My Escape Artist & Ass Fudge

Like the title of this post?
It's not to catch your attention - it's the shortest way to describe this morning.

Today is the last day of day-care/school for most kids.  This means that V-Man has 1 day left of day-care and then he can sleep in and hopefully allow us to sleep in too for the next two and a half weeks or so.
Last night he ended up waking up after 2 hours and crashed on the sofa - after his first dose of melatonin.  He slept most of the night and crawled onto our new sofa with hubby and stayed quiet for most of the night!  We have to try it for 2 weeks straight and hopefully his body accepts it - but last night was a huge step!
I, of course, was up by 3am, in preparation for being woken by screams, yells and light bulbs...but it didn't happen!

Anyway, this morning - he didn't want to go to day-care.  This has been normal for the past month.  It's gotten darker and colder outside - so of course it's nice to just stay in bed ALL day.  I agree!
But it's against his schedule system!  So this morning we wrestled him into his clothing - screams and all - and I ran downstairs with him, his backpack, his booster seat and a plate holding some prettily wrapped up fudge for the teachers.
*Cue insta-scream.

There was no way he would stay seated.  I finally got the seat belt clicked in and we closed the door and as always, I waited to see him drive away safely.
The driver didn't even close his door.  Taxi drivers here are super polite and open the door for you and help to put your groceries in the trunk if needed.  They also open the door for you if you're un-able to - once you arrive to your destination!  I just open the door myself usually and plop the booster seat and V-Man in myself.  
V-Man opted for yanking hard at his seat belt and standing up in his booster seat and screaming.
The driver looked at me and I sighed.  I apologized for wasting his time and I'll take him by bus.

We ran upstairs so I could grab my bus card and coat and we had less than 5 minutes to get up a huge hill with my arms full of stuff and holding his hand - and we made it.  Mostly because the bus was 7 minutes late.  Huzzah!
This also meant that we missed our connecting bus downtown and had to wait 20 minutes.
I refused to let him see my phone or watch Youtube because I consider that to be a real treat - and by this point - I'm exhausted and he just keeps wanting to drag me to the shops and McDonald's.  Tough - they're not open at 8am.

24 minutes later - we're boarding the second bus with him screaming and trying to assume his boulder position - refusing to lift a foot onto the bus.
GREAT.
I haul him onto the bus and as I'm re-arranging my arms full of stuff so I can press my wallet on the electronic panel reader thing - he's off.
Yeah - he's running to the back door and about to jump off the damn bus like James Bond.

Thankfully it's a 7 minutes long bus ride.  He screamed for 6 and then tossed his hat at me, I bend down to pick it up (he's standing) and THEN decides to sit beside me and onto the plate of prettily wrapped fudge.

We get off the bus and cross the street - we have a 2 minutes-long walk to his day-care.  1 minute if he co-operates!
Then he opts for the boulder position.  Absolutely will not budge - as I'm clasping his hand and leaning at a 45-degree angle trying to get him to move.  Also - I don't want to drop that fudge!
Nope - not happening.  Eventually - we get there and the teachers sense my nerves are splitting in half by the handful.  They're excited about the fudge and I got a lift close to home from the speech therapist.
 
I don't mean to brag - but the V-Man and I raised a fuckton of autism awareness this morning.

BIMU

The Harness Leash Thing

Sorry I didn't write last night!! We're really into Homeland season 2 currently and I'm also working on a birthday present for a party we're going to in a couple days.
So I'll just get to the point of this post.

We are one of those parents that used to judge and think nasty things about other parents who walked with their kids using a harness/leash/tether.
Until we had V-Man and couldn't walk with him anywhere. Up until recently, we couldn't take him hiking or swimming in a lake or anywhere outdoors because he's a runner.
He's super fast and I've seriously contemplated reaching out to Usain Bolt about having V-Man be his training partner.
Because he doesn't have the concept of fear or danger, he could run into traffic and not realize it's a bad idea until he got hit.
So the only way he got to go outside, was via stroller or carrier.
The Deuter Kids Comfort III is excellent for hiking and carrying a child securely and all that. But when it weighs quite a bit and your child weighs even more...hiking becomes a painful experience. And who wants that?!

A friend once gifted me with a cute Winnie the Pooh backpack on a leash when I was pregnant and when I showed SH, we both decided that it won't be necessary and it would feel too much like walking a dog.
A few weeks ago, I went to one of the big grocery stores and took a look in the child care section and saw cute little backpacks and a basic vest with a leash attached.
The cute backpacks looked easy to get out of but the vest didn't.
That night we went hiking as a family for the first time and as long as he had a stick, we could go forward. Of course he hated putting it on but after a few days, he was excited to see it.

Today he brought it to us and got excited when we took that as "we should go somewhere!!"
So we hopped on the bus and went to buy some seeds, as I'd like to try some hydroponics (more about this later) and after that, I took him to a local fenced in playground to let him run and we had a smooth and calm evening.

I'm trying to work on his social skills in public with V-Man - because he doesn't speak doesn't mean I can't try to teach him patience and how to go around town without barreling people down or how to sit on the bus nicely.
This and his legs are getting too long for his strollers...so he needs to walk!

I know we attract a lot of weird looks when going around with him in a harness. At first, I was so deeply embarrassed!
But when push comes to shove -if he runs -those that stare won't know he has autism and they won't catch him in time. Thankfully he has bolted a few times so people can see why he wears one - because he needs it!!
Now I don't care what others think and it's a wonderful relief of extra stress!!!
Have a good one!
BIMU