and this time it's not my fault.

see, i have this "rule": if my son's awake, i'm awake unless some other older person (such as my husband or my oldest) is awake and in the house to keep an eye on him. last night, everyone slept except taz, which meant that i didn't sleep either. in fact, he went to sleep about 8 a.m., and woke up again about 10:30 a.m.

as soon as saxy got home from wal-mart, my sleepy self was back in bed where it stayed until about 5 p.m. oh, after a bank visit. (no, no money came in. in my dreams.)

there is a reason for this rule: to keep the boy out of trouble. see, taz has all the control of maybe a 3 or 4 year old . . . if we're lucky. most times i think it's closer to a 2 year old. but, anyway, when not watched, he gets into things: dvd's, cd's, razors in the bathroom, and just about anything else he finds absolutely fascinating. bathrooms are cool, but not safe. kitchens have food, but not safe. the living room is reasonably safe, but has the books, dvd's, and cd's, not to mention the ps2, tv, and stereo. taz is a smart kid and knows how to pause the vcr during a commercial and all that, but i still don't want him to be around all that stuff unsupervised.

so, the rule: if taz is still up at night, mommy (who is the night owl and can handle it better) stays up. that way, he at least stays in his room and out of unsafe places.

but still, a 8 a.m. knock out time is just a bit much even for him. the thing about autistics, even those only mildly autistic, is that they are very attached to routines. taz's routine was pretty shattered this weekend. saturday his respite care worker didn't make it (flu) and sunday he spent the whole day with dad (missing a dose of his medication in the process). add to that the fact that dad just isn't as attentive or as strict as we are, and you can see why the boy was a bit stressed out. not only was his usual routine broken, but he went someplace that tends to have no routine at all, much less one he's used to. minus the medication, and, well, you have a kid who stays awake all night, humming and spinning a toy (or his fingers - trust me, it can be done) to try to calm his disturbed nerves and overloaded brain down. and, in this case, it took awhile to do that.

course, this means i was pretty much out of sorts when i woke up and am completely twisted around in terms of schedule.

and i was doing so good at getting to bed by 4.