Our Mornings

This post started out really negative, so I deleted everything and started over. I'm not trying to hide the negative, I just want to emphasize the positive because I'm pretty sure the negative is all in my head, pretty much. Don't worry though, I'm still going to post it, just separately. I'll give it an appropriate title too. Something like "whine-fest 2011".

We have a pretty good routine going around here. Axel really is a very easy going kid, and is not stuck on routines unlike a certain princess girl I know, who's name might also start with "A" and end with "a".

Here's what it looks like:

6:30 a.m. Wake up Axel. Make sure he is standing up while I get his clothes out for the day (this thing about my choosing his clothes is changing soon, I just have to get up the ambition to follow through with what's in my head.) Send him to the bathroom.

6:45: Wake up Angela. make sure she is talking to me before I leave the room. She makes her bed, gets dressed, etc.

6:50: tell Axel to get off the toilet.

No, really he's been sitting there for 15 minutes now because most of the time he won't get off the toilet until someone tells him to. Sometimes, during the day when I'm not pressed for time, I will just leave him there until he figures it out for himself. This whole thing about teaching him to be an independent thinker is a true test of my patience.

6:51: Axel is back in his room getting dressed. I  head to the kitchen to get Angela's meds set out and breakfast on the table.

6:55: Angela arrives upstairs for breakfast. She sits at the table and I do her hair. She uses this time to give me 5,000 details about her day ahead, including weather it's a blue or green day (which determines which classes she has) and weather or not so-and-so got all  his/her reward squares at school so they can have another room party. She also wants to know the schedule for the next 37 days.

7:00: I hear "Baba!" from Axel's room. I know he's standing in there signing "help please button" for someone to button his pants. He then starts walking to the kitchen table.

7:05: It is a long walk from Axel's bedroom to the kitchen, because he has just joined us in there.

7:08 Axel sits on a chair.

*note* Some days it takes too long for Axel to actually make it to the kitchen. On those days I have him eat after we drop Angela off at school. 7:08  is the LATEST he can start eating because he has to be done by 7:25. Let's assume he  has actually made it to the table on this day, shall we?

7:10: Angela is done eating her breakfast and is off to brush her teeth.

I have stopped reminding Axel to take bites during this time. Instead I set his timer to go off when it's time to be done eating.

7:15 Angela has a couple of minutes to watch TV or play with the iPad. Sometimes she has a book to read to me while I'm not telling Axel to keep eating. Sometimes I can squeeze a shower in at this time.

7:25: In the winter, start the car so it warms up. Send Axel to get his shoes/coat on. I used to have to send him at 7:20 but now that he can zip his own jacket he's moving a little faster. Why is that faster? Because he's not standing there for 5 minutes waiting for me to notice that he needs help (which isn't really what was happening. I was waiting for him to ASK for help!)

7:30: Send Angela to get her stuff on to leave. She's still telling me about her day, and tomorrow, and the next 37 days.

7:35 Out the door to drop Angela off at school.

7:50 We are back at  home. If Axel didn't get to eat before we left, now is when he eats. If he did make it to the table on time, now is when he makes his bed and stuff, which he does with NO help at all. He has some great skills where this is concerned, and I'm considering paying him to teach Angela.

Next post: "Our Days", also known as "Whine-fest 2011"