He looks like such an angel, doesn’t he?
I don’t know if this has anything to do with Davey’s autism or if it is just plain old stubbornness and hardheadedness! But since we got our new dog, Brielle, a few days ago, Davey is being an absolute monster! First of all there are the problems with him and Brielle. She has gotten playful in the past couple of days, and gets really frisky pretty often. Davey really wants to play with her but he is too little! He keeps getting her to follow him into his room, and tries to play with her in there, and then next thing I know he’s crying because she knocked him down or nipped at him or scratched him. I tell him to come here, I kiss it to make it all better, then next thing I know he is in his room doing the exact same thing and getting hurt all over again. He never learns!
Then there is the problem of him getting Brielle to follow him into our closets. Our closets are one big closet — someone took the wall in between them out sometime before I moved in here so they could put a hanging bar in the middle between the two closets (our closets are very small so I guess they needed more hanging space). So Davey goes in his closet, climbs over stuff into my closet, and comes out in my room, with Brielle following him through there. Then he shuts my closet, comes out of my room and shuts Brielle in my room and won’t let her out when I tell him to. So I have to go let her out.
Then he is also going in his closet during nap time and getting into stuff. Night before last, he opened 3 packages of diapers and had them thrown all over his floor which I found the next morning. Yesterday during nap he emptied out a new package of baby wipes and threw them everywhere and they were dried out and unusable by the time he got up from nap. This morning I found empty Walmart bags in his room. I knew immediately what they were from. I had my baby dresses and Davey’s expensive baby outfits he only wore for portraits hanging on baby hangers on the lower rod in my closet, with Walmart bags over them to protect them. I went to my closet and saw he had taken all those off the rod, out of the bags, and off the hangers, along with taking ALL my spare hangers off the bottom rod and throwing them in the floor of my closet and breaking some of them.
Yesterday and today I have been locking both our bedroom doors so he can’t even go in his room during the day, partly because of the problem of him and Brielle playing in there and him getting hurt, and partly to keep him out of the closets. I’ve decided I’m getting a chain lock to put on his closet door up high where he can’t reach it. That is pretty sad that I have to put a chain lock on a closet door! And I am keeping my room locked from now on when Davey is up, and usually his room too. I have a little thing off a sardine can that lets me unlock the door from the outside.
And then he is being such a brat about turning off the TV and cleaning up toys when it is time for lunch or dinner. He is so hooked on Elmo and Sesame Street right now that he does not want to stop watching TV when it is time to. I am having to tell him over and over to do anything that he needs to do. Usually I have to threaten to put him down for nap or to bed without lunch or dinner and sometimes even drag him to his room and put him on his bed before he will say he will clean up his toys and wants to eat.
It’s just been one thing after another and it is driving me crazy! 
Edited to add: Since some have asked in the comments, Davey is 3, he will be 4 in February. He has been a handful since he was a newborn, first with colic and fighting sleep, then as soon as he could throw tantrums, the tantrums started. He’s better now than he was about a year ago — tantrums were TERRIBLE in the terrible twos! But still a handful now with not minding and still some tantrums. I believe he has Asperger’s or some form of autism and will be getting him re-evaluated soon. They overlooked something in his first evaluation.
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Oh, I feel for you! My son has been doing the same thing with his closet the last week… which is strange because he’s never done it before. He’s 3 1/2. 2 days ago, I went in there to get him after “quiet time” was over (this is supposed to be NAP time, but for the last month or so, he’s pretty much done with napping, so I still require him to have quiet time to unwind by himself in his room where he can play, but must stay in his room) and he had went into my room, (we share a bedroom door, kind of like a double hotel room does) stood up on a rubbermaid container I had by our dresser with Christmas decorations in it & got down a really important wicker basket that I have old photos & a few other special knick-knacks in. There also happened to be a small container of dark wood stain that came with our kitchen table. It was in plastic wrap & inside of a sealed cardboard box… he ripped it open & poured it all over the pictures, the basket, his white carpet, and himself!!!!! Grrrrr! I know it wasn’t intentional, and he normally doesn’t do things like this, but it was really upsetting. As I was reading your post, I was going to suggest the lock on the closet, but then you got to it. We had to do that just about 2wks ago on our son’s OTHER door out of his bedroom.
I would also like to suggest a fantastic book to you that has been a PHENOMENAL help in dealing with bad behavior & stopping the need to give warnings or repeat yourself over & over AND OVER!
