“Stupid” Elevator

We had a wonderful trip to Padre Island. Our time at the beach was definitely the highlight of our trip. Our last day, we went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. It seemed like something fun to do as a family and something the boys would really enjoy, so off we went. The first hour went pretty well, we explored the aquarium and enjoyed seeing the various fish and sea creatures. Tyler was intrigued with the jellyfish and Luke just loved the fish in general, but had a particular interest in the stingrays. Then Tyler became obsessed with the elevator and wanted to do nothing, other than ride the elevator up and down and stim on it. It became increasingly frustrating! I gave in and let him ride it a couple of times – this normally gets it out of his system and allows him to move on. However, I forgot that we had gotten up early, gone to the beach and pool, so we already had a busy morning. He was tired, over stimulated and just plain uncooperative.

While Tyler was frustrating me, Geoff was exploring the aquarium with Luke and had made it over to the dolphins. I finally called Geoff on his cell phone and told him we needed to leave, that Tyler was obsessing over the “stupid elevator.” After I got off the phone, Tyler kept telling me, “I WANT TO RIDE THE STUPID ELEVATOR!” over and over and over again. At this point I just wanted to shoot myself – I had HAD it! So we left, missed the dolphin show and that was our aquarium experience in a nutshell.

I guess I am mad at myself. Again, I should have known this would be too much for Tyler and even Luke to handle. But Tyler is so high functioning and rarely has meltdowns anymore in public places unless he is exhausted, which he was. Because of this, sometimes I even forget that he even has autism. I just want him to be able to have fun experiences like all other children, but then I forget he is not like all other children. He is a high functioning autistic and the aquarium visit definitely brought me back to reality.

Even though our trip to the aquarium was not the greatest, I will NOT stop trying to give Tyler fun experiences. I do not want him to lead a sheltered life. I need to remember the look on his face when he saw the ocean again and the excitement he had for staying in the hotel. I also need to be thankful for these things:

1. Tyler did not get car sick on the trip to the beach which was a 3 ½ hour drive. No vomiting = awesome! Tyler gets so carsick that we have limited our travel times and make sure he is not in the car over 4 hours without a little breather. We could drug him up so we can travel more, but choose not to. As he gets older, he seems to get less carsick. This in itself is a godsend.

2. He did not freak out at spending the night in a hotel, a totally foreign place to him. We had never been there before and autistics tend to have issues with transitions and new environments. This was remarkable!

3. He pooped on the potty in our bathroom at the hotel. This was miraculous in itself! Now, maybe he will want to try this at home, one can hope.

4. He loves his brother and had the best time splashing in the ocean and digging in the sand with him. He even held Luke's hand to keep him from falling down when the waves crashed on him, throwing his balance off. Now that is sweet, brotherly love.

I will take delight in these wonderful things, for they overshadow our negative experience at the aquarium. I will always remember our trip, but choose to focus on our happier moments spent at the beach or the squealing excitement and glee of the boys checking out our room and jumping on the bed. Happy, happy times.