Adventure #10: Bad Times at the Costco

Yeah, I know, Costco isn't much of an adventure.  Sometimes though Geoff and I will make a fun trip out of places like Costco or Lowe's.  We will take our time and browse the holiday decorations, look at the toys, in the case of Costco, eat our weight in free samples.  So, that is what we decided to do last Saturday.  I was working on a cold, which I have convinced myself is Whooping Cough, or maybe Avian Flu, so something pretty low key seemed best.

We looked at electronics and kid jammies before making our way back to the books.   We all like the book section and spent some serious time here.   Then we headed for toys, where no good things happened.  Costco has tons of toys right now as they are getting in all their Christmas merchandise.  So we are looking and playing with different toys.  Owen calls us over to see a Lego set he has his eye on.  We all go over, Geoff and I and Noah in the shopping cart.  Owen is subtlely begging for this Lego set as are two other boys who call over their mom.  As their mom walks by our cart Noah goes and smacks her upside her head!  Those of us who know and love my little Noah have all been smacked upside the head by him.  But we generally try not to let him tag perfect strangers.  Geoff and I both apologize multiple times and Geoff adds the "he's Autistic" just so she understands his badness is part of a diagnosis rather than we just raised an asshole.

We tell Owen to grab the Legos just so we can get off that aisle and go hide somewhere else in the store.  We grab a big stuffed bear so Noah has something to occupy his hands.  That lady was a wonderful person, she just blew it off as no big deal.  I really appreciate she didn't make us feel any worse than we already did.

We continued our shopping at Costco, ate some samples and grabbed some things we needed.  Noah, ironically, was an adorable angel the rest of the trip.  He just kept resting his head on his big teddy bear.   We were able to conclude our trip with no more mishaps.  Day in the life of raising my special needs kid often keeps me on my toes.  Really all we can do is apologize when Noah is inappropriate and laugh.

Adventure #9: The Beach

I hate missing out on any sleep, ever.  I love my sleep.  We wanted a trip to the beach this summer, but didn't want to stay the night.  Until we get Noah used to a regular bed we don't plan to spend any more sleepless hotel nights.  We realized something, when you live in Hillsboro, the beach is only a little over an hour away.  There and back in one day is not only doable, but makes a beach trip incredibly affordable too.

 Packing a lunch, kite, sand toys, and more clothes than a day trip should ever require (but weather at the Oregon Coast is fickle) we set off for the beach.  Now we were pretty sure we had all the makings for a great day.  All the supplies were packed, Owen loves the beach, and Noah lives in his sand box.  Here we are taking him to the world's biggest sand box.

We found a parking spot in Cannon Beach right next to beach access and walk on down.  Two initial obstacles hinder us.  We have a ton of stuff to lug down the beach.  Geoff just wants to give up and set up our spot pretty much as soon as we hit sand.  I insist we trek closer to the water for water play and sand castle glue.  While Geoff and I have our hands full we are making the kids walk.  Owen has no problems, Noah however, quickly decides he is not walking.  At first I wasn't giving in.  It took me a minute to understand what his reaching up to me while trying to stand on one leg meant.  Noah has terrible balance and never tries to stand on one leg.  His little piggies were burning up on the hot sand!  So, we re-shuffle gear, so I can carry 50 pound Noah and fewer toys.

The one photo of our cameraman Geoff, his fingers!

Noah is a happy little clam all set up with his sand toys and a bucket of water to play with.  Owen is my surfer, heading straight for the water regardless of how freezing the Oregon Coast Pacific is.

We play and eat lunch.  Geoff and I remember why we hate eating on the beach as we enjoy our rather sandy sandwiches.  Owen decides he doesn't like seagulls when they fly off with his chips.  We were there on the one non-windy day, so Owen's totally awesome fighter jet kite doesn't really fly.  He had fun running around with it, trying to get it to anyway.

Before we go, I want to try out the water with Noah.  He has never been in the ocean.  He loves swimming pools and bathtubs, but this is totally new.  We go down to the waters edge and the first wave totally startles Noah.  The water is cold and rushing fast.  I think he couldn't quite decide if he liked it or not.  He would reach out to me with each wave.  When Noah decided to pelt the waves with wet sand, I think he was declaring he did not like the ocean.

