Well the truce is over...the gloves are off! Let the fighting begin!
For the past week and a half, the boys have been getting along great. After I had a talk with "14" about Aspergers and how it shows itself differently in both himself and his brother, he actually seemed to get it. Where '14' has an extremely sensitive sight, '11' is extremely sensitive to sound. I explained that while he sees things so well that other people don't even notice, his brother hears things a 100 times louder than most people do. Therefore, the sound of nail biting while it may be ignored by others, grinds on your brother's eardrums. This is why he totally freaks out when there is a thunderstorm. It's like someone is shooting fireworks at close range...indoors! Where as your most people may not pay much attention to your singing, your brother hears every crack in your not so well trained voice. (I didn't actually tell him his voice needs work. I didn't want to spoil his fantasy). I'm usually just so happy to hear him singing. You can't be sad while rocking out to Linkin Park at the same time. It's scientifically impossible.
Some of their stuff is just plain and simple sibling fighting, but it's exacerbated by their idiosyncrasies and over-the-top reactions. The two of them had a talk and decided that they would try their best to be good brothers, as they call it. It's been wonderful. However there must always be some kind of war going on in the house, so the reserved negative energy was directed towards me by "14". Hence, the reason I felt the need to get out of dodge last weekend.
Little Boy Blue was fairly content and agreeable. He was actually having a really good two weeks or so. I attribute that to the fact that his irritating sibling was spending a great deal of time out of the house going to camp and swim practice. In our house, there is seldom peace and tranquility. If there is silence...you wonder when will the next bomb go off.
This week's explosion belongs to Little Boy Blue...
We have a visitor in the house. Their cousin is here from Baltimore, Maryland. Man is he an awesome kid! I'm like...hey brother-in-law, can I trade? Anyway -At first my little Blue child was so happy to have him here, he could hardly contain himself. Of course, he wants to have total control over the agenda and really would like to not have his brother involved -at all. He has been ready to fight at the slightest infraction.
To top it off -we've had rain, threat of rain and thunderstorms for the past two days. Forget about it...he's miserable. He hasn't wanted to leave the house. He is a nervous, anxious wreck. He is making the thunderstorm anxiety bigger and bigger with each passing storm. He hides in the bathroom with the fan on, music playing and earplugs in his ears. We have even found him with complete camp set up in the middle of the night sleeping in the bathroom! Pillow, blankets, sleeping bag, etc. I implore him to stay in his bed. I try my best to distract him and keep him focused on other things. But once the lights are off and everyone is in bed, if he hears the slightest sound in the middle of the night, he's out of that bed and in the bathroom with the door locked!
The big boys went to Six Flags today with big, big brother "22". Blue gladly sent them on their way for a day of roller coaster riding. I tried to get him to go out to lunch, which ordinarily is something he loves to do. After much discussion he agreed to go. As he was getting dressed he heard thunder. All bets were off. I even offered to take him to the Apple Store, which is his very favorite place on earth, -he even turned that down.
He is stir crazy, anxious, ready to fight, and just plain old blue. What is a mother to do? Be Blue too...
