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.

Mother's Day Weekend Fun

I've finally been on this autism journey long enough that I'm not bummed out on Mother's Day.  I am over the sadness of Bobby not acknowledging the day in any way.  I've accepted the fact that he isn't going to bring me breakfast in bed on Mother's Day morning or write me letters that say "I Love you very very very very very much" like I did for my mom when I was little.  I am more sure of how much he loves me, more than I am sure of anything in this world.  He shows me how much he loves me and needs me everyday.  He wants Mommy to lay down with him at night, he wants me to take care of his basic needs because Mommy does it right!!!

Bobby's wonderful teacher makes sure that he helps in making me a Mother's Day present every year and he also helps to make me a card in school.   So naturally I look to Daddy to make sure that my actual Mother's Day is special and he rises to the occasion.  This year he got me a gift that I cannot wait to open!!  It's not here yet, but it is the process.

10 years ago, right before Bobby was born, Daddy got me a gift that I was super excited about...a camcorder.  This camcorder recorded onto mini DV's, they look like miniature VHS tapes.  I video taped everything since Bobby and I were home all day together.  I managed to get all of his firsts...rolling over, sitting up, first steps, birthday's, Christmas's and just everyday living.  Alas, the camcorder broke a few years ago and Daddy upgraded my ability to document all of our family moments when he bought me a much better quality digital camera as a Christmas gift.  We have no ability to watch our home movies on all of these tapes, so Daddy is having them transferred to DVD for me for my Mother's Day gift.  As soon as they get here, I am going to binge watch my baby boy growing up!!!

My plan for Saturday of Mother's Day weekend.....lay around in my pajama's and watch tv all day. Perfect way to spend a rainy day.  Bobby had other plans.  All we heard all day long was, "Grandma house."  Daddy said to see if Grandma would watch Bobby and he would take me out to dinner.  Plan made, we took Bobby to visit his Grandma and he got his wish of playing at Grandma's house. Mommy and Daddy got out for a date night....Happy Mother's Day to me!!!!

We went to the Boston Beanery at Tygart Lake State Park.  We had a nice drive to get there and the rain held off for our dinner.  It's so nice to have a kid free meal when someone is asking you if you want/need anything else.  Perfect Mother's Day treat.  We even got a meal to go and took it home to Grandma as a thank you for watching Bobby.

After we got back home, I put on my pajama's, stretched out on the couch and watched a Mother's Day movie on the Hallmark Channel with NO complaining from my beloved husband.  Bobby however, at bedtime came and put his face right into mine and said "TIME FOR BED!!"  OK Bobby, I get it, you love me, you need me, yadda yadda yadda.  I laughed and took him to bed....Hallmark movie time is over!!

Before we left Grandma's house I asked her what she would like me to make her for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day with her.  Saturday was my day and Sunday was about my mom.  She thought about it for a minute and decided that she wanted a roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.  What Momma wants, Momma gets!!  Bobby and I got up early Sunday morning and headed off to the grocery store to get the supplies to make Grandma's special dinner.

 Smelling the milk to make sure that it is ok!!  Yes Bobby, we do need some milk for the mashed potatoes and gravy.  We will get the small one for you and a regular size to cook with.

He's so helpful pushing the cart.

Later in the morning after the roast was in the crock pot, all of my paperwork for Bobby's waiver was complete, and I had showered and dressed, we headed out again.  This time we went to Lowe's to get a plant to go with Grandma's gift.  FYI, Lowe's is NOT on Bobby's list of places that are acceptable. However, we were just going to the garden section, so it raised the acceptability level...a little.

This was so funny/curious that I had to get out my phone and snap a couple of pictures.  Bobby would run to this spot and look at the doors that lead into the store.

 He would stop dead in his tracks as soon as the doors opened and he would stare into the store.

 He so much wanted to go inside, but just couldn't make himself walk through the doors.

Instead he would turn around and run back to his starting point then run back to the door and look inside.  These are the times that I would totally love to have a glimpse into his brain.  What is keeping him from running into the store??!!!  

We then went home ate lunch and got Bobby changed for the next part of our day.  Sunday wasn't all about Grandma, it was a little about Bobby too.  He had a swim class at the YMCA. We picked up Grandma on the way so that she could watch the kids swim too.

At the end of the class they had a photographer come in and take a group picture of the kids and their helpers.

After the class, we came home and I finished out dinner that I had started in the morning.  Roast, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad.  Yum yum, good call Grandma.  I bought a cake, I just knew that there wasn't any more time in the day to actually bake one.  We had to blow out some candles as Bobby's signal that we are having a celebration.

After the cakes was eaten and the dishes were washed, we took a drive and turned in Bobby's paperwork.  Grandma then went home and I put on my pj's and finished out the rest of Mother's Day laying on the couch.....however, it was after 8 pm by the time that this occurred.  

10 years ago on Mother's Day, I was in the hospital waiting to have my Mother's Day baby.  Even then, Bobby had different plans.  I went home a couple of days later without a baby, he just wasn't ready to be born and went back a few days later.  I can't even believe it, my baby is going to be 10 years old in one short week.  I have been a mother for 10 years.  Wow, time really does fly!! 

