He came up with a plan and carried it out.

Tonight DC put away his computer and began his bedtime rituals…

Moving his pile of 3 books from “their spot” at “his spot” at the kitchen table, to their “bedtime spot”.
Moving his stack of papers from his kitchen chair “spot” to their “bedtime spot”.
Putting his DVDs away.
Taking off his “If I Need Help” dog tags and his medical alert bracelet.
Turning off the lights in the kitchen.

I asked him what he was doing as it was only 6:00 PM.

No reply; he just continued on with his night-time rituals.

I told him again that it was only 6 o’clock.

He was in no way tired or sick. He had just been “ice skating” and dancing around the kitchen and living room.

He went upstairs to brush his teeth
He came over to me and pulled down his bottom lip so I could see his brushed teeth.
He went to his room and got his pillows.
He went to my room and got mine and brought them downstairs.
He got out his blankets and his iPad and got into his “spot” on the couch and was ready for bed.

I was confused by all of this. Not to say that all of this isn’t the norm every night, but not at 6 o’clock unless there is a storm.

And then it hit me….

The last time DC slept in his room and not on the couch was Christmas Eve (because… Santa). The last time before that was Christmas Eve 2018. Earlier in the day we made a deal – or so I thought. He agreed to sleep in his room tonight. We talked about it for a good long time and this time I thought I made it easier for him to accept by compromising and telling him that for now, I will only ask that he sleep in his bed tonight. He could sleep on the couch the following night, an so on. We would take it one day at a time. (My back was/is screaming for mercy, but we’ll take it slow anyway).

He agreed.

Some backstory from 2018 – The Couch; Another Round:

When DC was young, he would come into my room when there was a storm and he was afraid. This did not mean he would calm down but once he tired of repeating the same few phrases over and over again, he would finally fall asleep.

He is 27 now (chronologically) and it is no longer appropriate for him to come and sleep in my room. He does not understand this because in his mind, the storms are just as scary as they were when he was young and quite honestly, developmentally, he is just as young as he was then. There is no good way to explain this to him.

So…… now during storms or when he hears a loud noise that might be a storm or fireworks or a truck driving by or a plane flying over head…… we sleep on the couch.

I have a sectional.

He sleeps on the chaise lounge (the bottom of the L) and I sleep on the straight part.

He was trying to get out of the agreement he made to sleep in his room.

He assumed that if he just got everything together right after dinner, ignoring my “What are you doing”s, and just got himself set up and on the couch, I would forget about our conversation and our agreement.

You know what? It worked.

If it had been his regular time to go to sleep I would have reminded him that he agreed to sleep in his bed. Although my aching back should have reminded me; the fact that all of this was going on so early and he seemed to be on such a mission to get all of his rituals done quickly, I was too busy being confused to remember our conversation earlier in the day.

Apparently DC had not forgotten.

Well played, DC. Well played.

Tomorrow, I will be ready.

(I do have to admit that I AM a bit impressed by his well thought out plan)

*****

For anyone that might be new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to “make fun of him”

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies.”

“The Alarm went off and Mom has lost her mind”

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

Have you ever come across a meme online that has you convinced that the creator must be following you, or spying on you – because obviously this meme was created just for you?

Today my friend, Audrey shared this meme on Facebook, I don’t know where it originated but I laughed out loud because this just happened to me.

Wait….Wait…. What Day is it?

First, a few back story notes that I have to make before telling the story:

As a rule, I don’t get very much sleep on Sunday nights. No matter what I do, the utter excitement of having to go to work the next day keeps me awake… This also happens to a few co-workers – so it’s become somewhat of a “thing” on Monday morning to discuss who had the least amount of sleep the night before. Usually *Cracker wins the contest, but I believe this week, I was the winner. Unfortunately, there is no prize for winning.

By the time I got home from work Monday evening, I felt like I could fall asleep standing up. I do have to add that historically I am not a “good sleeper”, but once I am out, I AM OUT!

