Now this is where the balloons become…ohhhhh…all consuming? As luck would have it, my little love fell TOTALLY in love with friggin’ BALLOONS…I mean to the point that you made sure to have a HUGE stockpile at all time…huge, folks…no exaggeration here I tell ya. Kinda still learning about autism at this point and this was quite a lesson!!!!! Never, ever run out of something they like. NEVER, EVER, EVER…tends to make autism verrrrry angry; which in turn can lead to majorly, major meltdowns. Go figure. Who knew?
My sweet daughter had her lungs feel like they were exploding on many occasions due to blowing up balloons. One after another, after another, and so on and so forth. What did he do? Took the balloon that just finished sucking the very life right out of you and released it across the room…clasping his little hands in unimaginable joy…weeeeeeeeeeeeee! I kinda got out of balloon blowing up duty because I said I am TOO OLD TO HANDLE THIS. <wink, wink> No dummy here folks!
After turning a startling shade of blue, my daughter taught him how to blow up his own darn balloons. YES! He did it folks! He could now blow ‘em up and let ‘em go all he wanted and squeeze his little hands together in an explosion of joy and mommy was able to get her breathing under control. Another miracle.
Found out very quickly how ugly it could get when we went into stores. Didn’t know that every store in the entire State of TEXAS had balloons…I mean every stinkin’ one. Of course when we entered the store and he spotted them it would get…how shall I say it…a bit sticky? If he couldn’t have one he would clear out the store. Oh my oh my was he the master!
On one outing with my little bud, he spotted a monkey balloon…A MONKEY BALLOON: $10.00, can you believe it? TEN DOLLARS FOR ONE BALLOON…UGH…OMG!…aaggghhh. Almost caved but he had sorta misbehaved in the store and off we marched back to my car.
Oh good grief, he really is the MASTER. We weren’t in the car one minute when he grabbed my hand in a death grip, big beautiful brown eyes filled with huge tears, saying balloon…balloooon…BAAAAALLLOOOOOOOON? Okay I caved. SO? Haven’t ya ever caved? To a TEN DOLLAR BALLOON? Please tell me I am not alone in this: PLEASE!
Okay, Okay, so I take him back into the store and yes…yes…yes…made the little guy happy and myself ten bucks lighter, but he was so excited. He was soooooo happy I would have spent $100 on the friggin’ monkey. I now felt like the “BEST GRANDMA EVER,” and he was honing his skills, all at the same time.
We get home and he couldn’t wait to show it to mommy and Nicole, who was visiting from Easter Seals. All was right with the world; Chunky Monkey had his own monkey and life was good until…
Here is the kicker dear reader; here is the TEN DOLLAR KICKER: When Nicole got up to leave , we all followed her to the door to say goodbye. As we were doing this we watched in horror I tell you…HORROR…weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, said the little guy, clasping his hands together in pure unadulterated glee as he let the balloon go. Yes you read that right! He let the balloon GO! Kinda sorta forgot he liked to do that. People must have wondered for days about the flying monkey. I still laugh to this day. I just wish there was a camera at moment to catch all the different expressions: Horror, horror, horror…JOY! God I love that kid, BUT, I am now very selective when it comes to balloons. Would I do it again? YOU BETCHA!
That was classic Ma!!! I'll never forget the look of horror on your face!!! lol ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat was too funny! I think I would rather have Sierra let go of the balloons than befriend them and cry when they break or fly off.... If it gave her that much joy to let them go I would spend that much money willingly:)
ReplyDeleteThat is why I would do it again. I can't say no when he asks me for something…I cave. One day while in the store I said out loud, "Now don't be making me buy you all this stuff!"and people looked at me like i was crazy, They had no idea that at one time he was nonverbal…I was just reveling in the moment!
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