed bus stop before S’s bus and we would wait together, rather than running from the house.  However, the bus driver called tonight, and she can’t pick E up until 5 minutes after S’s bus is due, meaning that I would have to walk both boys to the reg ed bus stop, put S on the bus, have E have a meltdown because he couldn’t get on the bus, and then try to get him home in time to meet the other bus.

 Needless to say, that won’t work.

So, I’m going to drive E & S to the bus and then E up to school until we can arrange something that works better.

The chaos of life…

My father-in-law, who has been an active part of our family, died unexpectedly on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  He had health issues, but we thought we’d have him for at least one more holiday season.  He *was* Mr. Holiday.  However, after a morning of running errands, including a routine visit to the doctor, he walked up to the porch and then just stopped.  That was it.  May his memory been eternal.

Life has been a blur since then.  My dh has been spending large amounts of time in his hometown with his mother, who had been with her husband since she was 16 – she is in her mid-70’s now.  Thanksgiving and Christmas involved lots of tears, as we really felt the gaping hole left by his absence.

One of the biggest challenges is how to explain to two young boys with autism that their grandfather has died and will not be coming back.  S seemed to get it, and he brings it up every once in a while, telling us that gramps isn’t coming back.  E doesn’t get it all, and he goes through their house when we visit, looking for him.  I lost my own father when I was a child, but it never occurred to me that a loss would hurt even more as I ache for my own kids’ sadness at their grandfather’s passing.

We are off to spend the night at my MIL’s tomorrow night – the boys still love going to visit.