I was informed, over the weekend, that I don’t talk enough about the baby.  That would make sense, since the baby’s also not diagnosed with Autism, but… I digress.

One of the frequent complaints I hear from other parents in the community is the difficulty they have in getting their children on the spectrum to bed at times.  (Yes, yes, I know this is a problem for most parents.)  On the other hand – we almost never have an issue with getting the Monster to bed.  Tell him he’s going to bed, and off he goes.

Last night, though, was a very good example of the differences between our two children.

So, the Monster went to bed early, since he was generally acting like he was not feeling well – sometime around 6:30 or so.  The baby went to bed about 8:40 or so, which is fairly normal for him.

And the baby woke back up a little after midnight.  I was being a good parent, and took the baby downstairs to our media room (which is relatively soundproofed) so his crying wouldn’t wake the wife or the Monster.  That did not help, and in short order, I made the decision to take him out for a drive to see if that would calm him.  On my way back upstairs to get dressed so I could take him out, I walked by the Monster’s door and heard him, awake in his room.

The major difference between my kids – the Monster, also in very short order, went back to sleep.  The baby, on the other hand, was up for another hour or two, and ended up spending the night snuggled up with me to finally get him to sleep.

My Monster’s not good at a lot of things.  Getting himself back to sleep – that he’s good at.