The other week I dropped Tristan off at his group home. I chatted with one of his group home staff, Benny. I told him Tristan had a great weekend. I asked how Tristan has been for him. He filled me in on one of Tristan’s antics.
Benny said, “I went into the bathroom one day and there were 3 lightbulbs sitting on the bathroom sink counter!”
I chuckled as he said this. That is definitely a Tristan thing. Over the years, Tristan has been fixated with light bulbs at home. This is a phase that comes and goes. Apparently, it is back!
This conversation made me think of some of the other light bulb stories tucked in the back of my mind.
At one point he wouldn’t stop unscrewing the lightbulbs in his bedroom ceiling light fixture. I actually had to tell a new respite worker, “When it gets dark outside Tristan’s room will be dark because he has lost the privilege of having light bulbs.” I thought to myself “Who say’s that?” (Parents like me who work 24/7 to keep their special need child safe!)
Thankfully, the worker said “I understand and I don’t judge.” Inside I was thinkging. Whew! And a quick arrow prayer: Thank you Jesus.
For a period of time….
He would unscrew the light bulbs from the front and back porch lights. We would wait until he was sleeping and the we would put a light bulb back into the socket. Then in a day or two the light bulb would be gone! When we looked over the porch railing we would find it on the ground. Broke from the fall into the mulch, but not shattered. After replacing the porch lights a couple of dozen times with no further success, we gave up. He won!
We finally had to tell visitors ” Wait there’s no porch light” and quickly install a lightbulb. If company was on the way we would install a light bulb 5 minutes before the arrival time. Seriously I am not making this up.
I wish I could ask Tristan “why?” Instead I am left wondering what is his hidden message. We know he does a lot of things for attention. Does he do this to say “Look you didn’t pay attention to me for 3 minutes so this is what I can do?” Or is trying to complete his own personal challenge like “Let’s see if I can do this before someone catches me.” Sometimes, I like to believe these are little love notes that he leaves. Like “Hey I’m thinking of you and I want you to know it.”
Like I often say to him, “Tristan when we get to heaven I have a lot of questions for you.”
I hope you enjoyed another healthy dose of laughter from our home!
thelightersideofautism.wordpress.com 
🙂 you can’t make this stuff up!
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LOL! No I can’t!
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Little love notes….Hmm….,, he is trying to communicate, and that is progress, but keeping the bulbs under control is a good idea.
It is true, no one understands what the challenges are in other households.
I personally think it is interesting Anne has to wait just five minutes before company comes to screw in a porch light and then extract it later. Lo…..l like having company is not enough of a challenge…Lol
It would be fun to hear from your readers what they have to go through wouldn’t it?
I lay down the challenge….Everybody try and write in about your “special moments.”
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Who knew we did this? I bet all the times people came over they had no idea. LOL
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