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| Teacher Bernie asked all the kids to touch the ball Fionn is holding if they wanted to be his friend. When each child touched the ball, it glowed. At the end of the exercise, Fionn touched it and made it glow to show that he wanted to be their friend too. What a wonderful welcome! |
You know, it's funny. I never worried about Fionn being accepted before he got cancer. He has always been a pretty social kid, even kind of a leader type among his peers. I just always assumed he would make friends at school and be liked by his peers. Heck, if anything, Conor and I worried about Fionn being the one who was cruel, the one who was a bully.
Everything changed last summer when we got Fionn's diagnosis. We were suddenly thrust into a world of hospitals and ports and chemotherapy...and hair loss. Even though Fionn is rocking some beautiful white-blond peach fuzz on his head right now, he still stands out from a crowd of his peers. "That boy has no hair!" I hear kids saying to their parents sometimes when we walk past. It's only natural for kids to stare and wonder why Fionn has no hair. As a result, we have tried to give Fionn the tools to talk about his leukemia and how the chemo makes him lose his hair. But still...it can't be easy to look different than all your buddies. Yesterday was a reminder to me that Fionn is more self-conscious about it than he lets on sometimes.
Despite his fears though, Fionn is having a great week at school so far. He is starting to make "buddies" and he seems to feel pretty comfortable there already. We are looking forward to the school's Halloween parade on Thursday followed by a pizza party -- hooray!
In terms of our big move...well, it hasn't exactly happened yet. But soon. Soon. Thursday, in fact. It will be so nice to get settled in our new home. I hate being in limbo. Some of our stuff here, some there. Ugh. Transitions are the worst.
Hopefully my next post will be from our new home in Kensington. Fingers crossed!
last saturday i took fionn to a truck show on my school parking lot. every kind of huge truck you can imagine and some you can't. there were 1500 people in attendance(i verified), most of them children. our boy was a delight. he waited patiently for his turn on everything and went out of his way to be nice to smaller kids. helped them, showed them things, shared controls and things you could move or touch. i stayed completely out of his way and except for an occaisional glance to see if i was still there, he seemed fine with his freedom. once, while he was in an ambulance manned by a female emt i lost sight of him. i stuck my head in and said i lost a kid. she said what does he look like? without pause i said "he's bald". she said "he's right over there."
ReplyDeletewe were there for 4 hours and he never stopped. his two favorite vehicles were believe it or not, a mail truck(kind they make house deliveries in) and an older school bus with a handle on a rod that opened the door. he manned that for a long time, letting people on and off. he clambered on and over dump trucks. fire engines, a rescue boat, snowplows, a bobcat, a crane, (ignored the police cars), a vintage sports car, a UPS truck, but those two caught his fancy. i had a wonderful day watching him have fun and being the GOOD FIONN.
he'll be fine in his new school.
uncle bill
New friends? Parades? Pizza?
ReplyDeleteI wanna move to Kensington, too!
Best wishes for a smooth transition from one home to the next.
Love to you all!!