As we finished up, we hauled wet kids and all the gear back to the car.  We changed each kid into dry clothes and headed home.  We had such a fun day.  And outside of gas money, it didn't cost us a thing.  

Future Adventures

We went on vacation once without our little Noah and we all missed him so much.  As we are planning our future vacations we are trying to find places that can accomodate Noah.   It is a tall order, we need a place that we would all enjoy, that doesn't overwhelm Noah or us, and where his quirkiness wouldn't be too big of a problem.

There was a great article on Ability Path about traveling with you special needs kids.  Here is a link to it:

http://www.abilitypath.org/health-daily-care/daily-care/playing/articles/travel-guide-disney-special-needs-disability.html

Adventure #8: The Oregon Zoo

One of my own personal goals is to live more during the week.  You know, not save all the fun stuff for the weekend.  So to further that goal I took the kids to the zoo on Tuesday.  The Oregon Zoo http://www.oregonzoo.org/  offers a great deal with $4 admission on the second Tuesday of every month.  This typically means that the zoo is insanely crowded.   However, by getting there after school at 230pm many people with preschoolers are heading home, so it wasn't too crazy.

Usually Owen and I get into an argument at the zoo because he just wants to rush around to whatever animal pops into his head, "let's see the polar bears!  Now let's go to the farm!  Now the bats!"   Whereas I prefer to do a more orderly exhibit to exhibit.  We compromised by starting in the zoo where he wanted, Stellar Cove, and then followed the paths around the zoo.  Watching the sea lions is amazing.  The exhibit is a full wall of windows into their swim tank.  Both boys enjoy watching the sea lions surprisingly serene swimming in the water.

As we walked around I realized a real problem with the zoo.  Many of the exhibits, especially in some of the older parts of the zoo aren't very wheelchair/stroller friendly.  Noah couldn't see the animals in most of the exhibits because the viewing area is at waist height.  So Noah was just hanging out while Owen and I looked at the animals.

There were a few animals Noah did really get to interact with.  The goats were in their petting zoo pen.  We were able to stick our hands through the fence and pet them.  Noah is always more engaged if he can use more than one sense to notice something.  For example, with the goats he could see and touch (and smell) them.  When we used the hand sanitizer afterword Owen just kept pumping the lever.  It took me a second (and Owen about 6 pumps) for me to realize Owen couldn't feel the sanitizer because it was foam.  He thought he wasn't getting any.  When I told him to check his hand he had a mount of sanitizer about 5 inches tall and 4 inches wide!  We were very clean.

Baby Sumara

After finishing up the African area of the zoo we went to get a snack.  I enjoyed this part the best.  And no, not because I love to eat!  It was really nice just to sit down with the kids and talk about what we had seen.  Noah loves salty foods, so he had some potato chips and Owen has a wicked sweet tooth, so he had cotton candy.  I let Noah hold his own bag and he did well not dumping all the chips out.  When Owen was done with his cotton candy, he looked at me to ask if he had any on his face.  I swear the entire lower half of his face, from his eyeballs down, was covered in cotton candy!  We cleaned up and finished the zoo.

We walked up the Great Northwest exhibit on our way out.  Noah liked the salmon I think because he could really see them and the water was splashing a little out of the tank onto us.  His hands down favorite was the bears.  Two of the bears were really lively.  They were snuggling and playing with each other.  Noah tried to crawl into their exhibit!  Mostly, I think he wanted to play in their dirt.  

We left the zoo after two and a half hours.  I was pretty pleased with getting out and having a fun afterschool afternoon for $12.  The very best part of my day was when Owen spontaneously hugged me and told me "thank you for bringing us here".

Adventure #7: Fishing trip

We went on a real adventure today:  fishing!  The Tillamook Anglers, along with other sponsors, hosted their 20th annual fishing day for disabled kids.  This event is entirely free for particpating families.   The Tillamook Anglers are a non-profit, volunteer group who maintain the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery in Tillamook.  They raise 100,000 Chinook Salmon to release in the ocean every year.  They also support their regional food bank with salmon donations. 

