i admit, i am often distracted by my children. not in a, 'oh, they're so cute! i'm the best mother in the world!!1!eleventy!' way, just a...i'm pretty much an airhead so it doesn't take much to side-track me kind of way. i've always been pretty absent-minded (ask my mom!) but now i seem to be late all the time. this is A Bad Thing. i don't like being late. but it seems like no matter what, however early i try to start, no matter how organized i try to be, i am nearly always late (the only time i manage to be on time is when i go to the store. i put tommy and sasha into the car nearly as soon as hiro gets on the bus, which is about 8:30. since most stores open at ten, i am nearly guaranteed to be on time....) i wasn't always late. not that i prided myself on being punctual, but i usually had a few minutes to kill before meeting up with people. not anymore. the worst is the school bus. it arrives at a really crappy time (for our family). some mornings tommy is still asleep when the bus gets here! i really can't leave the house (the bus stop is around the corner from our house) when he's sleeping and it's about time he wakes up. and in the afternoon, sasha and tommy are on at least an hour of sleeping when the bus arrives. sometimes nearly two (i try to get them to sleep at one, the bus gets here at 2:49 give or take a few minutes). it sucks. i'm not sure what to do!

next year sasha will also be taking the bus, and i suspect tommy won't be napping any more. i apologize all the time, and the teachers are really nice about it (i wonder about the bus driver, though...) most of all, though, i want to teach my children about being punctual and not making others wait. hiro needs some work on this, actually, because he is *still* fighting going to school, although he's not crying any more. he still occasionally clutches the door frame or something. ugh. but, more often than not, the bus will arrive and i'm still telling (or shouting at) him to put his shoes on. everyone's waiting. ugh.

i've tried to cut out things that distract, like videos or wii (oh man, learned the wii one quickly. do not let hiro play wii in the morning!) he'll even linger over breakfast, though, just to make us late. guess i'm still going to have to ride this out, and hope it passes quickly, and we'll all be on time again.