Captain's Log

Had a great afternoon. School went smashingly, and Mr. C. was in rare form for attentiveness, cooperativeness, and fact recall. His reward was a walk with the dog (exercise, and pet therapy ooooh, sneaky!), and was well earned.

The evening was equally grand. Dinner was an easy fix, Q joined us at the dinner table, and I even fit in a half hour each of work in C's quilt and Tai Chi.

'Round about 8 pm, I decided I'd give my nails a fresh coat of varnish.

Mistake. Miss take. Missss Taaaake.

To allow for a relaxed and peaceful(ish) bedtime routine, I have to get C into his room, into his jammies, and into his bed by 8:30.

You see where I'm going, don't you?

I looked up at the clock at 8:58, realized how late it was, and told C it was bedtime.

Mistake #1: Starting my manicure too late.
Mistake #2: Not setting a timer (for myself).
Mistake #3: Announcing bedtime abruptly instead of giving ten and five-minute warnings.

Needless to say, it blew right up in mah face. C argued, screamed, slapped himself, and threw things at me. He refused to listen to me read, and is sniffling himself to sleep instead.

When will I get this right?

Autism is hard, y'all.