My name is Jenny Maloni and I have to confess, I am one really tired mom.  I don’t want to sound negative but it is what it is.  I have two wonderful little boys Dominic (almost eight) and Dylan (six).  They are the joy of my life and my biggest source of exhaustion!  Anyone with two little boys knows what I mean.  Add to that the fact that both boys have autism, and you get the picture.

For any mom who has going through potty training, you know how frustrating it can be.  Trying to potty train a child with autism can be even more challenging.  It was something I was determined to do and although it took two long years and outside assistance, I finally had both boys potty trained. Let me tell you, I felt like a superstar!  Not only did they go on the potty, they could wipe, wash hands, the whole deal.

Of course there were occasional problems, like the time Dominic used an entire 20 value pack of toilet paper for one poop!  I really never should have left the whole pack in the bathroom but I did and Dominic took full advantage of it.  After he went poop, he took each roll out of the pack, wiped and put it in the toilet.  By the time I came in, there was a pile in the toilet that looked like frosty the snowman with brown streaks!

Anyway, I was pretty sure that was the worst that was going to happen as far as potty issues but life with autism never goes as planned.

Recently, I was having one of those days, the really hard ones.  Dominic, who loves to climb, had decided to get up on a chair, grab a container of salt out of the cabinet and pour it into the dinner I had just finished cooking.  Of course I didn’t realize this until I took a taste of the food.  It was disgusting!  He then decided that my hard wood floors needed a shake down and proceeded to pour the rest of the salt onto the kitchen floor.  If you have not had the opportunity to clean up salt from hardwood flooring, I can tell you this, it’s not fun.

Not one to be outdone, his brother Dylan, who will not eat anything healthy and will barely look at a cupcake, decided to have Kibbles and Bits for dinner.  Thankfully, our dog didn’t mind sharing but I was pretty grossed out!

Anyway, I just wanted to make it through the rest of the night in peace, go to sleep and deal with tomorrow, tomorrow.  But that’s not what happened.

After the salt incident, I was trying to figure out what, aside from dog food, I could give my family for dinner.  Dylan had wandered upstairs to go to the bathroom and Dominic was no longer playing with the salt so I had a moment to myself.  We had been working on the whole privacy issue in the bathroom and the boys were getting good at going to the bathroom and closing the door. So I didn’t really think much about it, but after about 10 minutes, I realized that Dylan had been in there a long time.  Finally, I walked upstairs to see what he was doing.  As I reached the top of the stairs, I could feel the squish of the carpet beneath my toes.  I looked toward the bathroom and saw water seeping out through the walls.  I ran over and yanked open the door and found Dylan standing ankle deep in water.  By that time, water had seeped into the hallway and the two adjoining bedrooms, completely destroying my rugs.  More water had poured into the walls soaking all the way through to the basement.  When we ran down to check it out, we stuck a pole up to test the ceiling and the water came crashing through.

Long story short, we had to have a water restoration company come with big fans to dry out the house.  Of course, the noise of the fans and disruption to their routine drove the kids crazy and they were a mess for days.  In the end, we tore up all the carpets and replaced them, redid the entire bathroom and had to have the walls redone and the basement ceiling fixed.  Just another day in the life of autism…

Like I said, I’m one really tired mom!  Stay tuned for more…