My Awesome Aspie Teen: Praising the Good Stuff

I spend so much time complaining about the annoying stuff, and discussing deficits struggles that many times I forget mention the good stuff--the things that make my wonderful Aspie child kind, thoughtful, different, and absolutely awesome.  

How many 13-year-old boys worry about their moms being tired and not getting enough sleep? 

Mr. Aspie Writer is away at training again this week. He left Sunday afternoon for Atlanta, and doesn't return until Saturday. We are moving on the first of October, I have school work and writing to get done, and need to pack up the house--fun! 

The baby has not been cooperating. Sunday night, after Dad left, he cried and stayed awake past 2:30 in the morning! My 8-year-old cannot fall asleep without three things: melatonin, quiet, and Mom. With the baby in rare form, he only had one out of the three, melatonin. He could not fall asleep until I was able to settle the baby down enough for the house to be fairly quiet and I could lay down with him. It was 12:30 before he fell asleep and he needed to be up at 6:00 a.m. for school. This is not a good start to the week. 

I wound up falling asleep myself about 4:30 in the morning, but woke up three times before 6:00. I was dreaming that I was being chased through an insane asylum that I was trying to escape from (Freud would love that one). Three times I woke up and fell back to sleep into the same nightmare. The alarm went off at 6 a.m. and I could barely peel my eye open. I figured I only really needed one eye to drive little guy to school.  

My poor little man slept all the way to school and walked with his eyes still half shut into the building. It is a good thing that the teacher guided him away from the pole he almost smacked into. 

I spent the rest of the day packing Aspie Teen's room. This is usually a daunting task because neither him, nor I are any good at prioritizing our tasks. I was running on an hour and a half of tormented sleep--but Aspie Teen took charge. 

He packed his books, DVD's, video games, art supplies, and board games into separate boxes. Closed and marked what was in each box, and then stacked them neatly in the corner of the dining room. The first eight boxes of this move are now ready to go. Usually Aspie Teen is the last one to pack anything, and Mom and Dad wind up doing most of it. 

The exhausting day finally came to a close. Baby had not napped all day, and fell asleep at 7:30 p.m. Eight-year-old passed out from exhaustion at 8:30 p.m., and Aspie Teen was watching Hulu on my Ipad when I knocked out at 9:30 p.m. Finally, a peaceful, full night's sleep. 

Not so--I guess baby thought he was only taking a nap because he woke up, and I mean wide awake and not exactly happy baby at 9:45! 

My awesome 13 year-old was falling asleep himself, but got up and told me to stay in bed. (I could barely keep my eyes open at this point.) He changed the baby, gave him a bottle, took him in the living, fed him a snack, watched TV, and played with him until after midnight. Then—he put the baby to bed!  

He did all this because he was worried about me being tired, and wanted me to get some sleep. I am so impressed and proud of him today.  

Aspie Teen is still zonked out snoring at 10:30 a.m., and although we have school work to get done today, I'm letting him sleep in.