Brother Showdown

Our apsie is very particular and hates change.  Most kiddos and adults with autism are like this.  They have things lined up a certain way, arranged by color/shape/size or whatever their preference may be.  If we let him our aspie would have our entire house situated to his liking, but we have enforce the rule that he can only "fix" his room and no where else.  His room then is his savior.  It's his comfortable place where is actually does spend a lot of his time. 

Being also that our aspie LOVES Christmas and the holiday seasons, we have allowed him to decorate his room.  He earned a little blue foil tree (that I think is horrendously ugly) that he loves because its blue and has lights.  He also earned LED colored lights that we strung around his desk.  He also through the years gathered a few decorations that he put around his little tree on his night stand.  One of these decorations is a large plastic bulb that is open on one side, has a train that goes around a Christmas tree and plays songs if you hit a button.  Problem is the baby has discovered that he too loves this decoration. 

When we found this decoration this season the fight was on immediately when the baby discovered this awesome new toy in our aspie's room. Baby would take the bulb, aspie would cry and scream, aspie would chase baby around the house trying to get it, baby would run crying, aspie would tackle the baby if parents were to slow to stop it and so on and so forth.  (By the way, this running and chasing always seems to occur when I am in the bathroom or cooking.  It's like they know the perfect time to break into a bloody battle.  Look she is busy now, lets get into it!)  We have tried to work out a sharing of the bulb, but this really upsets our aspie as well because 1. he does not want the baby in his room to play with it and 2. if the baby leaves his room with the bulb, then the bulb is not is its right place in his room nor in its place on a night stand.  Its a mess. 

Therefore, our aspie decided to take the issue into his own hands and make a "lock" on his door so that his brother can not come in to steal the toy.  He took the dog's leash, attached it to his door knob and then pulled it around his desk and under his chair so that the door can only be opened a crack.  Of course anyone larger in size can push the door open, but the baby is stopped.  I actually thought it was pretty smart idea and sort of gave into the new locking situation and figured it would help stop the fights in the meantime.  Oh how wrong I was. 

This morning the baby woke up at his normal 6:30 am wake up time.  I felt him slither out of bed (yes we are still working on getting the baby out of our bed) and make way for the door.  Since he didn't wake me up I knew something was up.  I quietly followed him out of the room where I saw him walk up to his brother's bedroom door.  I watched as the baby pushed the door as far as it would go, squeeze himself through the crack and make way for the bulb.  I heard the words, "Got it!" in his baby slurrish voice and them heard him scurrying back.  He couldn't fit the bulb back through the door so he followed the leash under the desk and knocked the chair down to undo the lock.  He then grabbed the bulb and went running like a bat out of hell.  I couldn't help but to laugh watching my little cat burglar in process. 

I am not sure if it was my laughing or the chair getting knocked down but my aspie woke up.  He must have sensed the disruption in the decoration force because he looked over at his night stand, let out a loud "UUUGGGG!" and went darting out of his room saying, "What is wrong with this baby!" 

After I broke up a wrestling match that pursued I took the bulb from the both of them and put it up for the time being until I can get the baby something of his own. 

After all the crying was done with and "normalcy" returned to our home I couldn't help to laugh as I drank my coffee.  It was like the baby had it planned out before he went to bed.  I could only imagine him thinking you may go to sleep after me big bro but I wake up first! 

I know that fighting over things is a normal part of sibling hood but I never realized how much planning was involved in the fights.  Apparently a lot.  Oh and for the icing on the cake...my aspie is currently up in his room devising another "lock" for his door that is more baby proof!

***I think I finally got the Facebook follow button figured out so for more shorter posts, news articles and more, like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter!  Thanks for reading!!***