Bobby's Shopping Haven

I have to preface this posting:  Bobby has never picked toys up off of a shelf in a store to buy.  In fact, the only thing that I can think of that Bobby ever really picked up off a shelf that he wanted to buy is potato chips when we go to Giant Eagle.  There may have been something that he showed us that he wanted from a store other than potato chips in the past, but I am coming up blank.

Now to today's story....
Yes, it's another rainy day in Bobby's World.  ENOUGH already!!  Rain rain go away, come again...in a couple of weeks!!  However, it is supposed to continue raining for days.  Bob took today off because we had been planning to take Bobby to Presque Isle, Lake Erie, PA to go "swimming at the beach!!"

As we were hanging out on the couch watching tv this morning, we knew that Bobby was bored!  So, we got in the car and headed off for a long drive to get Bobby out of the house.  We stopped at a WV landmark vacation stopping point.  Many of you will know just from this picture where we are....

For those of you who have no idea....we stopped at Cool Springs.  After all of the curvy mountain roads, we needed to get out and walk around.  We weren't outside too long because Bobby tried to pee into the creek and it started raining.

We didn't get to go look at the train or the donkeys....

We went inside to use the potty.  The best part of stopping on a rainy Friday is that there were only a couple of people inside the store/restaurant.  Most West Virginian's stop here on their way to their camping destinations and we have had trouble finding a place to park before.  Not today, we were parked right in front.

Funny thing, the other family that was in the store were from Bob's hometown and he knew them.  Bob went ahead and took Bobby to potty while I was looking around the store.  I saw a table of Melissa and Doug brand toys so when Bobby came back out I brought him over to look at the toys too.  Obviously I was paying more attention to the toys than to Bobby because he was looking at something on a shelf behind me and when I turned around he had taken the toy out of the package.  It was just a little plastic construction set with a matchbox size construction truck but more importantly it came with little plastic road signs.  I took it from him and put it back into the package so that I could pay for it, luckily it was only $2.99.  On our way back to where Daddy was looking, Bobby found a little toy (cup on a stick/ball toy) and he picked it up.  They have this toy on an episode of Oobi which has been on our DVR for a long time that he likes to watch at least once a week before bed.  Oh my goodness, I have to buy Bobby two toys!!

I left Bobby with Bob while I went over to pay.  There was no line since there was only one other family in the store and they were talking with Bob.  I decided to wait a couple of more minutes and I walked to the back of the store where Bobby was wearing a straw cowboy hat.  Yes Bobby, I'll add this to your purchase.  Back I went to checkout.  I am in mid-checkout when Bob yells to me, "wait!" Bob told Bobby, "take that to Mommy."  Bobby walks over to me with a wooden snake.  Ok, we will get this too.  Me to the cashier, "wait one more second."  I went to the sucker bin behind me and searched for a couple of blue Dum-Dum suckers since Bobby hasn't had any since Grandma's retirement party.

I just have to tell you that I was beaming with pride inside and so extremely happy!!!  I was like a normal mom at a souvenir shop.  I was buying a junk toys for my kid that he was picking out.  I remember picking out junk there when I was a little girl and we were going camping.  He has never picked out a toy in a store and now I have a bag full.  The main difference that I could think of while we were driving back...the toys were in cardboard boxes on tables, not nicely lined up on shelves like a typical store.  Bobby likes to junk shop!!!  Me to Bob:  "I know where we are coming to Santa shop!!"

Now this next picture is one of my favorite Bobby pictures of all time...

He's wearing his new hat, has his construction set in his lap, blue sucker in one hand and cup/ball toy in the other hand.  The only thing that didn't make it into the picture is the snake.

We sat in the car for a while because it started POURING...

Might as well eat some lunch.  I had packed some pepperoni rolls and a bag of chips.  Bobby likes to eat his chips out of a bowl and since I didn't have one, we had to make do....

What a multi-functional hat!!!

We finally left and since it was raining so hard we went back the way we came.  By the time we made it back to the top of the mountain, the rain stopped and we had a pleasant ride home.  That means, we should make another stop!!!  Instead of turning R in Grafton to head back to Morgantown, we went L and headed to Tygart Lake.

Apparently I got a couple of rain drops on my camera because all of my pictures have blurry spots in the middle.  We decided to walk on one of the trails...

Bobby decided that he would play LIMBO.

Hey, you're supposed to bend backwards, not forward!!!

Ahhhhh, melts this Mom's heart!!!

To the left boys, to the left!!!!  Yeah, anyone who know Bobby knows that it's not going to happen.  There is water down that path!!

Bobby doesn't care that we shouldn't be there, he wants water!!

Bob got him turned around and we started back up the hill...

When we got back into the car it started sprinkling.  However, by the time we were halfway home on Grafton Road it started down pouring.

Now, we have to figure out how to spend the rest of our rainy weekend.  All of my plans for summer fun require nice, sunshiny days!!!