Part 19 ~ 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.

4:00AM Bounce and it was another Spazatron morning. Ben’s arm across my face let me know that he wanted my tablet. I reminded him to ask for things instead of snatching. He has a BIG problem with taking things. He sees something he wants, he takes it. (future politician, CEO, property developer?) I don’t think he’s trying to be malicious, he just has very poor impulse control.

By 5:00 my head was ready to explode. He kept playing “bongos” on Zeus, but too hard. Rather than go to another room, Zeus tried to crawl on top of me to save him. I have a California King size bed. I was being pushed off the edge (literally & figuratively) by my ‘children’. I sat up (no pea soup, but it was close) and yelled to them both to “SCOOT!” I think they heard the threat of ‘Mom Wrath’ in my voice because they actually scooted.

It wasn’t long before they were at it again. And just for fun, Diesel Cat came jumped up on the bed to add to the chaos. I got up and went to hide in the bathroom.

Five minutes later, Ben was pushing Zeus from in front of the door so he could pound on it. Why is it, in a one bathroom house, no one needs the bathroom until I’m in there? Another mystery…

At 6:20AM I decided it was close enough to the correct time, and gave Ben his morning meds. Yep! Time to “dope his face” as we sometimes say at Casa Cuckoo. Finally, around 7:00, there was some chill. Daughter continued to sleep in oblivion behind her closed door.

Ben watched his tablet and munched on his White Cheddar popcorn. I tried to get him to eat cereal, goldfish, wheat thins, peanut butter toast… nope! Popcorn. Not worth fighting over.

At 9:00AM Daughter stumbled into the bathroom. She said “Before you shame me for sleeping so late, I was awake from 1:00 until 4:30 this morning.” I told her that I wasn’t planning on ‘shaming’ her. I wasn’t… I don’t have to say anything. She knows. I also didn’t call bullshit on her claim of wakefulness. I grabbed my stuff, topped up my coffee and went to my room, telling Ben it was Mommy’s turn to script with him.

I got in bed and Zeus was whining at me. I asked him if he needed to go out and got up to open the door. He’s so afraid of not being with me, he jumped up on the bed. I left the door open, told him if he needed to go, he better do it now or hold it. I got back in bed and once he was sure I wasn’t going to dash away forever, he got up and went out. Dumb Dog! He came back in all wiggling and wagging his tail like he’d done some heroic feat instead of peeing against the fence. Big Dumb Dog! I got up again and closed the door. (It’s been raining off and on, don’t need water on the tile floor…broken bones would be bad)

I was actually sleeping. I know I was sleeping because I got woken up by Ben doing something very loudly… in my room… it was 10:00. Grrr!

After performing his duty of making sure I was awake, Ben got in bed with me and watched his tablet and ate some Apple Jacks. I tried to drift back off, but Daughter and the med alarm arrived at the same time. I gave up, and got up.

Ben drew a picture to remind me to put Sven in the shower. (We usually put him under a warm shower a couple times a week. The tub soaking has been since he started peeling.) Right you are, Ben.

Into the shower he went. He was enjoying it too. Every time I went to check on him, he was asleep. I woke him up with the toothbrush, he still has a few spots here and there where there’s old skin. He wasn’t happy about that part.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon went by in a leisurely manner. Every once in a while Ben would come and hang out in my room, then he’d go back in the living room with his Mama. Very relaxing… FINALLY!

I hadn’t been paying attention to the time, so I was surprised when the 2:30PM med alarm went off, and Daughter arrived shortly thereafter to give Ben his meds. It had been raining off and on all day. Sometimes the sun would peek through and other times the rain was pouring down. I think the rain contributed to the overall lazy mood everyone seemed to be in. I usually hate rain, but I’m learning to appreciate it.

All was chill until 4:00PM when Daughter came into my room to tell me about a hospital job she applied for. It burst the bubble. Ben ran out of my room into the living room. After she had finished telling me about the job, the application and how she really, really wants to work in a hospital, she went back to the living room. And found Ben with her phone and her tablet.

She, of course, started getting angry. “Benjamin Michael” she yelled. So Ben had to react with anger. (I’ve talked to her about leaving her stuff unattended. I’ve talked to her about her tone of voice with Ben. She says ‘he knows better’. Yeah, but he’s a child. An autistic child. Come on…) The next hour was touch and go. Ben was skating a thin line, trying to see if he could provoke her again. I didn’t see any of it, I stayed in my room, but I heard enough to have a good idea what was going on.

Around 5:00PM Ben came running into my room, jumped on the bed and got in my face. “Gramma, I need your help!” and ran back out. I had heard him calling to Daughter several times, but apparently she didn’t hear him (selective hearing) or was ignoring him (more likely). I got up and saw him trying to put the top on his jail/cave.

I got him all set and didn’t even squoosh my fingers, then went back to my room. Daughter cooked his steak, then asked him where he wanted to eat. He replied “Gramma’s room”, so he and Daughter followed Zeus, who was following me, into my room. Cha cha cha…

After dinner was meds, bath and bedtime. He said he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Daughter told him to use the bathroom and brush his teeth, and he could skip his bath. She’d just use some wipes for his face and…ummm…other areas.

They were in his room, he was all tucked in and Zeus was still hanging out on my bed. I looked at him and said “Bedtime”. He sighed (it’s so funny when a dog does a ‘heavy sigh’) and slowly got up and went to Ben’s room.

Daughter and I are waiting for fast food delivery. I think I might eat and read (try) a little and call it an early night.

I’ll sign off with another visit to the redwoods. Stay well, sending hugs, and see ya tomorrow…