A morning in the life of a 2E...

Ever have one of 'those' mornings? I'm sure you can relate. I think we all have days where it seems like it would have been a better idea to turn off the alarm, pull the covers over our head and ignore the rest of the world. While yesterday started out to be a great morning (and eventually ended as a great morning), there was one of 'those' moments sprinkled in. With it being Autism Awareness month, I wanted to give a little insight into what this mama goes through from time to time.

Andrew usually gets himself up around 6:15 so he can have computer time without anyone bugging him. I get up at 6:40 and push him to finish online, get dressed, get any missing homework items together and we shoot him out the door at 7am. Nathan usually wakes up between 7-7:10 and Rebekah gets up between 7:20-7:30. I help get both of them ready to go and Nathan has to be out the door between 8:20-8:30.

Yesterday, as I'm shooing Andrew down the stairs at 6:55, I hear crying. LOUD crying...more like broken hearted sobbing. At first I thought Rebekah woke up early. If she hears Andrew leaving and doesn't get to kiss him goodbye, her day starts by screaming down the house and waking everyone up. Peeked in her room, still sleeping. Went to the boys' room to find Nathan huddled in his bed sobbing. What's wrong? He tells me he doesn't want to talk about it and resumes his crying. I tell him he has to be quiet until I get back so he won't wake Daddy and Rebekah. He calms down enough so it's quiet sniffles and tears while I tear back downstairs to get Andrew to the carpool on time.

I go back upstairs to find out what is wrong with Nathan. Finally, he tells me he started crying at first because he thought the clock said 7:55 (when it read 6:55). He was upset because he always sleeps to the 50's and never has time to do what he wants to do in the morning before he leaves for school. OK--now you know it's only 7am instead of 8am. Let's get up and have a good day. More sobbing and tears---I can't because NOW I'm upset that I read the clock wrong.

That's how my morning began. Luckily, I had purchased doughnuts the day before and that was enough distraction to calm him down and start his day on a cheerful note.

First of all, I tell you this because it's a funny story. I laughed after the fact and hope you'll giggle with me. I'm crying because I overslept and then I'm crying because I didn't oversleep and just misread a clock. Really--only a 2E would give you that kind of logic. The other reason I share this is because those issues we had were only a blip on the radar of our lives. Most of you would have really rotten days if your child or children started it like this. I rejoice because he turned it around and got happy before school.

With April being Autism Awareness month, I want to try to highlight some of the issues we deal with in our home. Our crying jag yesterday is absolutely nothing compared to the entire year that he was four years old. I'll put it into another post, but that year we would be awakened each morning to him sobbing and telling me that nobody loved him. Four years old and he thought nobody loved him.

I share this to give you hope. Maybe your bad mornings aren't so bad after all. If I can learn to laugh at these quirky experiences, I hope you can learn to laugh even if you overslept, forgot to buy milk for cereal, have to rearrange appointments, etc.

When life happens, I hope you'll learn to laugh...and remember, at least you don't cry because you misread the clock.