Some pictures from our trip:
Cuddlebug enjoyed the view from the window of the train at the airport, while Bearhug was focused on his pizza :). We encountered lots of big escalators at the airports (we visited three that day). Cuddlebug
insisted on riding the escalators, while Bearhug was terrified of them, so we compromised by letting Cuddlebug ride up and back down, and then we all took the elevator together.
We went to a pizza / game place where the boys had fun riding bumper cars (great for sensory-seekers!) and playing air hockey.
They got tired of hitting the puck back and forth and decided it was more fun to "throw" their handles at each other, lol.
My dad took us on a brief tour of the hangar where he works. The boys got a sneak-peek at the plane insides without all the seats and "trimmings."
And a visit to the park for some low-key fun. We were trying not to overdo it.
There were lots of
groundhogs prairie dogs at the park :).
Cuddlebug buried a pack of "Smarties" candy in his volcano.
Then he was off to join Bearhug at the prairie dog field.
They walked around the entire perimeter of the field on the wall. When they got to going too fast, I told them to stop running. Cuddlebug responded, "we're not running, Mama, we're power-walking!" lol
On our way back to the car, Bearhug couldn't resist splashing in a puddle.
A little worried about overstimulation, we took the boys to pick out some Pokemon videos for some downtime.
The videos helped but it was not enough to prevent a rage of a meltdown, the likes of which I haven't seen from Bearhug in years. He stayed in control so well until one little thing set him off and it was downhill from there. No sense going into details... but it was worrisome because he's so big now I was afraid that he'd hurt himself or someone else or do some serious property damage but thankfully we all made it through ok.
After that, we pretty much stayed at the house the rest of the trip. The boys had fun playing with airplanes, and Bearhug enjoyed having Python attack the various planes, like this. He liked it when I took pictures of them like that, so I have a bunch of these with different planes. Aren't you glad I didn't post them all? hehe
And then it was time to go home.
We nearly had a repeat of Bearhug's meltdown when we found that Pizza Hut at the airport was closed during our layover (and I had told him we'd get pizza). So I assured him we'd get one when we landed at home before heading out to the car and he was able to stay in control (thank goodness because we were starting to attract stares and I was worried they wouldn't let us board the plane if he didn't calm down).
In the air we saw huge billowy clouds and blue skies, but on the ground it was back to rainy, grey skies.
As it turned out, the terminal we landed at does not have a Pizza Hut, and no other pizza would do (sigh) so we had to go on a quest for Pizza Hut before we could go find the car and go home. Of course it was the opposite direction of where we needed to go. We finally found it. That in itself was no easy feat - the airport was VERY crowded at that point, and to top it off Cuddlebug was insisting on
pushing the suitcase (on rollers) for me and no matter how many times I told him you're supposed to pull it because it's easier, he was obstinate about it (and have you ever tried to
push one of those things? It goes everywhere! not good in a crowded airport!). I was pulling my hair out, but we weren't really in a rush at that point and I knew they were both at their limit in terms of overstimulation, so I just took a deep breath and tried to keep the peace.
Anyway... so this one was taken on the underground train in our pizza quest.
And we had a breakthrough - Bearhug finally worked up the nerve to get on the escalator. I was really proud of him, I know how difficult it can be to overcome our fears. And he didn't just get on any escalator, he got on THIS one, which is huge and really messes with your visual sense of perspective for some reason.
All in all, it was a good trip and a relatively successful "experiment." We've been "paying" for it for the last couple of weeks because much like any vacation, the combination of overstimulation and change in the routine takes a while to work its way out of their systems. But it was great being able to go visit my parents for a long weekend and it was nice to have some one-on-one (or two) time with Cuddlebug and Bearhug, although I missed dh and Bitty while we were gone. It was also all the evidence I needed that we need to wait a long while before trying to take Bitty on a flight ;).
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