Back to School

Today, we took Isabella to visit her kindergarten class at Marvin school. She was extremely excited to see her old friends that she couldn't stop smiling all morning. We had been planning this for a few days, because we knew that she would be continuing her chemo on Saturday so she probably wouldn't feel any better than she would on Friday. Plus, the school had planned some special parties because it would be the 100th day of school and they would celebrate Valentine's Day. We also knew that based on her chemo schedule, this would probably be Isabella's last chance to visit school for this school year before the summer.

Julianne already spoke to Isabella's teacher, Mrs. Stelly to coordinate the day. Mrs. Stelly would speak to the class and just let them know that Isabella was coming and not to get overly excited. She warned them that Isabella would have no hair, but most of them had already seen pictures of Isabella on this web site. Also, most importantly, she told them that what Isabella had was not contagious so they shouldn't worry about "getting cancer". But at the same time, we had to worry about a sick kid passing along a sickness, so we would be prepared with masks in case someone was sick.

We planned on bringing Isabella to school a little late, around 10 AM so that the kids could get settled in and there wouldn't be so much commotion. When we got to the school, Isabella started to get a little nervous. When she walked into the classroom, all the kids got excited to see her and one boy immediately shouted out, "She's got no hair!" (Luckily, Isabella is not self-conscious at all about her head!) Then, she fell right into line with the routine of the class. She walked over to the attendance board and placed her picture from the "At Home" section to the "At School" section. Then she ate some of the snacks they had to celebrate the 100th school day. After snacks, the teacher read them a book for story time.

We weren't sure how long we were going to let Isabella stay at school. If she got too tired or overwhelmed, we would take her right home. But after a while, it was evident that Isabella was having no issues at all and we decided to go home. We would come back for the Valentine's Day party right before the end of school.

Right before we left, we heard the kids ask if they were going to wear the masks. We decided they didn't have to since no one was really coughing. Some of the boys were actually disappointed at not having to wear the masks and one of them said, "Awww. I wanted to look like Darth Vader!"

Isabella spent the rest of the day at school and had a great day. She brought home a ton of gifts and candy for Valentine's day. She even lost a second tooth while at school, which she brought home to be rewarded by the Tooth Fairy. This was the perfect way to end our vacation!