the snowy day

It was a snow day in Wooster. Another day of school called off after Friday students were dismissed for parent-teacher conferences and yesterday they had off for President's Day. Some people might love the thought of a 5-day weekend sipping hot chocolate in the casa. But autistics like their routines. Three days of cancelled school can mean big trouble.

I dreaded telling Martin there was no school today, but he seemed to take it in stride. In fact, he spent most of his day in his pajamas, playing with Sasha sometimes and going off on his own at others. At 3:30, he got dressed for speech therapy and we braved the snowy streets to get to his appointment. Martin signed himself in at the therapist's office.

Our day was not like the Ezra Jack Keats book. There were no snowmen. The snow we have is actually too fluffy for packing into balls. There was no long session of outdoor adventure followed by a warm bath and the innocent hope that a snowball might make it through the night. But it was a day in which Martin seemed relatively happy. He had time to play his own games. He had a speech appointment he enjoyed. And he arrived home in time for a session of sidewalk shoveling that he greeted with great enthusiasm. I had worried that our version of A Snowy Day might be subtitled, "A Family of Cranks is Undone by a Blizzard." But it wasn't so.

Lucky us!