Another thing I have to mention is that DC has refused to sleep in his room at night since Christmas Eve. Once he gets nervous about a storm or a cloud because that could mean a storm or if the power should go out for a minute, or a truck going by because it sounds like thunder….. (you get the picture)….that’s it. He’s on the couch! I just can’t wait for the 4th of July fireworks that usually start going off about now. This also means I must sleep on the couch. We have a sectional so he sleeps on the chaise lounge end and I sleep on the other side.

Coincidently I made this meme just a few days ago due to a very quick power outage.

So back to Monday.

By 6:00 pm I knew if I didn’t take a quick nap I would never make it until DC went to bed. I told DC I was, to use his words, “going to get some rest”. He was sitting on the couch watching YouTube videos on his phone. I laid down in my spot. I even set the alarm because I didn’t want to sleep too long. In the meantime, DC went upstairs to put his pajamas on and gather his pillow, sheet and blankets. When he puts his pajamas on that early it is his way of telling me that he doesn’t want to go anywhere else that day. He’s done. I was done too, so he did not have to worry about that. I must have been really over the top tired and really ‘out like a light’, as they say, because I really don’t even remember if it was the alarm that woke me up or not….

but…..

I woke up, looked at the clock – it was 8:00! Panicked, I jumped up, and yelled “Oh my God!”. Of course DC has no idea why I’m yelling “Oh My God!”, so he’s just looking at me, confused.

Now this was not your typical “wake up on a Saturday thinking you are late for work and you figure it out within a few seconds” kind of panic. This was a full on “I can’t figure out what is going on” kind of panic.

I ran to the door thinking that DC’s transportation to work would for some reason still be sitting in the driveway a half hour after they usually arrive. The car wasn’t there. I still couldn’t figure out what was going on. If they arrived to pick him up and no one came out, they would first beep the horn and then have dispatch call on the phone. How did I not hear the phone? How did I not hear the horn beep? Why didn’t DC wake me up? He hates the sound of my alarm, he hates the sound of the phone. Why wasn’t there a message or a missed call showing on the house phone or my cell?
I turned from the door and yelled to DC – who was right where he would have been in the morning, “What day is it?” – DC answered “Monday”. I yelled back “No! It’s Tuesday!” (good going, let’s just totally confuse him).

If there was ever a look that said “This woman has lost her mind”, DC had it! He would never have the words to say that or really understand what loosing one’s mind means, but he had that look.
I went back to the door to stare at the empty driveway. I looked at the clock again, thinking I had just misread it being half asleep and panicked, but no, it still said 8:00. DC is still looking at me as if to say “What is wrong with this woman?”

At this point I am even starting to second guess what time his transportation comes in the morning, as if I would forget that or get it wrong, but I was half asleep, so who knows. I mean at the time I didn’t think I’d taken a nap and slept through the night, I may have been able to figure it all out sooner if I thought that but I didn’t even remember taking a nap! I just thought it was a regular morning and I had over slept!

Now I am trying to figure out what to do. Should I drive DC to work? If I did that I would be hours late for work myself. Should I just call him in sick and take him to work with me? Fortunately before I made the call and left a message at his job, I happened to look over at the TV….

Channel “Two-Five” – in DC-speak, TNT to the rest of us, was on. I’ve probably mentioned more than once that TNT is our default channel. DC always likes it on, even if he’s not watching. He likes to watch Smallville also known in our house as “Somebody Save Me” in the morning (not his first choice of shows, but they took Angel out of their line-up – Boo!). I noticed that a show was on that usually only plays at night – I think it was Major Crimes. It took a second but I finally remembered that I had taken a nap and it was 8:00 at night and it was still Monday, just as DC told me while I insisted it was Tuesday.

Now I had to make a joke out of the whole thing because he was still looking at me like I had really lost my mind. “Ha Ha, DC! Mom was confused! You were right, it is Monday! Mom made a mistake, I must have been very tired!”

He laughed. I don’t know if he really understood how funny it was, all that he knew was that Mom made a mistake, and he always thinks that is funny!

Looking back though –
Did I notice that I still had my work clothes on? – No
Did I notice it was 8:00 pm when I checked my phone for missed calls? – No
Did it occur to me that DC would never be sitting quietly at 8:00 in the morning? – No

So the conclusion I have come to is –

NAPS……

BAD, Very BAD!