ISO: sleep

Note to reader: I started this post Tuesday and didn't get a chance to finish, so now it covers two days.

I was wrong. It didn't work.

Kevin was napping before I even got home yesterday. (See yesterday's post.) He woke up around 9 pm despite several attempts at rousing him earlier. And he was still awake at midnight.

He's going through some new OCD thing, I guess. We have to be in bed just right, heads on pillows just so, arms under the covers, or he'll "fix" us, Dan mostly, but still. It's annoying because he's not letting us sleep and frustrating because he doesn't understand not to do it. I wrote out a script of rules.

Bed time is at 10:00 pm.
I will be quiet when Mommy and Daddy are sleeping
I will not turn on the lights.
etc.

These scripts usually help direct him to appropriate behavior, but once he's worked up, he doesn't always comprehend the rules he's reading.

Freshman Orientation

At 8:30 Tuesday morning I took Kevin to the high school to meet his teacher for next year and to tour the school. There are 45 CRI students at Bowie High School separated into four classes and I recognized many of them from Kevin's other schools, Special Olympics, day camps and after care programs. It becomes a small community after a while.

In addition to academics in the CRI classes, there is a big vocational program. Job skills and work etiquette are taught from the beginning. Several of the first-year students even work at NASA in the rocket lab cafeteria. In Maryland non-diploma track students stay in school until they are 21, so for six years they get a lot of on-the-job experience, and often have permanent jobs by the time they finish school.

Students who are independent and show aptitude in special areas can take elective classes with the general population, like art, cooking, and music, but it's not required. There is not the integration with the rest of the school Kevin had in middle school, every quarter he had different class.

I got a good vibe from the tour even though the school is so large, so I'm not too worried at this point, but my baby's going to high school. That in itself has inherent apprehension.


Last night Dan went to the Orioles game and I took the opportunity to try to get Kevin back into a cycle of sleeping when he should without Daddy distracting him. I ran a lot of errands with Kevin so he couldn't nap and when we got home directed him to homework. It kinda worked, he went to bed around 11 instead of 12 or 1:00.

I'll take one victory at a time, no matter how small. Although I wish victories were bigger and came more often.