GBE2 Weekly Challenge: Lost and Found

I'm listening to my husband air a grievance about our older son's lack of respect for property...including his own. He tears everything apart. Most of the time, he's trying to figure out how things tick. Sometimes, he does it just for kicks. My husband's complaint today is valid as his glasses fell victim to this habit of our son's just this morning.

I have bins of broken things all over the house. They are taking me over. Our son will get a new toy and fairly quickly decide to break it. However, whatever you do, for the sake of us all, DO NOT THROW ANY OF THE PIECES AWAY! These pieces become coveted items. I'm not sure why. Are they now new toys to be played with in a different manner? Are the memories to the toys to which the were once attached.

The top to a toy carousel. A wheel to a play car. The rooster that was once part of my favorite egg timer. Covers to vhs tapes that carry beloved insignias-the list is extensive. And, so were the piles collecting in my house.

Tell me, what name should be assigned to the turntable upon which a carousel once sat? Or, what shall we call the plastic window that once covered the face of a toy vacuum? An odd wheel? And, how does one distinguish this week's wheel from last week's wheel which is still different from the favored wheel last month?

Our troubles really began when these pieces started roaming with him, for our son never, ever is without an object in his left hand. He's quick, and his preferences change often, so that piece of nothin' can be dropped at any odd location if the attending parent is not paying attention.

Lol. This is me, avoiding a stroll down the road of marital discourse...

Ahem, so, an item goes lost, and, of course, there is only one natural time for our son to discover this: bedtime.

Sleep. We all want sleep in the worst way. There really isn't much that I wouldn't do for sleep.

SO, PLEASE, PLEASE! CAN ANYONE REMEMBER THE LAST TIME THIS KID HAD THE BLUE STICK THING-Y???????

It is night. We are so close to our goal! I am about to lose my marbles and any hope of sleep if we do not find this treasured item!! Yes, I know that, in the long run, we are not helping his coping skills any by jumping through such hoops. But, listen, losing a piece of junk that has somehow become our son's favored toy threatens what many families of autism do not joke about: sleep.

In the car, under furniture, in bins of toys we look desperately, usually to find the object by chance in some spot we would have never expected. But who cares? Success! For one more evening, the lost item is found, and so, too, is my sanity.