[AmyAnne]

Okay. Let's start off with the bad. Do y'all remember that nursery rhyme about the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead? "When she was good, she was VERY VERY good, but when she was bad, she was horrid"? Change the pronoun and you have my son. In Austin's defense, we were gone 15 days and had only 2 major issues. One was totally my fault. I had what I like to call "Delusions of Normalcy". You know, that moment, where you forget your child is not the "normal" child? And I let him stay up until 10 to watch a television program. the next day, he did not get his way and stepped REALLY hard on my foot on purpose. Refused to do room time. Fought me during a time in. Took a swing at me, and I had to put him in a restraint. My mother, bless her heart, did exactly as I instructed her 2 years ago ("In the event of a tantrum, the fewer people involved, the better. Please do not try and help unless I specifically ask you to do so. In that case, please follow my instructions precisely and then back off unless I ask otherwise") . The restraint hold lasted less than 10 minutes before he managed to calm his butt down.

The second one was worse. It was our last day in town and I had promised my mother we would attend Sunday Mass. (I was raised Catholic, but am now Unitarian Universalist. My son attends Catholic school currently). He refused to behave. (I did not have a lot of expectations. I did however insist he remain respectful. He didn't even have to participate in the mass!) He went from noncompliant to disruptive (People in the 2 pews ahead of us began turning around to see what was going on and I marched his butt outside). He tried to kick me and then attempted to run away. And so it came to pass that I had to perform a takedown and a restraint hold on the front lawn of my mother's church. An usher offered assistance but was nice enough to back off when I politely explained that I appreciated his offer, but I had it under control and he would have to excuse my son, he was emotionally disabled.

Now on to the GOOD....

My son managed all of the following with no major issues:

The Aquarium
The Zoo
The Duck Tour
3 hours of shopping
A trip to the car dealer (in which my mother bought a car) that lasted over 3 hours
The UU Church Service
A lunch with my friends
Two trips to the park
Dinner at my best friends' parents' home
Two trips to the Sunset Festival on the Beach
A FULL DAY at a Theme park!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus dinner afterwards

He showed kindness to his Grandpa when he was sick
He did chores for my mother
He willingly apologized to my mother after Mass.
He was able to go to the playground 4 blocks away by himself
He was able to have free reign on the water park section of the theme park (it was a lazy river, 4 slides and a wave pool. We were in the river and he was allowed anywhere in the water park. He did great.)
He willingly did anything his Grandpa asked.
He brushed his teeth, showered, and went to bed every night with no issues.
He went SNORKELLING WITH ME! This is huge. He is TERRIFIED of animals in the water, even though he loves to swim, so snorkelling meant he had to invest a LOT of trust in me.

So, all in all, the good FAR outweighed the bad. We had 2 major issues this time. On our last "Mom and Austin" trip we had 5. So that's a VAST improvement.

Let's hope the upward trend continues.

And YES, he and Grandpa had Dunkin' Donuts. Twice.

[kay]

That is so cool to hear, AA! And welcome home . . .

[mrsred]

Sounds like a huge victory to me! Welcome "home".

[Bippette]

I just had to chuckle at the image of your "take down" on the front lawn of the church. I have SO been there

Sounds like over all great progress.

[momraine]

See you are geting really good at snptf math. More good days than bad is our goal! LOL

[Robbin]

WOW! What a super trip! Good for Austin!

[waited2long]

Congrats on the wonderful trip! I hope his improvement continues to grow and multiply!

[aspenhall]

Gee, most "normal" kids have more issues than THAT!...Our kids' just exhibit more severe versions of "issues"...I'd say he was better behaved than a "normal" kid and he deserves MAJOR KUDOS in every way possible.

[AmyAnne]

Well we had the usual minor issues a bit of sulking. A few times when I had to say "Your behavior is not acceptable. I will give you five minutes to get back in control." (If he doesn't do it in 5 minutes, a consequence is assigned)

I was most impressed at Cypress Gardens and the car dealer.

Incidentally, anyone vacationing in Florida? I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Cypress Gardens. The longest line we waited in for any ride was 10 minutes. It's a theme park/animal park/garden/water park. If you have AAA you can get in for $30 ($40 without). Compare that to $72 for Disney. They have some roller coasters but a good mix of other rides as well.

[Barksum]

WOW!! Kudos to both of you!! While reading that I wondered if I could manage that without a meltdown. Then I began to wonder about my kids and how they'd manage...! Hooray for you and for having a *mostly* wonderful time.

[DianeScraps]

Sorry you had issues, but overall I would say that trip was pretty darn awesome!

We had our girls to Gettysburg, just for the weekend, and they were MISERABLE