... Moments, that is. Mornings in my house are usually the most unpleasant part of my day.
My youngest doesn't sleep. And it's gotten much worse since last weekend's time change. Not only is he sleeping less, he's tossing and turning constantly. And since we share a family bed, my husband and I are coming away with bruises (although my third shift working husband has fewer bruises than I do since he's only home with us two nights a week). And while I set my alarm to go off at 6:30am, for the past week, we've been unusually rushed to get him from bed to bus because this exhausted Mommy is over-sleeping. Which turns me into a Medusa-haired lunatic. Not good for me or the kiddos.
My oldest is Autistic. His top speed is glacial unless he knows he's about to watch TV or play video games. Then, he's Speedy Gonzales.
During the week, I usually I have to wake my oldest up. (Let it be a weekend morning and he's up before the sun to watch cartoons. But during the week, he's tired and it's just so hard to get up so early!) He slowly stumbles into the kitchen, over-exaggerating as he yawns and rubs his eyes. He walks back and forth through the kitchen, getting one thing at a time to get his breakfast ready. Trip One is where he carries his cereal bowl to the table. His empty cereal bowl. The next trip is to get a spoon. Which is in the drawer directly below the bowls. He bypasses the pantry (where his cereal is), to take that spoon to the table. Trip number three is when he gets his cereal. Trips four and five are when he walks back and forth to get his milk and the orange juice. He turns on the light above the kitchen table on trip six. Because he's plodding along, this routine can take upwards of ten minutes. Because the whole time he's walking, he interrupts himself by asking, "Hey Mom, did you know...." and various random questions. ("What if I could touch an animal and turn into that animal on the outside, but I would still be me on the inside?") After he finishes eating, he puts it all away. Trip. By. Trip. Then he does the same back and forth shuffle getting through getting dressed (he wears a uniform for school) and also for completing his morning routine (brushing teeth and hair, washing his face and putting on deodorant.). He also has to take the weather report into school with him (his school uses a newscast system to deliver the morning announcements and he's the "weather man"). If I let him do it his way, it would take hours to get it all done.
But now that I'm a stay-at-home Mommy, I'm retraining him to get it all done more efficiently. He has special dietary needs, so I've always handled packing his lunch. But in the last couple weeks, I took over his breakfast routine, started setting time limits for completing his other morning duties and made him start setting out his school uniform the day before to make mornings smoother.
This morning, it all fell into place. Baby #2 woke up about 4:30am and I finally got him back to sleep at 6am. The next thing I knew, my hubby was waking me up. By the time I made it into the kitchen, my son was already up with his breakfast poured the way he'd been shown. He moved swiftly through everything he needed to get done and at 7:30 when I went to get him for the bus, he was laying on his bed (it was made!) quietly reading.
Waiting for the bus presents its own issues. He gets picked up at the end of our driveway and so on cold mornings like we had today, he waits inside the storm door. He can see the bus picking up kids at the previous stop, so he can wait in the warm house and still make it to the end of the driveway before the bus. Normally, I have to continuously remind him to watch for the bus. He wants to talk, play with his brother (or the dog, or the cat), watch TV, anything other than look down the street.
But this morning, he was on his game. He was carrying on a conversation about what he needed to do at school that day - he's getting out a few days early for spring break because he's traveling with his dad's family to DC and some of his teachers will be assigning homework and in class tests. Also, he's starting Social Skills Therapy after school today, so instead of riding the bus like he normally does, I'll be picking him up after school. (Any change in routine causes unexpected behaviors, so I talk about what he needs to do until he gives me that "look" and rolls his eyes that says, "yeah, mom, I GET it!") While we were talking, he kept watching out the window for the bus. As soon as he saw it, he said, "Op, Mom, gotta go. Bus is here."
As I watched him get on the bus, I simply enjoyed how easy this morning had been. I know it may not be this easy tomorrow. And I know when he comes back from DC, it'll take weeks for him to settle back down (his dad rarely has him, and has no problem throwing his routines out the door and doing it any old way he wants.). So, while today may have been an island of peace in an otherwise tumultuous life, I'll take it. As any parent of an Autistic child will tell you, after weeks and months of mind-numbing reminders when whatever you're doing finally takes, it's a beautiful thing.
Today I'll relish how proud I am of my son. That in less than thirty minutes' time, he went from covers to completely ready for school. And he did it all by himself.
Happy Raising.
No comments:
Post a Comment