Extended Family Time

On Thursday morning, Miles was able to go to Paternal Grandma's house early in the morning. I got him all dressed in his green shirt. Well, at Grandma's there was his five cousins as well to play with and celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Well, he had a great morning playing. The only rough part of that was he didn't want to wear pants, shoes, or even diaper to come home in.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner for my brother-in-law and his bride. Miles was having already a bad day and I was dreaded what was going to happen. All the way to the church he was screaming and trying to get out of his car seat. I carried him into the church and took him away from everyone to calm down. Trying to keep myself calm and not stressed out over the situations. Finally he was calm and we found the rest of the group. Well, Miles was chasing his sister all over and at times i had to step in to calm him down. Finally, we brought food because no way was Miles was going to eat what was provided for dinner. Miles ate his piece of pizza and played with his cousin. Then he just randomly hit his cousin with a toy. This happened not once but three times. Then he had a huge meltdown in front of my family but also my soon sister-in-laws family as well. It was hard to not cry because here I was dealing with this. I was already nervous about this whole thing and how he was acting. My husband took him out to another room to calm him down. That night, with tears in my eyes I apologized for the way he was acting. I felt like my son (who I shouldn't have brought at all) ruined the night with his behaviors. I then messaged my sister-in-law and apologized for the way Miles kept hitting her son. It made me so uneasy about the wedding.

Saturday morning, we tried to stay in our routine as much as possible. Hoping that it would help Miles adjust to the wedding better. We went to Sam's like we normal and he flipped out going to the car. We then headed to the Temple to see him get married. My mom tagged along to take care of the kids during the ceremony. After the ceremony in the cold wind we stood to take pictures. Miles did great during the pictures and I thought hey this might work great. That evening we headed to the reception and guess what Miles had a fabulous time running around and playing with kids. We stayed past his bedtime and he was awesome.

Sunday, we headed to church and things were going good. Miles kept pointing at someone's dress and would not stop saying, "Mickey Mouse." Which they were not Mickey Mouse it was lobsters. He just kept pointing. So I mentioned for his Dad to take him for a walk with his weighed backpack. Well, I later had to leave to nurse the baby and heard Miles screaming on top of his lungs. Meltdown. Finally, I was able to trade with Dad and got Miles calmed down and took him to his nursery class where he flipped out. So I had him move chairs around in the hallway and got him in Nursery. Found out that they had a little rough time but nothing the adults couldn't handle as they have a child of their own who is autistic. Was able to talk to another autism parent about Miles and his thoughts. (I am always seeking for more).

We then headed home to rush and change clothes. Miles had a meltdown so we decided to leave him in his clothes. We then headed to my in-laws and Miles played and threw toys many times at me and his brother. Everyone except a small amount of us stayed at the house and I stayed behind to be with Miles because no way I was going to let him tour a house. We had a great evening and came home.

Yesterday, we went back to my in-laws to spend some more time. Miles was in a great mood and I swear something switched inside him. Anytime he got near his cousin his cousin would freak out. I felt really bad for Miles who wanted to play. It was hard not to cry knowing that this was how Miles life is...when he actually wants to play kids are scared of him.

Question: How do you explain it to two year olds?

Vacation Day 3

So our vacation was coming to a close. Miles woke up later then usual so we all had to rush to breakfast. He ate his muffin and was having a great morning. We packed up the hotel and checked out. Our last stop was Winter Quarters Temple. We try to make it a family tradition on family vacations to take a picture at a temple as a family. So, we made it to the temple and walked around it and took some family pictures.

Winter's Quarter Temple Omaha, Nebraska

Our family: Left to Right
Me (Kendra), Miles (2 1/2 years old), Ginny (4 1/2 years old), Stephen, and Mason (9 months) 

Dad and his boys

Mom and her boys 

My mom (Kid's Grammy) and her loves
She lives with us and helps us a ton 

Then on our way back to Kansas we were going. It was a long road back and even longer because Mason (the baby) was done being in his car seat and extremely tired. So he screamed most of the way back which got Miles who was done being his car seat in a frenzy. So an hour or so away from home we had to stop for lunch and try to cool everyone nerves. At this point, Miles wanted no one to touch him or talk to him. I went to business to help calm him down. We made our paces on some landscape rocks and slowly Miles calmed down or so I thought till he ran right into the drive thru. I finally was able to get him inside McDonald's. Where he pushed around the restraunt one of the highchairs with his brother in it. He finally calmed down enough to eat his lunch and was able to go back in his car seat. 

We were finally home and relaxed...It was a great trip...and all of us can't wait to have another vacation come summer. When we will hit Saint Louis area. 

Question: What is your favorite vacation spot? 

Vacation Day 2

. Make sure you read about your Vacation Day 1.

Day two, Miles slept pretty good the night before in the hotel. He got up a couple of times and Dad was able to get him back to sleep pretty quickly. Day 2 our plans was to spend the day at the Zoo. We went down to breakfast first at the hotel (we always make sure our hotel has breakfast).

Miles, was in a mood and Big Sister wanted to share his tablet with him while they ate. So she kept getting into his bubble. Some days his bubble is bigger then others and just wouldn't leave him alone. Miles, did good and ate something small for breakfast. We knew that we would have to bring lots of snacks for him on our trip.

We left for the zoo and got there soon after it opened. Miles had a blast looking at the animals until we were near a playground. This kid loves to slide and climb and this playground had all of it. Bad news...we let him go on the playground (Parents mistake...won't happen again). He played and had fun at one point was getting aggressive with another kid. I believe he punched the kid with a toy. So, we literally carried him to another exhibit of animals far away...He was screaming and anytime Dad or myself let him down he would run off towards the playground.

He could stay there watching fish for hours if we let him. He was so relaxed.

Finally, once we went inside the gorilla house he was calmed down and busy watching the gorillas. I have heard that Omaha Zoo has a lot of Gorilla and they can be quite loud at times on the glass. So, to prepare for the zoo we watched lots of youtube videos of that zoo. Miles was so excited to watch the Gorillas. He would run up to the glass and try to find them. Of course none of them were really doing anything. Except one and that was after we left it...it started to bang on the glass. We then headed to the other monkey house. 

We walked in and saw these cute little monkeys. They were jumping and swinging around and the kids loved watching them. Well, one of the smaller ones saw Miles and my daughter standing next to the class so it came to watch them. Then it would swing away and play and then jump at the glass. The kids loved watching him. 

The kids kept giving him a high five. 

Then when we walked out it was starting to rain. Miles quickly started to act up so we knew our trip was coming to a close. We were at the large cats and Miles started to have a meltdown. After that we ran to the last dome the desert dome. At this point everyone was coming into the buildings. So it was packed and Miles had enough of people. He clung to me and tried to hide under his hood the best he could. It was hard to keep him out of the sand and the water. We made it out without anything huge happening. Whew...

On our way back to the hotel we grabbed snack stuff for the hotel to tide us over to dinner. We knew Miles would be best to relax and not let anything or anyone near him. By the time we got to the hotel he was asleep. He woke up and relaxed in a bed snuggled tightly with me with his tablet to relax and let go of the world. 

That night we went to Culver's for dinner and he loved his meal. We just started to get him to eat corndogs and he gobbled it and his applesauce up and ate his ice cream. When we got to the hotel we relaxed and enjoyed our evening. Miles fell fast asleep in the bed after the routine.