I might have written down this school year's schedule elsewhere, but so what. If you're wondering why I get fuck-all done, corresponded, or followed-through, perhaps it is due to the schedule below. You'll notice that, after nine years of parenting, I have managed to earn just over 90 minutes per day of free time in which to do all the laundry, bills, correspondence, various other projects, and house-tending. If anything is accomplished during any other time, it is because I am neglecting at least one child. (Or conscripting them!)
Being the one who -- as Jennyalice puts it -- has a minivan permanently attached to my ass is not something that would normally get to me. I've worked with a schedule like, but not as intense as, this for years. But for the past five or six months, Leelo and Mali have been refusing to sleep at night, usually until 10 PM (even with all the sleepy-time routines and no daytime naps) and then Leelo wakes up at 6:30 AM. Seymour and I get none of that happy kids-in-bed, let's-parallel-websurf togetherness that is supposed to make the parenting bearable. It makes me grumpy. And hate everything and everybody.
Monday
8:15 Drive Iz to school
8:30 Drive Mali to school
9:00 Get back home for Leelo's school bus
9:30 school bus actually arrives
11:15 Leave to pick up Mali
2:50 Pick up Iz, drive her to Aikido
3:20 Aikido starts
4:30 Aikido ends
6:00 Leelo's home session with Therapist R ends
Tuesday
8:15 Drive Iz to school
8:30 Drive Mali to school
9:00 Get back home for Leelo's school bus
9:30 school bus actually arrives
11:15 Leave to pick up Mali
12:30 Pick up Leelo from his school 20 miles away
1:30 Leelo's home session with Therapist L starts
2:50 Pick up Iz
3:30 Iz's home Spanish tutoring starts
3:30 Leelo's home session ends
4:30 Iz's tutoring ends
5:00 Iz sees counselor twenty minute drive away
6:00 Iz's session ends
Wednesday
8:15 Drive Iz to school
8:30 Drive Mali to school
9:00 Get back home for Leelo's school bus
9:30 School bus actually arrives
11:15 Leave to pick up Mali
12:30 Pick up Leelo from his school 20 miles away
1:30 Leelo's home session with Therapist L starts
2:50 Pick up Iz
3:30 Leelo's home session ends
4:00 Leelo's home session with Therapist R starts
5:30 Leelo's home session with Therapits R ends
Thursday
8:15 Drive Iz to school
8:30 Drive Mali to school
9:00 Get back home for Leelo's school bus
9:30 school bus actually arrives
10:00 Bad Moms Coffee!
11:15 Leave to pick up Mali
12:30 Pick up Leelo from his school 20 miles away
1:30 Leelo's home session with Therapist L starts
1:45 Pick up Iz, drive to piano lesson (at Mali's school across town)
2:45 Iz's piano lesson
3:15 Piano ends
3:30 Leelo's home session ends
Friday
8:15 Drive Iz to school
8:30 Drive Mali to school
9:00 Get back home for Leelo's school bus
9:30 school bus actually arrives
11:15 Leave to pick up Mali
2:50 Pick up Iz
4:10 Leelo arrives home
As of today, the schedule is going to change. Therapist L has left us for greener pastures. She had been sucking up a bridge commute to work with Leelo for almost five years, so I can't blame her. Also, now that our boy spends so much time in school, the number of hours available to her weren't really worth the effort. We are sad sad sad but very much understand.
Because now Leelo can go to school full time! He had been leaving school early three days per week to have home sessions with Therapist L. Now he will get to stay until 3:00 (and arrive home on the bus at ~4:00) four days per week, and go see Sage for speech therapy again on Wednesday, his early release day. Since the SLP working with him at school does not grok autism, this is a really good thing.
I will write more soon about how much I love Leelo's school (SLP notwithstanding). And how much he loves it there, and is really learning there, and how much even Supervisor M, with her high standards, likes his school. He might not be sleeping, but during the day Leelo is a happy happy boy. And that is a remarkable thing for a kid who has spent the past four Februaries deep in a nasty behavioral bender. We are grateful. And relieved.
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Forgot to mention that we were recently visited by a friend from Ghana. Mali and I took him all over town. Charles had never encountered Pollo en Mole before, and was smitten. Never before had Seymour or I seen a used dinner plate so clean.
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