Our first adventure was just getting there.  For some reason, Geoff and I both were thinking that Tillamook was about 40 minutes from our house.  Yes, we should have determined this before we left, rather than assuming it was going to be around each bend.  So, after an hour and a half, and turning around twice, we finally made it to the Whiskey Creek Hatchery.                            http://bit.ly/n1UKBs

Owen was just itching to fish as soon as we got there.  Noah wouldn't understand fishing, so he opted just to come along for the ride.   The fishing was set up inside the fish hatchery.  It was like fishing in a barrel!  Plenty of volunteers were lined up along the hatchery to help the kids bait their hooks and get their poles into the water.   Noah and I walked around the hatchery where I made the unfortunate discovery that in his chair Noah is butt high to everyone.  As we were walking through he decided pinching butts in the crowd was such fun!  I walked through issuing apologies along the way.   Noah and I decided to explore the grounds where it was much less crowded while Owen and Geoff fished. 

The hatchery sits right on Tillamook Bay.  Noah and I followed the path around the rainbow trout pond to look out on the bay.  It is beautiful with the spooky ghost trees, calm water, and seagulls.  After catching 4(!) fish, Owen and Geoff came to join us.  We did some more exploring and played a game of bean bag tic tac toe.  The game was set up with large tarp mats on the ground to make a board where the kids could throw the bean bags.  Noah decided that he wanted to lay down on the tic tac toe mat in the grass and then run around to lay on everyone's tic tac toe mat.  After we gathered him back up we went to get lunch.

Lunch was a provided part of the event and it was awesome.  A choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, or fried chicken with sides, ice cream (Tillamook of course), soda, coffee and hot cocoa were offered.  We took our picnic lunch to enjoy in the grass by the bay.  We ate our lunch while various prizes were raffled off.  Alas, I did not win the smoker I was coveting.

After lunch we packed up our fish and headed home.  We had a great time.  I never thought we'd be able to try out fishing as a family.  I am always so touched when organizations reach out to the special needs community to help us and our kids do family fun events.  Many activities are just so much more difficult to pull off if you are trying to do it with someone who is disabled.  This well organized event allowed us to try out fishing in a fun and no stress way.  The best part is on the way home Geoff and I realized we had this amazing outing and hadn't gotten out our wallets once.    Thank you Tillamook Anglers!

Adventure #6: Kindergarten!!

This has been a slow week as far as us getting out into the community.  For one really big reason:  Noah started kindergarten today.  Geoff and I, with knots in our stomachs, drove him to his new school.  We had plenty of worries that any parent experiences sending their child off to kindergarten and a few more that may be unique to a special needs parent.  Like all parents we worried about the transition to a school setting and how well he would get along with his teacher and the other students in his class.

One of our biggest, and maybe more unique, concerns is that Noah is non-verbal and can't communicate to us about anything.  This made explaining what was happening difficult, because we really don't understand how much he comprehends when we talk to him.  It also means he can't tell us if anything goes wrong during the day that he needs our help with.  Like if there are any mean kids he needs us to beat up. 

Another unique concern was we weren't sure if his teacher and classroom aids had experience with someone like Noah.  Noah has been difficult to diagnose for a reason, he doesn't quite act like other kids.  He is considered Autistic because he meets the criteria for a diagnosis, but every doctor believes there is more going on with Noah than ASD.  Noah can hit, kick, bite, head butt, oh, and his new one, pinch your swishy bits when he feels overstimulated, like he needs attention, when he is mad, or just thinks being naughty will be funny.  Would the teachers be prepared for that?

With all of our reservations and concerns we brought Noah into his classroom.  He explored with interest and we quietly left while wringing our hands.  Geoff and I gave each other pep talks and went home.  While we anxiously waited for 10:45am to pick him up, the school called twice.  In utter panic I answered the phone both times.  First was the school nurse, calling to say he was having a good day.  The second was the classroom teacher calling to give me a report that he was doing really well.  Apparently our nerves were pretty obvious!  We were able to return to school much calmer than we left it.

Noah's first day of kindergarten was a success.  I am excited for him to spend time with new people and learn new skills.  Now we just need to conquer the school bus, but we are putting that off until next week!

Adventure #5: the dreaded Restaurant

Dining out with Noah is like taking a monkey to a restaurant.  He won't sit, he's trying to either run through the restaurant or climb on the table, he throws food, he decides squawking is really funny.  We haven't taken him to a restaurant in about a year.

