Anyone get bored with their child?

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So this is week 3 of my 4 week vacation, and I'm reaching my boredom saturation point and wondering if this is normal and hoping I'm not the only one.
My son is 2 &1/2 and has autism. He is very well behaved for a boy who can't speak and has a lot of communication as well as physical difficulties. I know so many children in his position have more behaviour problems and feel blessed that for the moment he does not. But the problem is as is common with his diagnosis, he is incredibly repetitive and limited in his play skills. His favorite thing to do is either spin something, anything (even a Kleenex box or the remote control), or having me recite the names of pictures in books or puzzle pieces he brings to me. His absolute favorite is a number puzzle which he could play with me all day if I let him. So I spend a lot of the day going "16, can you put it back?, oh that's 2!, where's the 12" and on and on. If I don't play with him he's usually pushing the button of a music toy over and over, not allowing the song time to finish, and left alone he could do that for hours.
Needless to say I feel a great responsibility to encourage him to play in new ways. So our day is split between playing the same games he knows and loves and 5 minutes here and there of me trying to introduce something new. The new things obviously are pretty one sided, because he's usually not very interested in changing his play.
2 days ago I just got unbelievable bored with it. I realized it's been almost 2 years that I'm reciting those numbers. Usually I just go with the flow and accept my son for who he is and what he likes, but now I just really wish I could get the kid to do some finger paints, or build some Legos or something. Anything different.
So am I a horrible mom? Or do some of you ever feel the same?

The website playathomemom.com has a bunch of great ideas for toddlers and kids a bit older. Just keep trying and hang in there 2 is a hard age. Most 2 year olds have extreamly short attenstion spans. It gets easier.

I remember going through this with DS when he was little, and he didn't have anywhere near the challenges you are facing. (I was just going to write that I have the opposite problem from boredom, but DS is 12.)

I refer to the age between birth and preschool as "baby jail." It's true for neurotypical parents, too. As a society, we just don't offer parents, particularly the caregiving parent, sufficient support to do what is a monumental task, parents of special needs kids doubly so. I think I got through that stage of life largely by having the TV on so my brain didn't explode - which certainly didn't help my parenting skills.

You sound like someone who could really use some respite care and some time to yourself. Can you see if that's an option where you live.

Up until my son was three, I enjoyed watching him play, and discovering the things he was fascinated with. He loved highlighter caps, and called them "Drellas"...we eventually figured out that was because he thought the little tabs for attaching them to a pocket looked like a ponytail, which one of his favorite cartoon characters, who he also called Drella, had. It was also fun watching him act out scenes from the shows he insisted on watching over and over. He's seven now, (we're both on the spectrum), and I often find I can't sustain the level of interaction he wants from me. So I kind of have the opposite problem...playing with my older child bores me and often frustrates me, because imaginative play is not my forte. To make up for this, I take him places where he can get interaction and sensory input (playgrounds, museums, et.c)

You mentioned trying to get him to finger paint...it's possible he doesn't like the texture of the paint on his hands. Try experimenting with different textures...dry oatmeal, rice, shaving cream, a bag of craft feathers, et.c or letting him use a brush or wear gloves if he'll tolerate them. Gluing things to paper or using stickers might also be something he'd like. While it's important to try to actively teach him neurotypical play skills, I think it's okay to introduce him to new sensory things that you think HE would enjoy, not only because it's good for him to experience those, but because it'll break up the monotony of only having two or three things. I recommend reading "Raising A Sensory Smart Child" by Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske. There are lots of ideas in there for different things you can do with him without forcing neurotypical play on him.

Okay, I feel a bit better. Sometimes I just run out of ideas of what to do with him because he's so disinterested in most off he things I try.
I do own a copy of raising a sensory smart child! And I did some special education in school so I was pretty familiar with sensory issues even before I had my son. He tends to be hyposensitive and usually likes textures. I got the whole finger painting idea from watching him have a blast smearing yogurt all over the table. He had a hard time with his fine motor skills and even with adapted crayons and markers he finds it too difficult, so I thought finger paints would be a big hit, but as soon as he figured out I wouldn't let him eat them he was done. Maybe I'll just get some food coloring and let him paint with yogurt, lol.
I do usually get some respit, I go to school and he usually goes to daycare and then spends a few days with his dad. I think it's keeping him home all month for my vacation that led to my overload.
I hope I can get to a day where he's doing so many different things it's hard to keep up!

I think the yogurt is a great idea! I had fun when mine was little trying to navigate those quirks and turning them into something educational. Mine had an obsession with standing on the round water line covers whenever we passed them. So I made largish shape cutouts for him to stand on at home and taught him his shapes that way. There's lots of room for creativity if you work with their quirks instead of against them. But I think ALL parents go a little insane over holiday breaks. I don't know how stay-at-home moms do it.

My son didn't have much to say at 2 1/2 either. And at 4 1/2 most attempts to play with him still end with me exasperated and walking away with him frustrated that I'm not happy to do the same mindless task over and over and over or that I'm not following some imaginary script he's invented for me and only he knows. That being said the difference between how he is now and how he was at 2 1/2 is huge. He can read, talk (albeit in a stereotypical manner), plays video games, is potty trained.... at 2 1/2 my son was still eating baby food. He may be learning more than you realize.

That's good to hear! I know he learns a lot. He definitely knows all his numbers, the alphabet, his colors and shapes, which is amazing for his age and I'm so proud of him for that. Also he can go somewhere once and find his way back by himself. He's beginning to read a few words. I think it's fascinating how he can be amazingly talented in certain areas and so deeply struggle with others. Lol, he can read but not talk to me. He is such an interesting kid. He really is amazing and I guess I just felt like something was wrong with me that I haven't been truly enjoying him the last few days.

I made my mother and grandmother read me the names of things in picture books at that age. It was verry merry berry boring and repetitive for them, but I think that it was good for my language development, for me to see and hear the words for things, and learn to read and listen for developing receptive language. I read research studies that showed the autistic children have poor joint attention and audiovisual integration, with the result that they don't match up the words for things with the things in the same way that typical children do. This delays their language and speech skills. So labeling things with words is a good thing in my opinion. It would be even bester if he echoed the words too.

I don't have kids, but I've recently read "I'm Ok, You're A Brat", and it mentions plenty of stories of parents who were bored by their children. So I'm guessing it's probably quite a common thing.

My son is NT and I get bored with him sometimes. Even parents get bored with their NT kids and some are bored with their kids all the time. Lot of parents say the toddler years are the toughest. Not all of them play with their kids either.

Groundhogs day - welcome to the wonderful world of stay-at-home parents