Taking the Scenic Route

Seriously, I forgot there was a big game tomorrow, but figured it out when we had to park out in the edges of the parking lot to pick up some groceries.  I am guessing that we had particularly bad timing because it seemed like every other person was wearing a WSU shirt and, apparently, a game just let out.  By the attitude of the people, I would also guess we lost.  Oh boy, it was a fun time. 

As soon as I saw the sheer volume of people I did something we haven’t done in a while, just put Zane in the basket of the cart and charged through shopping as fast as we could.  Zane would occasionally start getting upset and when we asked what the problem was, it was because he wanted something (like chocolate milk) and couldn’t just walk over to get it, but he used words to tell us.  It sometimes took a bit for us to understand him, but considering the environment, I was pretty impressed he was able to communicate anything beyond crying.  Heck, even I was struggling to remain calm and friendly.  He did request to get down, and he walked for a bit, but I started seeing some pre-meltdown behavior and got down on his level and gave him a few really firm all-body hugs and then he was then calm enough to agree to get back in the cart without a battle or a meltdown.  He really did well.  In fact, unless 80% of the kids in there were also ASD, he did better than a lot of typical kids. 

I am just so proud of him.  The stress of the semester seems to be backing off a bit and we are seeing a bit more spontaneous language again.  We are also noticing that he is getting pronouns (I, you, me) right more often now, which is a really good thing. 

Oh..we also had a first today!  He tried pancakes!  I have given him pancakes countless times but he wouldn’t even try them.  I guess the number of stories involving pancakes finally made him comfortable enough to give them a try.  He even ate quite a few bites of pancakes after that, so I can assume he likes them.  It might seem silly, but pancakes were one of my favorite foods as a child and it is nice to see him finally letting himself enjoy them also. Zora, naturally, didn’t need a second invitation to take a bite. She was trying to crawl across the table to get to her brother’s pancakes.  lol.

Now that I have a second, I am going to see how the WSU game went today and see who is playing the Superbowl tomorrow.  There is a “Monk” marathon on tomorrow, so we might watch that instead of Star Wars DVDs (our traditional superbowl party entertainment)…guess we will see if we “Feel the Force”.