I took the day off recently for our anniversary, and my wife asked me to see Anthony off to the bus while she briefly attended to a job-related matter before we went out together.  I had Anthony all ready to go: coat on, shoes on, harness for his bus seat on; and we waited for the bus.  I heard the bus come, opened the door and nudged Anthony outside with, "See you later Anthony!", knowing that is how my wife sends him out; he dutifully gets on the bus by himself.  But Anthony paused, looking at me. I told him to go ahead, and he stepped down another step, still looking at me.  "Oh, that's right," I thought.  My wife always gives him a kiss on the cheek.  So I did the same, and he went on his way. 

Anthony is, perhaps more than most, a creature of habit.  When my wife and I laughed about this incident later, our younger son (11 years old) reminded me that he had also resorted to kissing Anthony on his cheek when my wife once asked him to get Anthony out the door as well.  I felt a little strange kissing Anthony on the cheek; our younger son felt even stranger.  (I'm not sure that's grammatically correct, but I'll keep it that way.)

Sometimes we create our own problems with Anthony, and sometimes they are of his own doing.  I give Anthony a hug every time I put him to bed, so he expects that as well, and I don't dare break the routine.  But something as simple as expecting to take a shower in the evening when I am not ready (or too tired) to get in the shower with him, can have serious ramifications for us.  So, I do what I can to avoid presenting him with a situation that strays much from what he expects.