Thursday, October 11, 2007

Expectations

He has learned his landmarks.
"Elephant!" he squeals as we get closer to the putt-putt.
"Feesh!" as we get toward the area of the Moby Dick.
"Super per per man!" as we near the Wal Mart. It is now a routine every time we stop here to ride the Superman train before getting in a cart.

After we are properly in the store "Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle!" and we make our way to the back of the store to visit the bicycles and try to avoid the toys all together. Many more trips in that department and I will be very broke and my house will be an even closer equivalent of Toy R Us.

We are there for two things, the oldest needs a flash drive for a business and marketing class, and I need to see what earphones they have available after breaking the very expensive pair the OT loaned me. As we try to wind our way through to electronics, Connor is beginning to look frantic. He reaches over and his hand makes enough contact with a display to knock part of it over. His sisters are kind enough to pick it up while I continue to the desired destination.

Now over the threshold that places us officially in the electronics department Connor can't take anymore. He is standing up in his seat and trying to climb over my head. The back of the cart seat is folding forward me, trapping his legs. Finally removing him from my head with hair covering my eyes he sits back down. His bottom lip is pooching out threatening to take over his face. We refer to this phenomena as cup holder lip. Big tears are welling up in his little eyes and he looks up at me whining "Mater, Lightning McQueen, Tractor?"
"You have all of those at home Honey."
"I wanna bicycle!" he cries.

This what I had been hoping to hear voluntarily. The one thing we had been working on is saying "Want" when labeling something that he wanted. He surpassed that goal and added "I"!

Well of course he got to see the bicycles! We grabbed a flash drive and went back to see them. Even though by now we are being tailed by a female security person for our weird antics. My oldest teens becomes therapist to help him through his transition and we go through taking our time and saying "Bye-bye" to each bicycle. Yup, my girls surpass expectations too.

6 comments:

Suzy said...

I think you're a pretty fantastic family.

I think the expectations you see everyone passing is just plain love for each other, and you have taught them well.

Love
Suzy

Anonymous said...

It takes forever to do a simple shopping trip. But it's fun all the same.

Crystal xx

Jade said...

How very awesome that your girls help in such a way. I'm sure you already do this, or have attempted, but what kind of Social Worker would I be if I didn't share this info with you.
Each Saturday I meet with a mom and her son and we "go out into the community." Meaning going to get groceries for the family, zoo, any sort of stimulating outing. During our time out I work with "A" (the child in question) on voice levels, requests to avoid frustrations, and every 5- 10 minutes I ask him if he needs "sensory." Which normally consists of him sitting on my lap while squatted down and receiving a few firm body squeezes. 95% of the time these small deliveries of sensory help to keep him level until moms tasks are over.
Maybe thats also something your girls can do to help when out.

Best of luck to you on your next outing!

Anonymous said...

Oh that's so great! We're heading down the campaign of 'team spirit' too, but you all seem to have it well under wraps.
Best wishes

Jeni said...

Fantastic! Isn't it just the most exciting thing ever when they manage to pick up on some little thing, no matter how small it may seem to others, and do what you wanted all along! Gives you that much more spirit, spunk and above all, heart -to keep on keeping on, doesn't it?

dgibbs said...

Suzy - Thanks, yes it is love. My girls are in totally over heels in love with him, and I with all three of them.

Crystal - It can be fun even if it seems like all hell may break lose at any moment.

Jade- Thank you for mentioning that. That is not something I have done, but I think would be great! I'll have to talk with my girls and see what they say about. They are usually on board for whatever, if only to be different ;-)

Maddy - I feel like a cheer leader now! We have spirit! Yes we do! We have spirit how about you! :D
From your blog I had gotten the idea that your daughter is a team player, if not the resident translator at times.

Jeni - The heart to keep on keeping on, yes. It's funny how he will have to get to an almost stressed out place to do things. Sometimes he scrolls through his word bank and pulls out "open" or "more" when he wants something, but he hit the mark that time.