Day # 6

"I just wanted to see if it would actually work, now I know it does!"

Today I want to start off by saying from this day forward I want you all to know my boys as "Jay" he is my son with aspergers disorder, and "Max" my son who is nonverbal with autism. My little angel Max isn't so little. He actually towers over my Mom and sister at 11 years old and 5'3. He still has a few inches before he catches up with me. Jay is 14, 5'11 and is now taller than most of his 8th grade class, to him I'm a shrimp. I have so many nicknames for them both, like Bubs, Hootin Nootin, Little Merry Sunshine, Maximo, the list goes on and on. I'll only confuse any who reads this if I don't just leave the nick names out. So Jay and Max only from now on.
Max woke up this morning at 5:30am after having gone to sleep at 2:15am. He did go back to sleep thankfully, but was up and down for a few hours so the restful sleep didn't ever happen. Its hard to really sleep when he comes running from the kitchen with the dog in tow, trying to ride him like a horse. Max loves horses, and one of our dogs is pretty big and adores Max, follows him everywhere and will let him try to sit on his back before he takes off running. This will go on forever!! But it is one of the only times in a day that I hear him laugh. Its music to my ears.
Max fell asleep at 12:50am, which is good compared to last night when he went to sleep at 2:15am. That means he will probably be up by 4am ready to play in the bath tub, or take a ride. Its so hard to stay awake at 4am let alone get motivated to go do anything at 6 or 7am.
Max slammed the front door for about 15 minutes straight this evening before moving on to the bedroom door. I thought initially that he was having a melt down, but it appears he is listening to the sound of the door slamming, and he has to "slam it" just right before he can walk away from it. If anyone makes any noise during these episodes he has to start all over or he'll fall apart. His most recent self abusive behavior is slamming his wrists together as hard as he can. Try it.... slam your wrists together as hard as you can. It really hurts.
I realized today as I was baking biscuits, doing the dishes, folding the laundry... and starting new loads, watching Max's water level in the bathtub, holding the dogs leash with one hand, cleaning the stove top, wiping the counters, putting on mascara and figuring out my bills..... I was doing it all at the same time. Mega Multi tasking. I realized I have to do everything at the same time if I want to get anything done at all around the house. Once Max is out of the water, the race begins.
No wonder I don't get anything done. If your home really is a reflection of your life then that means mine is a mess. I wish there was a house cleaning fairy that could come wave her wand over my house a few times a day.
Tonight before I go I have to tell you the funniest thing. I'm sure you all remember the movie "A Christmas Story"..... well Jay had gone outside to put a water balloon out in the snow tonight, hoping tomorrow it will be a perfect ice ball. He has OCD on top of aspergers so he very easily can get obsessed with things. If we don't talk about it and I can't redirect him he perseverates over whatever the problem, question or item is. He's been an obsessive collector of various things his entire life. One summer we had 100's of butterflies living in our house because he couldn't stop catching them. Various things consume him. Usually they pass relatively quickly because another is soon to follow.
Tonight I heard Jay calling for me from the front porch. He said "My tongue is stuck on the gutter" I didn't believe him. Moments later he walked in the house with his tongue dripping blood. I was so shocked. He looked over at me as I stood up from the kitchen table and simply said, "I just wanted to see if it would actually work, now I know it does". Yes that's right, Jay stuck his tongue on the metal gutter and it froze to it. Some of the flesh of his tongue is still on the gutter. We must have laughed for a half hour. So everyone out there.... it really works, don't let curiosity get the best of you like Jay did.
I better go to sleep for now. You never know what time the rodeo is going to start.

Until tomorrow!