Routines

Adam was a bit tantrummy for me tonight, and I'm starting to wonder if it's the routine switch. I wasn't around last night and my wife and Grandma held down the fort with him, with Grandma being a bit of continuity for his routine last night. Tonight, he refused to brush he teeth for me, laid on the ground and did the "Ah Saen, Ah Saen, Ah Saen" thing again calling for my wife. She came and he sorta cooperated for her. Usually I was his go to bed time guy and he didn't want much to do with her until it came to reading a Lao book or brushing/exercising/massaging him before bed. We still do the brushing protocol to try to quell some touch sensory issues, but it doesn't seem nearly as needed as it was, say 2 years ago before he could tolerate a hard grasp on much, sense his need to go to the bathroom, or all the other sensory fun he was experiencing.

The other thing new I see him doing is acting out with banging doors and stomping feet. He did that with me tonight--stomp stomp stomp in the hall, looking back at me for my attention, as though I was supposed to stop him. He then walked up to one of the interior bedroom doors and looked back at me before kinda slamming it open--similar to how he slammed doors yesterday while he was having his "i won't get my coat" meltdown. I wonder if one of the scenes in a computer game or something he's stimming off of at grandma's might have some door slamming or stomping in it. Usually any new behavior can be explained by something he's watched a video or animation of 8000 times while no one was paying attention. Grrrr. I get frustrated with his other residence sometimes as I know he's often on a floor separate from the adults. Raised ranch floor plans and autistic kids don't mix.

Left to his own devices for a bit tonight here while I was running an errand and the wife was cooking, the 8 year old Adam raided my son's baby toy bin again in the basement (doh, separate floor again), trying to find something that made noise to stim off of. The toys are all way below his development level, so it drives us positively apesh1t, but I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world he could be doing.

He seems a bit more stim-prone lately for reasons we can't really figure out. His meds/supplements have been pretty stable for a while now, but with us out of town, he's probably not had a whole lot of outside stimulation either. It's hard to say.