We got up on Wednesday and drove to San Diego and went to Sea World. We arrived and the first thing we did when we got in went to customer service and let them know that Brendan had special needs and we needed to make sure he would be able to stay in his stroller during the shows. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to see a show. He won't just hang out and sit with you so this was our only option. They never even questioned me and gave us a tag so Brendan's stroller would be considered a wheelchair. It was a lifesaver, we were able to enjoy the shows in the handicap section. It was a little awkward, we did get a lot of stares. But oh well we did what we needed to so the family could enjoy the day. Brendan spent a great deal of the day in the stroller playing with his iPad. There was a little kid section that he got to get out and play. It was like a big water/trampoline area. Brendan was happy to be free and run. He was running and playing and did a little quick interacting with some other parents around. I noticed he kept hanging out in this one area so moved to be closer to him. I had a mom come up to me and say,"your son is such a sweet happy boy". I responded and say,"wow thank you so much." Thank goodness I had my sun glasses on because I started to cry. To have another mom and a complete stranger who knows nothing about our daily struggles with Brendan tell me that, was such a special moment for me.
On Thursday we headed to Lego Land with my brother, sister in a law and my nephew! This place was great for my daughter and my nephew. Unfortunately all the rides Brendan couldn't sit on my lap so I know he wouldn't just sit next to me so there wasn't anything he could go on. There was a toddler play area with little houses that he could build with big legos. He actually went up to a little girl stacking blocks and stacked a block for her on her tower she was making. I was so excited to see him playing with another child. But after he stacked the block for her he purposely knock it down and the little girl started to cry. Yep that would be my kid. Oh well it was a plus to see him with another kid playing. In the toddler section that had a small train ride. Well once Brendan laid eyes on the train that is all he wanted to do. He would just watch the wheels of the train going around. When it was time to get off the train he cried. So we got back in line foe the train but he doesn't understand the waiting part. He would have rode the train all day! Lego land was a success!
This would be the little girls tower he knocked down!
Friday we packed up the car again and headed to Huntington Beach Hyatt Regency to meet my family to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. We arrived to the Hyatt and wow what a beautiful place! We were all so excited to be reunited with my whole family! We had plans that night to get pictures done with everybody and the we were going to have dinner celebrating their anniversary! We headed to pictures and has soon as we get to the area of the hotel where we were doing them Brendan started to get fussy. I get him out of the stroller to get in the pictures and he starts to have a complete melt down. We were in this kinda of big hallway area and it was super windy. Well Brendan wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken. I felt awful because he was totally ruining the everyone's picture. We ended up just letting him have his train, passie and blanket in the picture to just try and keep him from running away. My first thought was it was dinner time so he was hungry. I really didn't know what was going on. He had been so good right up until the pictures. So I haven't seen the pictures yet but I can almost promise he will be crying in all of them. We headed to dinner and he was great. It was late so I packed his jammies and he ended up falling asleep at dinner. We had so much fun at dinner with everyone. I have the most amazing grandparents I could ever ask for. I can only dream to be just like them someday. They are a big inspiration to me and I absolutely love them so much! They are everything to me!
Saturday we were up early as we normally are and we decided to head to the beach. The beach was just right in front of the hotel. I was fully prepared to go to the beach knowing that I wouldn't be there very long if Brendan didn't like it. We took him to the beach a couple weeks ago and he was not a fan at all. I sat him down on a big blanket with his iPad and he was good. He sat there and just played the iPad. I don't even think he looked up or knew he was sitting on sand. Well after about 20 minutes or so the wind started to pick up and he jumped up in my arms and started to cry. I didn't really know what was going on, I thought he was cold because I was cold on the beach. It was still early and the sun wasn't out yet. I took all the towels and wrapped them around him and he pretty much cried himself to sleep on me. As he slept on me I started thinking that the start of his behaviors both related to the wind. The night of pictures it was super windy and then he was fine on the beach until the wind came. This is the joy of having a child on the spectrum. You have no idea when and what is going to trigger there sensory system. I would have never thought wind would bother him. When he woke up he was crabby so we left the beach and went to the hotel to swim. The pool had 3 different watersides. We took Brendan down the smaller one first and OMG he laughed the whole way down. Well from then on we must have went up the waterside stairs 50 times! Brendan just has no fear!
We spent the next 3 days at the pool 99% of the time. We did go walking around Huntington and did a little shopping. Overall Brendan did so good on our trip! A couple little hiccups but nothing we couldn't handle!
Today we had an appointment at the Melmed Center. I always get super nervous for these appointments because so far every time we have gone I felt like more new issues and diagnoses were brought up. But as I was thinking about the last 3 months I was actually going into this appointment knowing that he hadn't had any big regressions and he was making some progress. So for the first time we left the appointment with no new diagnoses!!!! He told me to keep doing what we are doing!!!! That was a great feeling!
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