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!!