Today was a busy day, not a terrible one, but it was one of those days filled with signing papers, and waiting in doctors offices. My middle son Mr. C fractured his foot over the weekend and was fitted for a boot today. Nothing dramatic happened, but there must have been just enough to wear Mr. L out. Tonight he ended his playing outside with running indoors without a word, and then soon returning to the door to peak out at me with stressful tears welling up, he quietly said to me, “Where are clean clothes? My eyes hurt!” And something about the fact that he couldn’t find his “Food bag”.

The good news was that I knew what he was looking for, but the bad news was that I wasn’t sure Mr. L was going to let me answer his 3 wishes.

The 3 wishes…

1. Clean summer pjs
2. Trimmed bangs
3. A bagged lunch

1. Clean summer pjs

Mr. L had wet clothes on because he had been playing in water with some neighbor kids. When he ran inside, he found only long sleeved pajamas… Sorry dude! Your short sleeved pjs were clean, just not folded or put away.

But thankfully I was able to quickly procure clean bedtime attire from the magical laundry basket before Mr. L fell into a puddle on the floor. But that was only stop number 1 and the count down to bedtime had recently begun. I just hoped I didn’t turn into a pumpkin before the 30 min was up.

2. Trimmed bangs

I had noticed over the last couple of days that my oldest had been pushing the long hair away from his face and I knew that his complaints about his eyes hurting actually meant that he was tired of his bangs getting in his eyes. I mean it may actually been causing him physical pain, I’m not going to argue that because how could I? I can’t argue how he feels! BUT I can get the hair out of his eyes.

I am going to put it out there that I do cut my kid’s hair and my husband’s, so this isn’t actually a huge deal. I mean, I didn’t go to beauty school, so it’s not easy… But in general everyone gets a decent hair cut, and friends are pleasantly surprised when they find out who does the hair cutting for my guys. Anyway, Mr. L had moved to the kitchen table crying that he couldn’t find his “Food bag”.

At this point my son with autism was starting to show some higher levels of distress and I needed to move quickly to ease the tension building before it burst. So I quickly grabbed a pair of hair cutting scissors and a trash can and talked through my actions of what I was doing, as I removed the hair scattered across Mr. L’s line of sight. I didn’t do a terrible job, but I’m probably going to make sure it’s even tomorrow. Bottom line though, I helped his eyes not hurt, and his repeated asking for his food bag hand calmed back down to a talking level of volume. 2/3 success so far 🤞. But wait! There’s more!

3. A bagged lunch

When Mr. L asked for his “Food bag” he wasn’t asking for just any bagged lunch. A pb&j and bag of chips wasn’t going to cut it. Earlier today after a doctors appointment, my family had got drive through for dinner but Mr. L had said no to food and had insisted he only wanted ice cream. Well apparently he had changed his mind a few hours later and was now looking for his fast food he had not ordered…

I knew a food bag meant a grilled cheese, drink, and fries… And I happened to have some weird grilled cheese things in my fridge that were supposed to be warmed in the oven. So before I trimmed some blond hair, I had tossed a couple grilled cheeses in the oven. So at this point I pulled out 3 white paper bags, tossed 3 boxed juices in them, a bag of fruit snacks in each, and a snack sized bag of chips in each.

Soon the grilled cheeses were done, so I folded Mr. L’s into a square of wax paper, and placed his in his bag. I handed Mr. C his cheeser and bag of goods, and Little Miss A her bag of treats sans cheese sandwich she wasn’t going to eat anyway. And the heavens opened and Mr. L accept my attempt at being a nation wide food chain- score! Mom- 3 Autism-0

So did you have a stressful day today? Or did you have a win? I’m really hoping to hear some winning stories today, you know we could all use some of those of late.