Too good to be true, but.....

   Today was a rough one. Nixon woke up and it was snowing. The roads were crap and a lot of parents in the area saying school should've been closed. But it is what it is and I sent Nixon to school. I did cancel his afternoon appointment with the child psychologist. The roads I would have had to have taken to get him there were just total accident magnets. Since it wasn't a life or death situation, I felt there was no need to take the risk.

   Nixon, on the way out the door to school, says to me "Mommy, I can't wait for outdoor recess today!". I calmly warned him that there was a very high probability that was NOT going to happen today. I told him that again while walking him to the entrance.
   **By the way, the CUTEST thing happened as he was getting ready to enter school. Nixon's classmates H and A were getting out of their parents cars and walking into school when they both say Nixon. I heard, in the most adorable chorus, "Nixon! Hi Nixon!" and Nixon returning the gleeful greetings. He was so excited to see his classmates and they him.
     Nixon doesn't feel the need to make friendships. He talks about 3, maybe 4, classmates. It's a little sad, as a mom, to not have him asking for friends to come over and to be invited to a friend's house. But he'll get there. The awesome thing about Nixon (and some ASD kids) is he doesn't understand peer pressure. He doesn't feel the need to impress or be liked by his peers. The class tries to help encourage Nixon to "behave" (his teacher's words, not mine) when he's acting out and Nixon is usually non-responsive to it. Other times, certain students like to praise Nixon when he's having a particularly good day again without much of a reaction from Nixon.**

   Today was rough. Nixon found out, from the teacher's aide, first thing this morning that there would be no outdoor recess today. For whatever reason, Nixon had thought snow meant outside recess. He was in a funk for the rest of the day.
   Since he was expecting me to pick him up early for his doctor's appointment, even though I cancelled it, I picked him up early. 

    

    He did spend 20 minutes out of class. When the aide told him he was at 20 minutes, he said "Ugh fine, okay. I'll go back now. I don't want to lose more tablet time".  

    It's not overly surprising to me that Nixon had such a rough day. Despite my warning him there likely would not be outdoor recess, Nixon had it in his mind that he would get outside for recess. Finding out that wasn't happening was all it took for him to shut down for the day.

   Tomorrow's another day and another chance for smiley faces.