Adventures in Babysitting

[Guest guest]

Every year my sister and I move back to my parents house for five

days to serve as babysitter for my brother Jeff (DS/Asbergers or

whatever the doctors call it) while my parents take a well-deserved

vacation. It is pleasing to report that this year was the most

enjoyable and rewarding to date. Why?

1) The tipping of chairs, throwing of picture frames, launching of

radios, and pushing of tvs has been reducted tremendously (thanks to

an awesome teacher, persistant positive reinforcement from parents,

the right dosage of medicine, and a rapidly maturing Jeff who is

reaching milestones I admit we all once thought impossible. Well,

except for maybe my dad).

2) The pride felt from witnessing Jeff's intelligence is

breathtaking. Both my sister and I were outsmarted by Jeff twice...

That's right. TWICE. You'll love this. So there my sister and I

were, three just-out-of-the box portable tape players in front of us

(Jeff breaks these often by chucking them across the room when a song

he doesn't like starts playing) and 8 new batteries. The batteries

are placed in tape player number 1 and the play button is pressed.

NOTHING. O.K. lets try tape player 2. Nothing again. After we got

the same result from the third tape player we figured we must have

old batteries, got frustrated, and finally gave up. Just then, Jeff

grabs the tape player from my sister's hand, presses the play button -

- and then get this -- goes to the side of the tape player and turns

it on. Voila, music. Neither my sister or I even thought about

having to turn the stupid thing on.

The second story, though not quit as good, happened while I was

looking high and low for a iron skillet in which to cook some

hashbrowns for Jeff's breakfast (we give him fruit too, so relax

about the cholesterol). I couldn't find it anywhere, and low and

behold, Jeff comes in to save the day. Opening the " hidden " drawer

under the stove, he reaches in and finds the elusive pan. I wore a

smile all day.

3) His behavior, though not ideal and still tests your patience, is

much improved due to the aforementioned reasons. He still has MAJOR

problem when the sum of people at our house is greater than 3

including himself. When visitors came to check-up on us, they did

not get to see the same Jeff we did when they were gone. He went

into attack mode. When my pops is around this doesn't happen as

much, but I guess he figured he had free reign while they were gone.

It is funny to because just before he is about the strike he will

almost always look over his shoulder to see if either my sister and I

were watching, then run to his target while laughing. It is a bit

creepy if you don't know him.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Just wanted to share my adventures

in babysitting.