Yesterday was the first time that either of the kids asked for their mother since she headed off on her vacation.
I’d like to think that’s mostly because I’ve been keeping them busy while they’re home so that they’ve not had time to notice she’s not been around. It’s probably more because R is getting all the veg-time he can stand, and I’m keeping the Monster plenty busy with the things he needs to be doing, but… hey, anything that makes me feel like I’m doing a better job as a single-parent for the week.
As usual, the Monster was gone for most of the day at school. He seems to be not eating everything I’m packing him for lunch, so tomorrow’s going to be a change-up day to see if I can find something that more appeals to him. (Strangely, he did not eat the sandwich I sent, so I’m wondering if the aides aren’t helping him enough… but that’s something I can address in a few weeks when I go to see his IEP coordinator and the teacher.)
R, on the other hand, was kept away from the TV more than he had been on Monday – I limited it to when I had to be in meetings and therefore could not afford to have a snot-drizzling nearly two year old screaming out while I was trying to be professional. We also made it out to get lunch with a friend of mine, and that was nice down-time for R to be cute and schmooze with other people.
The interesting part of the day was taking the Monster to therapy. The bus was fairly late (based on their schedule for most of the year, though they were “early” according to the city notice), and I had to bundle the kids immediately into the minivan to zip over to the therapist for his appointment. Needless to say, he was worked up and bouncing and not quite willing to be still when his OT came in with the weighted vest and the headphones… and she actually told me that this was “calm” for him, in her book. Really? This is calm? Then, when they came out (they being the OT, the Monster, and his SLP, who joins them 15 minutes into the session), the SLP let me know that he was doing really well with verbal yes-no answers today, and that she’s very happy with the completeness of his responses. (He tends to give a very full answer, not just “No” but “No, that is ‘A’ type answers.) To us, though, he tends to give ‘yes’ as a universal answer, with us having to wait for the clarification after to know if he means yes or no….
Well, it’s all good for the moment. Tonight is the camp session at the JCC, which I’m hoping the kids will be manageable through… and then tomorrow, I finally get my car back…