Black and White

One of the things about having a son with Autism is that life is black and white. With KB there will often be a flutter of the lashes, a change of her mind on a choice - she lives in shades of yellows, pinks, and blues right now. Bubba is all black and white.

This morning the hall light clicked on at 4:44AM and I heard a grunt outside our door. I opened the door to find Bubba already heading into the room. He walked straight to the bathroom but I think that was because he was still half asleep. I asked, "Do you need to potty?" and he answered, "no." I don't know why I did what I did next - we aren't a real "sleep in the same bed" family - but I told him to climb up and he laid down and fell asleep.

15 min. later he woke up and said, "But I am so hot." I pulled his shirt off and he fell back to sleep.

30 min. later he woke up and said, "I need a trash can."

At this point I realized what was happening. Bubba didn't eat dinner last night. He was so tired he wouldn't eat and asked to go to bed. I am sure that he was so hungry. I took him downstairs, gave him a pop-tart, and asked if he wanted to go back to sleep. His response? "Yes." And he crawled up, laid down, and was out.

Little was upstairs making up for the lack of emotion in Bub's responses but crying out, "I want to get up. I am so sad. I need to talk to you. My cousins are gone and I am sad." Turns out she thought her cousins (who arrived yesterday) had already left to go back to Memom's when, in actuality, they are only down the road at a hotel. Once she realized that she would indeed have more time with E and A, she was content to settle in with a book.