We are starting to settle into the morning and afternoon routines of this school year.  I have one Post-It for each girl on the wall in front of my desk on which I wrote which specialist they have on which day of the week (Mon. Gym, Tues. Art, etc.) and a print out of the lunch menu is taped to the kitchen door at Dee Dee’s eye-level.  I get up first, and get myself ready for the morning.  Then, Audio usually wakes up by herself and comes downstairs on her own.  After I sit and talk with her a bit, we go upstairs to look for Dee Dee.  We’ve found her every day, so far.   

Once the girls are downstairs, I microwave their breakfast while they knock their heads together and giggle.  Then, they eat breakfast at the dining room table and we listen to “morning mixes” of songs that are happy (but not too silly), uplifting (but not too wild), and have a positive message (for the most part).  I have to assume that my two girls are the only kids at their school singing Kraftwerk or Dead Milkmen songs in the hallways.  And if they are not, there’s a good chance that they’ll make some good friends to harmonize with.  Incidentally, Dee Dee came home from school one day last year and let me know that, “whistling isn’t allowed anywhere in the school.”  Whistling in our house is allowed, to a point. 

Anyway, breakfast has been going well this year.  And, the girls both seem to be aware that we need to eat, use the bathroom, get dressed and start walking towards school by a certain time, even if they aren’t aware of exactly what time that is, or exactly what time is.  This is an improvement over the previous school year, when the girls often seemed unsure that there was any plan for the day.  We were never late for school.  But, it seemed like we were always in a hurry.  If anything, we’ve left the house a little early a couple days this year and I had to assure Dee Dee that it was not a holiday, or a day off, even if we seemed to be the only people waiting outside the school.  There have even been days when we had enough time before we had to start our walk for Audio to play the old, electric piano in our living room.  The keys tell her which notes to play. 

After-school pickup has also gone fairly smooth.  At the end of the second week of school, Dee Dee brought home a pink, laminated piece of printer paper with the girls’ names and room numbers printed on it.  The idea is that instead of telling a teacher posted at the door which kid or kids they’d like to collect; parents can now simply hold up the sign.  On Monday, I forgot the sign.  When I was halfway to the school, I realized that I’d left the sign by the back door.  I was a good three-fourths of the way to the school before I gave up on trying to come up with an excuse I could give as to why I didn’t have the sign when I arrived at the school.  So, I ran home, grabbed the sign, and ran back to the school.   

When I finally got to the school, parents were still crowding around the door where a substitute was standing in for the woman who usually stands by the door with her wild sounding walkie talkie.  Some parents were holding up their laminated, pink signs.  Some were approaching the substitute and telling him the names of the kids they wanted sent out.  The substitute seemed overwhelmed and even though there were brightly colored laminated signs all around him, he was only responding to the parents who were calling out their kids’ names.  Just as I was tucking my laminated sign behind my back and clearing my throat, I saw both girls, first Audio, then Dee Dee come running out the door towards me.  Somebody inside the building must have recognized me and sent them out.  Since then, I’ve remembered the sign. 

Also, the school sent an email out at the end of the day, last Friday telling parents to keep their kids home if they are coughing or sneezing.  I’m sure that there had to be a lot of kids at school who were coughing and sneezing last week.  So, I’m not taking the email personally.