Sunday, October 28, 2012

We somehow managed as a one-car family for a few years until about this time last year, when we were able to acquire a second that was new enough to spare us used-car worries.  That has helped immensely as our younger two kids increasingly need to be in different places, often at the same time.  But Anthony occasionally plays the wild card that sets us back to our one-car days.

My wife asked recently if I could get off work early enough to be home to meet Anthony off the bus, then go to pick up our daughter while my wife attended to another scheduled activity involving our younger son.  Anthony came home, went to the bathroom and urinated as usual, then I had him finish so we could go.  It was immediately clear something was amiss when, before he stood up, he slammed his head into the adjacent bathtub--where he has already broken off several pieces of the bathtub skirt; still trying to determine the direction to go with that issue--and I realized he probably needed to sit longer to finish his business.  I had him sit back down, but because he was angry he sat down with a lot of force and broke the other side of the toilet seat (I wrote about this a month ago) and separated the pieces.  I tried to put the front half of the seat back up against the back half, but Anthony didn't like it and whimpered as he sat there.  I called my wife to let her know the situation, and she let our daughter know she would have to wait an extended time before being picked up. 

I ultimately went out later to pick up our daughter, and together we made a side trip to get a new toilet seat.  I'm starting to wonder if I should look into buying them in bulk. 


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 My wife had her MP3 player hooked up to speakers, and went downstairs for a time.  After a while, she noticed that the music coming from upstairs didn't seem to be anything she recognized as being on her player.  She went upstairs, saw that her player had been turned down, and Anthony had inserted a CD purchased for our daughter into the laptop on the counter.  We didn't know he knew how to do that, but he must have seen it done at some point.  I still wonder why it is that he can figure out things like that, but can't follow simple instructions from us.  I guess the auditory receptors that translate words into ideas in his brain just don't work. 

Sunday, October 14, 2012

In the interest of improving my younger son's soccer skills, we occasionally go out to watch rival teams play.  Yesterday was one such instance, and I made the mistake of saying something to Anthony before I went out with his brother, so he came toward the door.  I told Anthony that he would not be going with us (since I didn't want him disrupting the sidelines of fans we didn't know), and thought that would be the end of it; he would just go back to his room. 

My wife told me later that Anthony didn't go back to his room.  He just stood there.  And stood there.  I don't know if he didn't understand me, or thought I had just gone out to the car briefly and would be coming back in to put on his shoes, but he clearly didn't get it.  My wife felt sorry for him, so she took him outside with her and our daughter, and later to a frozen yogurt shop.  We met them there after the soccer game when my wife told me what had happened.  I don't know what Anthony thought, or felt, but I was very sad for him.  I have to be careful going forward to not get his attention if I have to go out, or we need to make accommodations to take him out too. 

Sunday, October 7, 2012

I try to take Anthony with me when I need to go outside, partly for his perceived benefit and partly to get him out of my wife's hair.  Even if I have another of our children with me, I put Anthony in the front seat so that if he a) sneezes, it will not be on the person in front of him and b) if he gets angry, he will not reach in front of him to try to scratch his siblings or pull their hair.

However, Anthony unnerved me yesterday by pushing the floor-mounted gear shifter into neutral while I was driving.  I of course told him forcefully that he couldn't do that.  A short time later, however, he reached for it again.  So I raised my voice considerably at him, which, of course, made him very upset.  It's a good thing car windows can sustain some impact, because we otherwise would have a broken window to deal with as well due to his head banging.  I guess he will either remain in the back seat going forward, or he will not go out with us at all. 

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We are now having to remove toilet paper from the bathrooms when Anthony goes in by himself.  We have found more than once recently the toilet clogged because he has emptied whatever was remaining of the roll into the toilet--as well as removing the metal cylinder from the toilet paper holder and putting it into the trash.

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Anthony likes puzzles, and we sometimes try to keep him out of the kitchen--where he is prone to sneeze on things--by sending him to his room and breaking up multiple puzzles for him to work on.  Today, I found our younger son was in Anthony's room with him, and asked him what he was doing.  He said Anthony had grabbed his hand, took him into his bedroom, and tapped the table where several puzzles had largely been finished.  Our younger son obliged by breaking them up again so Anthony could start over.