Today Lukas and I stayed in our jammies and watched Thomas the train movies. We took a nice long nap which I know I am going to pay for later when Lukas is bouncing around at 11 o'clock tonight. After our long day inside I was having some serious cabin fever. My parents always said, "You don't need fireworks all the time." I beg to differ, so we went out to dinner.
Anyone who has a child with autism knows the struggles of going out to eat. We didn't even try until recently because we had a couple bad experiences and it was just stressful and not enjoyable for any us. Plus, going out to eat is kind of a waste of money when you are trying to live frugally. We debated on going to a buffet where the food is immediate so we wouldn't have to deal with Lukas waiting for food. The thing is, neither of us wanted to go to the buffet restaurant, so we went to a regular sit down place where we wait for our food.
We made our plan. If there was a problem after we ordered drinks, we would just pay for the drinks and leave. If there was a problem while eating, we would get our food in a to go box and leave. No biggie and no reason to stress about it. Lukas went in armed with his I-pad. He sat nicely the whole time, ate his food and did get up once, but he stayed within a few feet. I told him not to leave. Michael got up to get him and I had Michael wait to see if he would try to take off. Instead, Lukas came back and sat on my lap. He was awesome! The dinner was stress free! We left and when we walked out I told Lukas to say "Bye Bye" and he did.
We decided to take him to the park after dinner. There were a few little league games going on. Lukas wanted out of the field and yelled, "Bay Ball!" Future baseball player? Maybe. He told us the things he wanted to do at the park like, "Slide" and "Swing." It kind of broke my heart when we left and he didn't want to leave. He was yelling, "SLIDE!!!" as Michael buckled him into his car seat.
The point of this post is to encourage parents to go outside of their comfort zone with their child sometimes. Make a plan if it doesn't work out then don't stress about it. We had an awesome evening that wouldn't have happened if we didn't even try. We always follow Lukas' lead and I think that's the most important thing. I truly believe these things are all learning experiences for Lukas and they will be good for him in the long run.
I am so glad you guys had a good time after a long relaxing day. I too try to press my luck sometimes and enjoy a meal out. I always tell them when we order, please bring out Ryan's food with the salads or asap. Then when he is finished he gets a scoop of ice cream if he has sat good. I have only had to exit a couple of times and on those occasions I think I knew ahead of time it wasn't going to work. I pressed my luck ;)
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