Sat 7:39am — Every once in a while the king throws us a bone and let’s us have one.
Last night we rolled the dice & left the house at 7:45pm and dragged Kyle to an outdoor movie under the stars.
The autism spectrum baseball league that he belongs to (and usually doesn’t enjoy too much) was having a free screening of “Frozen” on their field at dusk.
Everything was stacked against us.
— We usually give him his melatonin by 7:30pm lately and by 7:45 he’s well on his way to winding down for the night.
— He’s been VERY aggressive and ornery this week.
— He rarely makes it thru a whole movie in the theater.
— He doesn’t enjoy other movies or shows with characters that he doesn’t know. He only sits thru Sesame, Dora, & Jack’s Big Music Show
But wifey LOVES the idea of these kinds of summer activities like this or fireworks so we held off on the melatonin, packed a big blanket, some snacks, a few books, and Paula and headed out at 7:45pm with the attitude that we’ll take it as far as he will allow.
And he did really great!
We got there about 8:15. Movie didn’t start til 8:45pm.
And He made it to the end! 10:15pm-ish.
He really seemed pretty engaged by some of the musical numbers in the movie and he wasn’t engaged by the movie he didn’t seem to mind just hanging out.
He sat for most of it. But wanted to walk around a bit a few times.
We walked to the back of the outdoor screen which was cool. We got some of their free popcorn! And then we went to the bathroom when he let me know that he had to go pee.
We gave him his melatonin on the ride home and he went immediately to sleep when he got home.
All in all it was a GREAT night!
Night’s like that recharge the wife & my batteries a bit and remind us that we need to push him out of his routine & his comfort zone more often.
So along those lines we might roll the dice again tonight and try to drag him to a local fireworks display!
But if tonight doesn’t go that well we just need to shrug it off and bask in the success of last night.
And chalk it up to every once in a while the king throws us a bone and let’s us have one.
Have a great Saturday everyone!
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Hi, love your blog, and I must agree with you I work as a support worker in a UK Sen school, sometimes due to staffing we can be a bit screwed esp when a child picks up on this and goes into jerk mode, other times they are quite happy to little stars. Wish I could predict it, but that's like trying to tell the future haha.
Maybe you should take kyle out of baseball he seems more into sensory stuff!
Awesome. Glad for all of you.
Awesome! That is such a great feeling, like winning the Nobel Prize! Whoo! :-)
I'm with your wife, I love these fun type of summer outings. My 14 year old has autism and we tried two outdoor movies this weekend one in the park-too loud and too many people, but we used her noise cancelling head phones and a much better viewing of Frozen in a friends backyard. Like you said we just keep trying.
That was awesome, so glad for you guys!!!