Part 3 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog

If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

Today’s Bounce happened at 4:45AM. That’s later than yesterday and way later than usual. Of course, I was awake already. Well…awake-ish. I knew I was on solo duty this morning since Older Daughter went back to work last night. She works four days on, two days off, so her schedule is predictable but never the same days off.

Ben got under the blankets doing his jitter jive wiggle thing, Zeus did the sniffing thing. I handed over my tablet and opened a juice by touch (that’s talent) and tried to semi-doze. It must have worked, because at 6:25AM the alarm for his morning meds startled me. I meant to get up, but at 6:45AM a text from Older Daughter letting me know she was leaving work startled me again.

I got up to get his meds since they were already late, and he already had ‘ants in his pants’. I honestly think the ADHD is more of a ‘problem’ than the autism. I don’t mind the stimming or pickiness, it’s the bouncing all over the place, needing everything RIGHT NOW, that my introverted Empath senses get bombarded by. It makes me feel anxious and jittery.

Anyway, meds delivered, Sven Dragon uncovered and lighted, wee & wash completed, I went back to join Ben in my bed. Zeus had followed me from place to place as usual. He lays in front of the bathroom door, he’d follow me in there if I allowed it.

Daughter got home around 7:10-7:15 as usual. I was asking her about work when my phone started playing Younger Daughter’s ring tone. Uh-oh…

I could hear crying before I even put the phone to my ear. I asked her “What’s up?”, she asked if her sister was home and awake, I told her yes and she asked me to come get her. I told her I’d be right there.

I pulled on my hoodie and my uggs and grabbed my stuff and went to get her. It was cold (for SoCal in March) this morning, 45°F. I had to wait for the windows in the car to defog before I could see to drive. Zeus stared out the front window of the house at me until I left.

There weren’t a lot of cars on the road, but there were cars. It was early-ish on a Sunday morning so didn’t expect too much traffic. I got to Younger’s place and texted to let her know I was there.

Apparently partner told daughter that they love her, but aren’t ‘in love’ with her. A bunch of other stuff, but basically Younger is hurt, confused and just wanted to get away from their small place. We talked for the 10-15 minutes it took to drive home and she went to lay down on Ben’s bed (her former bed in her former room) and went to sleep.

Older had texted to let me know that she had talked Ben into getting in bed with her while I was gone. He stayed with her until about a half hour after I got back with Auntie.

“Gramma come living room!”

So, I grabbed my stuff and moved to the living room at around 8:30AM. I needed coffee anyway. All this happened before my first sip of coffee. (yes, I’m a superhero, where’s my cape?)

Ben ate some popcorn (we ordered two boxes of 40 snack size bags each, at the same time we ordered the juice) and had some juice, surfed the web and played with his chalk. Both daughters slept.

After his 10:30AM meds, I put Sven in the tub. He’s shedding and very grumpy. The water helps loosen the skin so it can come off faster. I brushed him with a toothbrush, which he didn’t like. After a good soak, I put him back in his terrarium with fresh mustard & collard greens, a few blueberries and a worm. He went to his ‘pouting corner’ and ignored the food. Oh well… I tried.

More popcorn, (I’ve been teaching Ben how to open snack bags the past few days, I think he’s getting the hang of it. Next is putting the straw in the juice.) more juice, more chalk and tablet for Ben. More coffee and some blog reading for me.

12:30PM I hear water splashing. I tell Ben to quit playing in Zeus’s water bowl. He said “Muddy water”. Oh great. I asked if he put chalk dust in the water. His response was “Yes, I did!”. So off I go to dump the water and refill the bowl. When I turned around, he had his Nerf gun pointed right at me, and fired. Because, of course he did. Then he laughed maniacally. I gave him the ‘mom stare’ and told him that wasn’t an accident and he knows better. More maniacal laughter, then on to something else.

1:15PM I am taping his ‘castle’ back together, Dogzilla had knocked it over and the highest tower was damaged.

