Sam's frustration

Sam has developed a new frustration. He loves to play with plastic drinking straws. They keep him busy and out of trouble so I buy them in bulk! He has a box with slits in the tops into which he can drop the straws and then retrieve them. He does the same thing outside on the deck - he drops the straws through the spaces between the boards of the deck and then goes under to get them (there is room for him to go under relatively comfortably). Lately, when he drop them through the boards of the deck he starts whining and crying when they fall. He cries the whole time he walks to go get them. Due to the way he chews them, some of the straws don't fall but many of them do. I try to explain that if he drop them they are likely to fall. Of course he doesn't know what I am saying but I try. He does it again and again and again and again. . . Part of me wonders if perhaps part of his brain is tired of this stim/perseveration but another part won't let him stop.

On the adoption front, everything is on hold. After getting the letter about training, rushing around trying to arrange a babysitter and finding one, I got a call saying they have too many families interested in that particular program right now so we have to wait. If we do everything now it will might expire before we get a referral/placement. We have to talk again and decide if this is still the way we want to go. We know we want a third child but which route?