"Where's My Chicken????"

Some things are meant to NEVER be said, but as parents, we say things we had never planned on vocalizing, ever! for instance, tonight I find myself in the kitchen yelling "Where is my chicken??" Yes, my chicken. See, Brandon has a bad little habit of taking random things that don't belong to him and hiding them in his room. It can be one of Tommy's sensory toys, a shoe, one of Rob's tools, and sometimes food. Today, it was a whole chicken! I had taken it out of the freezer, placed it on the kitchen table and then took Tommy to my room to get him ready for bed and settled for the night. The whole process takes about 30-45 minutes. When I get back to the kitchen, the chicken is missing...hence, my yelling. Brandon comes into the living room and gives me a sideways smile. With a stern look, I ask him what he did with my chicken. He said, "In my room..." Sure enough, there's the chicken on the top bunk in his room. I am still trying to figure out how he got it up there. He barely ways 35 pounds!

Since we are going to KY next weekend, I am hoping he gets a weeks worth of spoiling from everyone. We will be getting back on his birthday. I am trying to convince him to have a Hotwheels cake. Or anything other than HIS idea! He wants a potty cake. Yep, he wants a little toilet on his cake. He might just have to have a regular cake, with whatever I want on the top, and then I will make him a little cake of his own and find a dollhouse potty for him. I am hoping with the positive attention he will be getting, he will settle down with the taking things. I really think he is doing it because Tommy gets so much attention with the therapists coming by twice a week, then since I have to suction Tommy so frequently, it looks like I am spending time with Tommy more than Brandon.

I hate it that Brandon feels like he has to take things to get noticed. He will be 4 on June 4th, so I am hoping he is going to grow out of all of this very soon.