Busy Day

Yesterday was Brady's very last day of preschool, so I lined up a sitter for Henry so that I could spend some one-on-one with my rising Kindergartner! We went out to lunch, then to the mall play area, then to the post office and bank (b/c they are near the mall), then to Target, then to pick up Henry. We also happened to have a birthday party to go to for two of the boys' cousins. So, we got home at 4:30 and had to wrap presents, eat dinner, and  head back out by 5:30. Stayed at the party to almost 8. Both boys are usually in bed by then.

For the most part, I enjoyed the afternoon with Brady, but it was exhausting. He did pretty well with all the stimulation, but by the ride home that night, he literally could not stop talking. He even ran out of things to say and started singing a nonsense song.

I have to say that I'm grateful to know how to help him with overstimulating situations. After lunch, we went and played at the play area. I let him jump off the equipment as long as no one was close enough to get hurt, I let him skip down the mall, I let him climb the pole at the post office, and touch everything we walked past at Target. I really never thought I'd actually encourage my kid to do most of these things in public, but I can see such a difference when I let him do them. He used to start spinning, running and hiding, crashing into me, falling on the floor, and trying to pull me down by the end (or at the beginning) of a shopping trip. So, to me, skipping down the aisle w/in a reasonable distance from me and touching every item on the shelf is much more acceptable behavior. I really think we're both figuring out how to get the input he needs in a decently appropriate way.

Oh, and giving him my sunglasses when we forgot his rather than trying to get him to walk out into the daylight w/out protection. He looked pretty funny, but I was so glad I had something to give him b/c he was refusing to step out of the shade w/out them.

Before we went back out to the birthday party, I convinced him to let me do joint compressions and it's amazing how calm he gets while I do those. I almost thought he was going to fall asleep. At the party he did pretty well, but had a hard time sitting through the present opening. He was banging his head into his dad's chest and pushing on his brother with his feet. But once he could get  up and moving again, he played pretty nicely. We did have a few hugs are were too tight for the little girls, but I was proud of him for not taking a running and leaping start into the hug, which he has been known to do.