When one thing in “the routine” is off, it can ruin an entire day.
I wrote this last summer, when I changed the beditme routine.
It’s hard to believe how far we have come since then. I almost don’t want to “say it” for fear of jinxing it.
But today, we messed up the routine. Life happened.
Jonny came up to me after breakfast and said, “Daddy, something is loose in my mouth.”
“Is it a tooth?” I asked.
“No.”
Something had happened with his braces and a metal wire was poking into the inside of his lip. It was painful for him.
My first thought was to get some wire-cutters and cut that bad boy (problem solved)…
But then, I remembered, I’m not an orthodontist, and there might be something else that needs to be fixed.
So I called up his orthodontist to see if we could schedule an emergency appointment and get it taken care of. It was 8am.
They said we could come in at 9:50.
The problem is that Jonny has school… and today is “early release” where the kids go home just after like… lunch. So if I took that appointment, I might as well not send him to school. (Did I mention I have a work deadline today?)
Well, the orthodontist got on the line and said that if we could make it down within the next like… 10 minutes she would be able to take a look at it before her 8:30 appointment.
Done.
Jonah wasn’t dressed. Jonny wasn’t dressed. His lunch wasn’t even made yet. I rushed around the house trying to get everything together for school (which started at 8:35).
Thankfully both boys had eaten breakfast. And Jonah doesn’t have school today. (YAY!)
I was able to get Jonah changed without issue… (except his shirt, but I’ve learned to choose my battles with him. He likes whatever shirt he is already wearing better than any shirt you want to put on him).
Jonny is 9, but when it comes to getting dressed, the boy is slower than an uphill glacier. So I dressed him and threw his shoes and socks at him and told him to get in the car and finish dressing.
I put Jonah’s socks and shoes on as I buckled him in.
So off to the orthodontists we went. I made it by 8:18. Not bad, considering.
The orthodontist’s assistant brought us right in… Other people were in the waiting room. We went first… (sorry!)
I held Jonah as Jonny climbed in the chair. For the most part, Jonah was fine. He covered his ears, as he does when he is getting overstimulated. Going to the orthodontist is definitely NOT one of the things that is part of our routine, though he has been there before.
They fixed the wire in less than 5 minutes. Nothing had broken. It had just caught on “something” and had come loose. The orthodontist used some miniature needle-nosed pliers and fixed it right up. I’m so glad I didn’t try to fix it myself. It would have ended badly.
I quickly thanked everyone as I rushed out the door, still holding Jonah, praying he wouldn’t “escalate”…
So then I packed everyone in the car and buckled them in. It was 8:25. It takes 10 minutes to get to school, which started in… 10 minutes.
Off we went. I dropped him off at EXACTLY 8:35… but then I remembered, I never made his lunch and his lunchbox was still at home.
Which meant a SECOND trip to school, right after we got home… which is also, not part of the routine.
So we made it home as per our “usual” pattern, and I made Jonny’s lunch and attempted to tell Jonah “let’s go ‘bye-bye’ again!”
In the past, we would not have made it past this point. Jonah would not have tolerated coming home, just to leave again. Jonny would have had to just eaten “school lunch” (which he wouldn’t have actually eaten) and gone hungry today.
But I had to at least give it a shot.
“LET’S GO ‘BYE-BYE,’ JO-JO!!”
Jonah stood in the doorway to the garage. He wouldn’t budge. He started “protesting” hands covering his ears. He started screaming. I feared the worst. I opened the driver-side door and tossed Jonny’s lunch inside, just in the hopes that Jonah might follow me…
…and bless his little heart, he did!
I was able to strap him in and he was FINE!
The whole trip there and the whole trip back. He was such a trouper.
I have to write about these little things so I never forget what a MOMENTOUSLY HUGE deal it is for Jonah to tolerate this much deviance in his normal routine, because when I look back at how he handled this much change a mere 8 months ago, it was AWFUL.
Bravo, Jojo! Daddy is so proud of you!