Routines

It's amazing what routines can do for you. Since Dylan was born, I've had him on a routine. Feeding routines, bedtime routines and that translated well into his school routines. He thrives on them and is at his best when they are followed. Camryn too!

I never know what I'm going to get when I pick him up from school. I would say the majority of the time, he is his happy go lucky, energetic self. But there have been occasions when he appears to be fine and can only hold himself together long enough to get into the car. Once safe inside our comfortable and contained environment, he falls apart. Most likely the meltdown is caused by over stimulation or just plain old tiredness.

But yesterday it was because he had a substitute teacher. When I asked him how school was, tears welled up in his puppy dog eyes as he said: "I didn't get to see my teacher." A little more probing, got me information about the substitute teacher and that she doesn't know how to do things right in class. The worst part about the scenario was that Dylan was uninformed about this change in his daily routine. He needs advanced notice if the schedule will be interrupted, with time to process it.

Once we got home and started to play, all was forgotten. But at bedtime when I told him to have sweet dreams, he said:

"I hope I do, because I had a rough day!"