Younger Daughter wandered out to go to the bathroom, greeted with a “Welcome, Auntie!” from Ben. Fifteen minutes later, Older Daughter stumbled out of her room toward the bathroom. It’s been a while since there was a ‘line’ for our one bathroom. It kinda reminded me of old times.

I asked Older why she was up? I didn’t expect her to get up until 2:00PM. She told me a group text from her work went out to everyone advising that there is no restaurant or fast food allowed in building, period. Two residents recently tested positive for regular flu and since no visitors have been allowed for a week, it had to have come from fast food. Yes, my daughter does work for idjits. The group message was bad enough, but the people asking questions and having conversations in the group message is what made her so angry that she couldn’t go back to sleep. Yes, my daughter works with idjits too.

Ben followed his Auntie back to his room and they hung out together. He hasn’t spent any real time with her since September, his birthday. He’s seen her for 10 or 15 minutes here and there when she picks up or drops off my car, but that’s it.

Around 2:00PM she took the car and went back to her place to talk to her partner and to possibly get a change of clothes in case she winds up staying here tonight. Older has to work, so there will be an available bed. Younger is off work for the next week, paid, ‘just to be safe’ since she missed a couple days with a regular kootie…fever, sinus congestion, aches, but no cough or breathing problems.

Ben went back to the living room, I went to my room (followed by Zeus), and Older Daughter settled on the couch.

Around 2:45PM Younger Daughter called me and said she’d be back soon, she was staying here tonight and there was no fixing her relationship. What could I say except “okay, wait until you calm down a little before you drive back, I don’t want you to get in an accident”? She promised she would wait and be careful.

Ben is still wandering around, bopping and jittering from room to room, getting into this and that. Zeus is snoring on the bed next to me.

Around 3:00PM Ben tells Older Daughter he wants to go in her room. She’s very happy about that idea. They go into her room and within minutes I hear her telling him to quit messing with this and that. Telling him to calm down, settle down, quit making a mess… I guess she was hoping they would lay in bed and watch their devices. HE had other ideas…he wanted to see if he could find buried treasure or something. By 3:30PM everything had calmed down and the house was fairly quiet. I’d have been afraid if I didnt know Ben was with Daughter in her room.

At 4:15PM Younger Daughter called me to tell me she would be bringing the car back and dropping it off. She was going to stay at her place with her partner. Yes, back and forth. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to do an early morning ‘rescue’ and things were okay by evening. This is a great reason to be thankful for being single. I do NOT miss the arguments, even when my ex was sober there were times we didn’t get along. Anyway, just about that time, Ben ran out into the back yard. He came back in with a plastic sword and started hacking at things. I wonder if he was watching a movie with sword fighting? I’ve really watched Disney and other animated movies since Ben started trying to reenact movie scenes. Those kids movies can be just as violent. Just because it’s an animated animal doing the hitting doesn’t make it any less wrong to hit. Ben has a real problem with hitting and I don’t know if it comes from what he watches or from other kids at school.

Older Daughter went outside to check on Ben since he’d run back out there again. He had climbed up the fence and was beating on the cinderblock wall at the back of the property. This is something he always tries to do. He LOVES to break things. He wants to bust everything into tiny pieces. I don’t know what satisfaction he gets from it, but it’s been a problem since he was little. He has busted bricks with toys, then other pieces of brick. He’s busted concrete the same way. He will break anything and everything.

Anyway, she called him in the house to help her make his steak. He likes to add the salt, pepper and garlic. Younger Daughter showed up with my car and thankfully distracted Ben from trying to shoot me with his Nerf gun. She also borrowed money.

By 5:15PM Ben was eating his steak. Next came his meds at 5:30PM, then bath time, which he managed with minimal problems, just a flooded bath mat from tidal waves of water. Then into jammies and he and Zeus were in bed.

Another day survived. Another fairly mellow day as far as Ben stuff goes. The Daughter Drama wasn’t as bad as it’s been in the past either. I’ll take it! Now I need to figure out what I’m going to eat since I haven’t done that yet today.

Stay healthy, give a shout if you need help, and stayed tuned for the next episode…

Also, apparently this is my 200th post.