Dining out isn't about eating a meal usually, its about having a fun, relaxing experience.  With Noah, its about one of us bolting down our food while the other walks around the block with him.  Totally not worth the $40-50 a typical restaurant bill runs!

Our goals for Noah (not just my little blog!) is to help him learn to be out in the wider world.  Sometimes you have to dine out.  For example, if we are traveling there is no choice but to eat out.  He will also be eating in a school cafeteria at some point and doesn't need to be scrambling up on the table.  Well, we decided to brave dining out with him again!

We did our best with the factors we could control:  went to a quick service restaurant and ate at a non-busy time.  Rachel's Classic Burgers   http://bit.ly/oskkbD  is a new burger place by our house that styles their burgers after In N' Out, every California transplants dream burger.

After placing our order, things were not looking good.  I tried placing Noah in the high chair, but he is 5 years old and super tall, so he just wanted out.  I tried distracting him with games of peek-a-boo and a granola bar, but he kept signing he wanted out.  Not a good start.  We get him out and try the chair.  He scrambles out and runs through the restaurant.  I have no idea where he was planning on going, I don't think he had thought it that far through.

We were back to our old Geoff walking him around and me wolfing down my burger so I can switch places with him.  After inhaling my burger I look out the window to tell Geoff I can switch spots with him.  But I see that Geoff is experiencing a moment of brilliance:  he is putting Noah in his push chair.

They stroll back into the restaurant and Noah is calmly sitting in his chair.  No frantic struggling to get down, no disruptively loud chirps, just sitting.  He even eats a little from his special seat.  The rest of our meal is peaceful and Noah sits in the comfort of his chair.

I wouldn't call this a home run, but we were able to problem solve to save the situation.  It is going to take many more outings to hopefully get him to understand the routine.  I left the restaurant thinking we could go back again as a family. 

Adventure #4: local parks

I am sure everyone out there has their favorite local park.  There is one special park you may not be aware of:  Camp Rivendale.  This large playground is specifically designed for special needs kids.  With chair style swings and a structure made to accommodate a wheel chair, every child should have access to all the fun.  Part of the Jenkins Estate complex, the park is located at 8385 SW Grabhorn Road (just up the hill from Farmington Road), in Beaverton.  The park is open from 8am to at least 4pm daily.

During summer days a day camp for Special Needs kids is offered to residents in the Tualatin Valley Parks system.  You can also rent the park for private parties.  We looked into this for Noah's birthday and it would have been about $600, so we passed.  Those are the two reasons you may find this park closed when you try to go up and play.  It is really worth coming back to find them open. Able bodied Owen calls this his favorite park. 

We went up on Tuesday to play and unfortunately found it rented for a party.  So, we went up the hill a little further to Cooper Mountain Nature Park.  Taken from the Tualatin Hills Parks Page:

Overlooking the Tualatin River Valley, Cooper Mountain Nature Park is located on the edge of Beaverton. The 230-acre park, at 18892 SW Kemmer Road, Beaverton, offers visitors 3½ miles of trails (with varying levels of difficulty) that traverse the park and pass through each of its distinct habitats - from conifer forest to prairie to oak woodlands. Visitors will be rewarded with grand views of the Chehalem Mountains, close-up looks at Oregon white oaks and a small prairie that has sat relatively undisturbed for hundreds of years.  

The park also has, near the parking lot, one of those new modern playgrounds.  You know the ones, that have play equipment you aren't exactly sure what to do with. There is also a sand box, where we met with an unpleasant child.  This is officially our first experience with some kid being a jerk to Noah because Noah is different.  We have lived in a very happy bubble where all of our families and friends and their kids know Noah and love him for his quirky self.  This kid at the park was very vocal that Noah was really bothering him with the way he was playing.  Now, Noah can be a notorious sand thrower, but this time he really wasn't!  He was just chirping to himself and filling his cups with sand.  With no parents in sight I couldn't involve this child's parents and just had to tell him he needed to play nice and I would take care of Noah.  I took the kids on a walk and Owen was much more upset by this kid than Noah, I don't think Noah noticed.  I felt like we did leave the sand box to escape this child, but I would have done that with any kid that annoyed me! 

It takes more than one jerky kid to put us off our plan.  Noah is a part of this world and deserves to use the sand box as much as any other kid.  We will be back to Cooper Mountain Nature Park.