Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Something is eating the tomatoes in our garden. Fruits that are reasonably ripe end up half-eaten before I can gather them. So I have decided to pick tomatoes at the first signs of ripening while still intact, and bring them inside to more fully mature. I anticipate they won't taste quite as good, but they will be preferable to being beyond salvaging.

However, "something" is eating the unripe tomatoes in our kitchen as well. I realized a couple of days after bringing in the first batch that they were gone. Did my wife or other children know what happened to them? No. Anthony was likely the culprit.

I brought in a second bundle a few days ago, and they were again gone the next day. That presents a little more concern than previously, because this group also contained a tomato with blossom end rot that I was specifically saving only for its seeds to plant next year. I don't know if there is any harm in eating such a fruit, but I think I would find it fairly disgusting myself, and would certainly dissuade Anthony from eating it if I were aware.

I am trying once again with more tomatoes. We have put them in a thin white paper bag on the counter. Anthony apparently has not noticed them yet.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Having Anthony change his clothes can be a perilous undertaking. I have to ensure I get the match right the first time; if one article of clothing is too small for him, for instance, removing it in favor of another is certain to set him off. He usually does not become violent enough to put holes in walls or turn aggressive toward others, but I don't care to take that chance.

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An event outside recently gave us little time to eat dinner, so we stopped at a fast food restaurant to buy a bucket of fried chicken on the way there. I guess we have never actually had Anthony eat fried chicken, because I did not know that he would eat the bones. Chicken leg bones. We tried to get him to stop and instead eat only the meat, but that of course made him angry as well.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

My wife works part-time at an elementary school which uses a year-round format. Anthony's school is on the traditional schedule with a long summer break. Because our daughter is now out of elementary school and subsequently also on Anthony's schedule, we are having her stay at home with him while my wife goes to work.

We would not be able to have this arrangement if my wife's work did not allow some flexibility, however. She has already had to return home a couple of times to deal with him being violent. Then, yesterday, she had to return to attend to Anthony in the bathroom.

My wife had to leave for the day before Anthony got out of bed. We can ask our daughter to tell Anthony to go to the bathroom when he wakes up, and we can ask her to wash his hands when he is finished. Yet, for reasons we don't understand, Anthony will often not urinate even though sitting on the toilet unless someone is standing in the bathroom with him, telling him to go. And if he does not go, he will likely become very upset later before relieving himself on the floor. We cannot ask our daughter to stay with her brother in the bathroom. So, my wife had to excuse herself from work for a time to come home and make him go.