I took a great parenting class given at our local college just 2months ago called Parenting with Love & Logic & the book of the same name by authors Jim Fey & Foster Cline has been a lifesaver. With just a few minor tweaks in the way you address your demands/requests to your child, putting the decisions back onto them & empathizing with the fact that you are also sad that they will indeed have consequences if they “choose” to make a bad decision….. and ALWAYS following through… it takes away the power struggle & I seriously saw immediate results with the first day I used a few of these techniques. Even my in-laws were like “WOW!!!” I highly recommend the book!!! You can even see some small clips on YouTube if you search “Parenting with Love & Logic” or “Jim Fey” or “Charles Fey” (Charles is Jim’s son & an early learning psychologist)
Good luck with Brielle! I hope things smooth out a bit!!!
chevsop at gmail dot com
Thanks for your response! Sorry to hear you’re struggling with the same problems! Yes, naptime for us is just “quiet time” too, except for rare days like today when he really does take a nap. He stays in there and plays 2-3 hours until he says he’s done and I let him come out. When I put him to bed at night he plays for a couple hours too. One thing I’ve found works for him sometimes is just asking “Are you reader for lunch/dinner?” and he’ll reply “No, watch TV!” and I say “Ok, watch TV.” Then a few minutes later I ask again. I do this every couple of minutes until eventually he will just say on his own “Ready for lunch/dinner!” and he will clean up toys and eat. Is that what you mean by turning it around so the decision is his? That was working well for awhile but lately not working quite as well so I have gone back to just saying “It’s time for lunch/dinner” and making him clean up and eat. I’ll check out that book though!
It sounds like you’ve got a handful! I am unsure if you mentioned his age, but since you said diapers, I would imagine he’s quite young. My son had many problems similar to this when he was little and I later learned that it was partly due to his ADHD. It was an awful time! I remember one day he tore open a stuffed carrot he had and it was full of those little styrofoam balls. OMG! This was a huge carrot and there must have been millions of these balls. They were also full of static, so you might imagine trying to clean this mess up! Hang in there…. believe it or not, it gets better
How old is Davey? Mine is 19 months and starting to become quite the lil hellion. I was wondering if I have more to look forward to! Haha, I’m sure I do! I am very interested in the book in the first comment. I think you should do a review of it!
our little guy just turned 2 and is busy pushing the limits on jumping off the table and couch… boys will be boys… hope things get better for you.
I have a son with aspergers so I can truly sympathize with those everyday struggles. He is 12 now and it does not get any easier. Some days he is the sweetest kid and other days I just want to rip my hair out but I would look really funny bald. Hope things get better.
he is adorable!!
I don’t mean to be critical of you but have you thought of not having a dog and just having your son? Maybe the energy level of a dog is too stimulating to your son with autism/aspergers? Just an idea. He might settle down wit less stimulation
I am sure that is the way kids are. I nannied two kids, three and one year olds, and they had the same habits. One would cry about the other hitting but they would be back to playing and arguing about the same toy! ahhh it drove me crazy. Hope you find a solution for your son and the new pup.
Oh the fun of toddlers mine had done several of the things you mention too. I’m sure most have at some point in time.
nice!
He looks so handsome in his little vest and hat!!!
My 3 year old (almost 4) stopped taking naps about a month ago – we were doing quiet time as well ….they are so precocious during the toddler years!!! I hope you find something that works for you and your family! 
Sounds like you have your hands full!
I hate to think of you having to find a new home for your dog, but he’s too young for one, even if he didn’t have autism. I think you should run an ad for free dog to a good home. You have your hands full already and it’s just too much! I hope you won’t put the dog in a shelter and really try to find it a good home. I’m guessing it’s still a puppy and should be easy to place.
I know that everyone has opinions, and sometimes it’s hard to hear what they have to say…but from me, I’m not going to give you an opinion…:) I’m only going to say…it DOES get better, it really does ( you mentioned that the tantrums have gotten better from 2-3…they will lessen even more…) I am sending peaceful wishes your way.. and thanking you for sharing such a candid peek at your family
He’s so cute.
My friend has a son who is a little mischievous and we kind of notice he is the youngest and he always gets what he wants so maybe that’s why. Also its a young age so its kinda cute.
If the problems keep up I would either get rid of the dog or try putting her outside during the day. I don’t blame you for locking the bedroom doors so he can’t get in to stuff. I hope you find out soon what his diagnoses is. Good luck.
Dave just would like your attention hes adorable give him time.
He’s a very cute boy. I think that is just the way kids are I know my niece growing up would get very close to our cats. They are like grumpy old men. She’d get scratched and we told her but she would not listen. She got over it and learned, so I think it just takes time :]
i was reading about your son and the dog. I didn’t know he was autistic. You’re gonna have you’re ups and downs and progress and many setbacks. I have a daughter 24 and it’s been a setback for years now. She never has been like this for this long. Hopefully you have a lot of one on one time but then again my daughter is not a mild case of autism. when she became too aggressive she needed to go into a residential program, she is not as aggressive now but back then she was. I hope your son isn’t the case and i don’t know much about him. Good Luck and i hope things get better for him
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
this sounds like my 2 year old and my mom’s dog! lol she gets so excited to see him, and he doesn’t like it.
I feel your pain, it can be frustrating at times. We had the same problems with all our grand-kids especially the boys. They would get into EVERYTHING especially during nap time. It got the point I would have to stand there and watch them until they went to sleep. lol they were such little boogers. But eventually they realized that mamaw wasn’t going to play their games and would go take a nap when they were told and didnt put up a fight. It took sometime though. But eventually they realized mamaw was THE BOSS and not them lol
How are things going these days with your son. I hope much better since my last reply above
sibabe64 at ptd dot net