We returned this week from an almost 2 week "vacation" to visit our families in Texas. It had been an entire year since we got to do this. B's vacation time is very limited due to his therapy and therefore so is ours.
I had some apprehension about the trip. A year is a very long time (particularly in the life of a 4 year old) and I wasn't sure how well B would handle all of the new environments, transitions etc. I am very happy to report that he did great! He flew like a champ. Yes, he was loud at times but I don't think it was disruptive and he never cried or tried to get up from his seat. We even got frisked at Security and he handled that okay too. He did really well sleeping in 2 new places (he was in a crib last year) and even shared a room with his big brother for part of the time. He stayed on track with potty training (whew), kept up with vocal imitations pretty well and was engaged and participatory for the vast majority of the time. He was sick for a couple of days but it was mild in the scheme of illnesses we usually seem to get over the holidays. Just a couple of days of being lethargic and not eating.
For us, it was far more relaxing than last year as well. Therapy was too new for us then and we were paranoid and nervous about messing everything up and losing the skills he had started to acquire. It was good to be with family and both Christmas and New Year's were wonderful. We are blessed in so many ways. There were lots of fun times on this trip too. Big brother held his first sparkler. Both of them went to Pump It Up and completely shocked me with their bravery. B discovered a love of mexican tortilla chips. The boys got to play with their cousins, aunts, uncle and grandparents. Not to mention the fact that it was about 70 degrees and we got to be outside without coats, hats and mittens for a change. Good stuff.
But here's the thing about being a parent of a child with autism... there never is truly vacation. Both hubby and I worked with B while there to try to keep his stims down and to practice enough therapy that he wouldn't totally revolt when we came home. B can't really have down time so neither can we. And if we do, it's accompanied by a fair amount of guilt and worry. Case in point: by the last couple of days of the trip, it was clear that B was slipping into bad habits and becoming harder and harder to engage (or flat out refusing to).
And then there's the issue of coming back to work. This is hard for all of us and B is no exception. We had half a day at home to somewhat re-group and then the next day was full-on BUSY with a full staff in and out of the house. B cried for the first 10/15 minutes straight and then mostly got a handle on it. It has been a tough week trying to get him back in the swing of things. I tried to do my session with him this afternoon and had to totally abandon the scheduled programs and just focus on getting him to behave appropriately. He's so smart, so full of potential and sometimes I just want to shake him and tell him to snap out of it. We'll get there. He just isn't going to let us take the easy route. Here's to 2012!
Here are some pics. I took waaaay too many!
No comments:
Post a Comment