Just me and him- autistic Tommy and big brother Tubbo, SBI adoption story

Chapter 96: another shopping trip

Phil's POV:

I moved the whiteboard onto the dining table and began writing. "So, new routine for today. Both of you need some summer clothes and we can start looking for things for school too?" Tubbo nodded and Tommy hummed. "The school things aren't super important, but if you see something you like, we can get it. And that includes stuff for your bedrooms, especially you Tubbo." He shied away and messed with the his crutches as he stood next to me.

"So, you are welcome to go just through there and have a look around at your room, and the wet room. We've got to choose a paint colour soon anyway, if you want it painted that is. I'm just going to get ready with Tommy and then we can go out?" He nodded and began slowly moving along. "Mind yourself in case the builders have left anything about!" I called out after him as I directed my youngest upstairs.

"Next week, Tubbo is going to come with us to get furniture for both your rooms. Would you like it if we got you a bookshelf, to put your books on?" He did his 'yes' hum and pointed at the bookshelves in the reading nook. "Yes! Just like them, but you don't have to just put books on them. You know in Techno's room, his bookshelf has lots of stuff on doesn't it?" He hurried to unlock his iPad and pointed at one of the apps. I leaned forward to see which one. "Yea, he does have minecraft things on there, doesn't he?" I replied, laughing lightly as I remembered all the little plastic models he had begged me to buy at one point: he still loved them. And also on his shelves but he would rather die than be seen having them in his bed, we're some minecraft soft toys. Specifically a sheep and an enderman. The enderman had been Wilbur's because they had been his favourite minecraft mob (only due to their height) but since getting a little older and not being quite as passionate about the game anymore, he had been happy to permanently lend it to Techno. A hand-me-up, if you will.

I sensed Tommy was a little restless due to the change of routine and had this partially proven when Tommy struggled to choose his clothes. "It's warm outside, so we've got to 2 options. You can wear shorts or trousers and then we need a hoodie okay?" I stepped back from the wardrobe and sat on the floor where Tommy had crouched. "Blue shorts or black shorts?" I started, recognising that he was squinting and stimming, signs of him being overwhelmed.

He touched the blue shorts and I put them next to us on the floor, setting the black pair back into the wardrobe. If we could, I wanted to change the way Tommy's clothes were set out; I felt if he could see more of them, he'd be more able to choose his clothes and get dressed independently which was ultimately the aim. Still it worked for now.

"Would you like to wear one of the t shirts with the different coloured sleeves?" I asked and he nodded fervently. "Okay then," I said, setting the chosen t-shirt (white with blue sleeves) down next to the shorts. "Can you get a pair of boxers and socks please?" I said, fingers crossed that him being upset this morning wouldn't affect progress we'd been slowly making with listening to instructions. 

Making a low humming sound, he ran out of his room and I heard the beanbags smush as he slumped against one of the ones in the reading nook. Sighing, I got the rest of the clothes out myself and made his bed, before putting them on top of the duvet. I approached him carefully, "Tommy, well done for calming yourself down, would you like to get changed now?" He shook his head. "Would you like to take a break?" He nodded, and I noticed his lip wobbling.

"It's alright, take a deep breath in, and let it all out." He began sobbing and reached out for me in an instant. Hoisting him up to be in my arms (even though it was getting a little too difficult to carry around like that), I held him tight and let him cry into my shoulder all he needed. Whispering little bits of praise so that he knew it was alright to cry and not be okay. Slowly, I became aware of breathing at the bottom of the stairs and knew Tubbo would be worried.