Bobby's First Carnival

We decided to take Bobby to the Mon. Co. Fair.  He has never been to a fair/carnival and hasn't been to an amusement park since he was in a stroller.

He started dragging us through the parking lot as soon as we got out of the car.  Wow, he really wants to see what this is all about!!  We soon found out that he had a particular destination in mind...the big slide!!!

Notice the first rule on the list in the bottom right corner.

"Bobby, calm down, Daddy has to go buy tickets!!!!!"  I had the job of holding him back while Daddy got in the ticket line.  Then, Daddy got the job of waiting in line with Bobby and taking him on the slide.

 Hey Bobby, where are your shoes??

Oh I see them, in Daddy's hands.  Bobby has a big smile on his face!!

OK, it's time to walk away from the slide and see what else the fair has to offer.  Yeah, this isn't going too well.  Bobby is not happy to walk away.  He was pulling on us, jumping, whining....generally super fun!!  Bob and I were both calm...as an autism parent, you have to think about all of the sensory stimulation going on, lights blinking, loud music blaring, crowds of people being noisy, smells of food, etc.  

We made one lap around the fair...barely!  Bobby's agenda.....GO DOWN THE SLIDE AGAIN!!! OK Bobby, Daddy will take you again...

We took another lap around the carnival, this time he was much better because he knew that he could come back to the slide.  We ended up doing four laps around the carnival, each time Bobby was interested in NOTHING but getting back to the slide.  He got to go down the slide five times with Daddy and for three of the rides he left his shoes on!!  

On the last two laps around the carnival, I kept stopping Bobby and having him stand for pictures because he was much, much calmer and able to walk independently.  However, he would come over to us and grab our hand and walk holding hands for periods of time.

Somebody got a Ring Pop for being such a good boy!!

We were walking in front of the carousel and I prompted Bobby to stop and turn around so that I could get him picture, I'm not sure what happened next....

Poor Bobby looks like he has a swollen jaw from a tooth ache.  Actually, he bit the ring pop off of the ring and had the sucker part in his mouth.  One more trip down the slide and then it's time to go.

After all is said and done, we spent $35 for admission and tickets and the boys rode the slide 5 times.  $7 a ride sounds like a good deal when you see the smile on Bobby's face!!  Daddy gets the Good Daddy award!!  

A Birthday Swim

The rain, the rain....oh my goodness the rain!!  For some reason a huge rain cloud has been hanging over WV for the past two months causing our summer weather to be.....WET!!  To make matters worse, it decided to get cold too.  Not a great combination for the swim party that Bobby was invited to Saturday evening.  I watched the weather all day and when it was time to leave it was clear here in Morgantown so we decided that yes, we would go.  I got Bobby ready and when I put his swim trunk on him, he said "swimman at the beach!!"  No Bobby, you are going "swimming in the pool."

We headed off to Bridgeport for the 10th birthday party for one of the kids that we met through our autism support group.  When we made it to Fairmont the rain started again.  Oh Come On!!  Enough already with the rain.  It rained the rest of the way of our trip to Bridgeport and finally stopped when we were about 2 miles from the pool.  Yah!!  Hopefully the rain is going to hold off so that we can have a fun birthday celebration.

Bobby was jumping in his seat when he figured out that we were going to this new pool.  He got right out of the car and right into the pool area.  He had never been to the Bridgeport City Pool before and when he goes somewhere new he generally has to get used to his surroundings before he can calm down enough to participate.  So, he ran back and forth from this slide (which he never did go down)...

to the low dive.  He went out to the end of the diving board during this process but never jumped.

He was finally calming down and went over to this ladder to check things out...

Time to get in...

Whoo Hoo!!  Let this party begin!!!  Here comes the birthday boy...

Bobby got out of the water, went over to the diving board and stayed there for the next hour....

He jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped......

Notice the sky in this next picture, you can actually see some blue!!!!!

I went and put my camera down because, after all, how many pictures of Bobby jumping off of this board do I need??  Then Bobby wanted so badly to do something, so Daddy and I finally said OK.  He climbed up the ladder to the high dive, walked out to the middle of the board and jumped around in place.  BOBBY, JUMP OFF OF THE FRONT OR GET DOWN!!!  Talk about giving me a heart attack.  He was super happy just to be up there where he could see all of the sights of the area, but I just wanted him down.  If he would have just stood there, that would be one thing but he was jumping.  After minutes of this, which seemed like an eternity, Daddy and I were finished watching and Daddy climbed the ladder to get him down.  Then another one of the kids that we know from Tiny Tykes activities wanted to try too.  His mom gave in and let him climb the ladder, but he was only up there a couple of seconds and he JUMPED!!!  Whoo Hoo!!

Bob and I directed Bobby over to the kiddie area so that he could get some rest because he had been jumping and swimming in the deep for about an hour.

The birthday boy came over and joined Bobby.  He is intently watching the cones fill up with water before they tip over and the water falls out...

 Another one of our friends that we met in our support group came over to play too...

Then it was time to go sing Happy Birthday and eat.  Bobby decided that he would stay and play, which is what I love about autism parties...OK, stay and play. Whatever you want to do, we don't have to follow social norms here!!

He went back to the diving board...

 He turned around and looked at Daddy to see if he was allowed to go back up the high dive....NOT A SHOT BUDDY!!!

Time for some pinata fun...Bobby wasn't interested.

Bobby was too busy trying to get Daddy to let him back up the high dive...

No way, back to the low dive.  He has the pool all to himself...

The party was winding down and Bobby said "all done" so Daddy took him and got him changed.  I got him some food and he actually sat down at one of the tables for about 10 minutes and sat to eat...

It was a perfect evening.  The rain held off and Bobby (as well as the rest of the kids) had a great time.  I learned a couple of lessons at the party and thankfully I didn't learn them from anything that Bobby did....first, if a lifeguard has to go into the water after a child, you have to fill out a form and second, you aren't allowed to take pizza into the pool!!  Oh, how I love these kids!!  We headed off home and when we were close to Morgantown the rain reappeared.  Thankfully it supposed to clear up today and we are going to have a couple of rain free days ahead.