Schools were cancelled here today due to the predicted weather and for once, the weather predictions panned out.  I would not have wanted the Monster to have gone to school in this weather… and I wouldn’t have wanted to have had to go get him if they’d closed early.

There is, however, a different problem – a lack of other things to do.

Ordinarily, we have a couple of contingency plans – we have his homework to do, and we get ahead on it, or he still has therapy (albeit early) if the weather holds, or he manages to get outside.  With the snow blowing and coming down as it is, that last is just not feasible.  Therapy had to be cancelled because by even the earliest available slot, it was too slick to drive outside.  And… it’s right after a break, so he doesn’t have homework to do.

On the other hand, though, he has found things to do on his own.

Okay, so a lot of it involves him getting iPad time, which means he’s playing games.  He’s been sticking a lot to some of his OT-helping games, the ones that have him drawing shapes and lines and the like with his finger, which is not a strength of his.  (The settings are granularly-fine enough that it gives him a significant challenge on some shapes.)  He’s been snuggling a little bit with one of our cats, though it’s taken some reminding that said cat doesn’t need hands wrapped around his throat…

And he’s played with R.

Now, he does still mostly engage in parallel play, this is true.  The kids’ll sit there and play with the train table, for instance, in their own fashion.  But he’s also been paying attention to what makes R laugh, and he’s made a game of finding something that makes R laugh and doing it over, and over and over again… which is good because it keeps both of them (usually) out of trouble.  The night before last, it was putting R’s feet on his face, or it was blowing at R’s hair.

I really do hope though, all things being equal, that he goes to school tomorrow.