Field Trip Day

With all of the progress that Bobby has made we decided that YES, Bobby would go with the rest of the 3rd grade on their field trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  Whoo hoo Bobby is going on his first school field trip!!!  I planned to accompany Bobby on the trip and I knew that the most exciting part of the day for Bobby would be the bus ride to and from the zoo.

The closer that field trip day came, the worse the weather forecast for the day became.  What to do, what to do???  I got up early and turned on the news to check to weather before I made my decision. Rain was forecasted to begin at 9:00 am and last all day with heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon. You are not allowed to take umbrellas into the zoo, so we would have to wear ponchos.  I ultimately decided that NO, this just did not sound like fun for Bobby.  If we were in a different situation, we would have put on our ponchos and joined in on the fun.

Instead we took a homeschool day.  I came up with a few ideas to get Bobby out of the house that he would hopefully enjoy.  First up, a trip to Pinocchio's Toy Store which is located in downtown Morgantown.  WVU students are gone for the summer so it seemed like a perfect time to go downtown.  Thankfully we didn't have to park too far away, but I was still nervous about walking on city sidewalks with Bobby.  He did a great job, he held my hand well and stayed right by my side.  He did, however, want to walk through the door of each shop that we walked by.  

He walked right into the toy store when I opened the door.  He made a loop around the store and then did something that he has never done when we have taken him to Toys 'R Us or Target.  He picked up toys and walked over to the counter and laid them down.  He had never been to this store before, but he knew where the counter was he knew what he wanted!!!

 Before I even knew what was happening, he had all of the Yo Gabba Gabba plush toys on the counter and then ran over and picked up 2 Melissa and Doug school buses.

 He wanted BOTH buses!!!  Every time we put one back, he got it right back to the counter.

 He especially liked the larger Yo Gabba Gabba characters (the red one and green striped one), the others were somewhat smaller and less desirable to Bobby.

I've never been in this situation with Bobby!!  He wants all of this stuff and he's NOT done!!  I had him walk around the store again and he found something that I had never seen before so I had him sit down to see if he actually like it or not.

He liked it, but didn't love it.  He left it alone and ran the wooden train around the train table once before moving around the store some more.  We were the only one's in the store, you know, not many people are too excited about parking far away and walking in the rain with a child to a toy store!! Lucky for us, we had the store to ourselves and even luckier for us, the owner got Bobby from the second that he walked through the door with his autism awareness hoodie on.  She told me that she has a step-grandson (or someone similar) with autism and even told me a story about their summer vacation with him to the beach (and the internet was out....alright autism parents, think about that one for a second....uugghh!!).  She offered to stand in the front end of the store to make sure that Bobby couldn't sneak out the front door.

Guess what was right beside the front door.....

So, Bobby picked out some new friends!!!!!

He picked up two new friends and went back to get his bus back off of the shelf.  Next thing I knew, there were a bunch of new friends on the counter.....

 For the first time ever when shopping with Bobby, I had to say, "Bobby, we can't get all of these things!!!"  He's only ever picked out a couple of items ever and it is generally a bag of chips or a sucker or a little trinket toy.  Now, we have two $25 buses and 11 plush toys that cost about $15 each.

Then he finds a little wind up bunny that he likes too...

All of the Yo Gabba Gabba plush went back to their shelf.  The bunny went back to it's location too because I knew that it would be broken before we ever made it home.  Bobby did get a bus, just one, not the two that he wanted.  His birthday is Monday and I'm 100% positive that some of the Sesame Street plush toys will make an appearance.  I'm just so excited to be able to buy him a toy that I know he actually WANTS!!  After this shop fest, I decided to head home, we had enough retail therapy for one day!!  I just hope that the rain held off for some of the day for Bobby's classmates at the zoo.