I often have trouble sleeping, and a recent night was particularly bad. So, I stayed home with Anthony on a Sunday while my wife and other two children were out. We have a small TV and an old VCR in Anthony's room into which he sometimes inserts tapes he likes. However, we had just been given one of those movies on DVD, meaning he could watch it in the living room, where he prefers to be. He hasn't figured out how to operate a DVD player--it's a little more difficult than shoving in a tape and seeing the machine turn on automatically--so I put the movie in and started it for him, then went to lie down.

After a while I heard him leave the living room to come to shut doors that were open. That didn't surprise me. Later, I heard him shutting doors downstairs as well, and that did surprise me somewhat, but I suppose it indicates the extent of this obsession. It is as though a warning light comes on in his head to locate open doors and close them at any cost. He can actually get quite agitated if we try to dissuade him from doing this, but closing doors alone is generally only a very minor nuisance. He sometimes goes beyond that by opening doors that are shut, turning the lights on, then closing the doors again. He will even open closed doors to go into rooms and close any blinds that are open. Those two actions eat at me because I prefer not to needlessly increase our utility bills. But, letting Anthony know that I am upset can sometimes have undesirable consequences. Quietly turning off the lights and re-opening blinds can keep him from putting new holes in the drywall. Speaking of which, we plan at some point to buy plywood to nail over the existing walls in his bedroom. It will be extra work and expense with texturing and painting, but it will give us peace of mind to not forever be concerned about dents and holes.