New situations, new successes

We had no idea what to expect from George on our trip South. It's been a couple of years since he's been on an airplane or shared a bedroom. He would be sleeping in a sleeping bag, too, a first for him.

Add to that a house with ten people staying in it, visits to other houses filled with even more people, and the need to share toys and space with cousins, and this could have been a disaster.

The growth I've seen in him over the last few months was apparent during this past week. He had a couple of meltdowns, but they were situational and completely understandable (a broken Thomas the Train toy [sorry, Michelle, thanks for trying!] and a plane he could get inside and look at [my father-in-law is a pilot with a stunt plane], but it wouldn't take him home no matter how often he asked). He used his activity schedule, we gave him familiar foods to eat and videos to watch, and since the weather was beautiful, we spent lots of time outdoors. He coped in his own way, wonderfully.

Both new experiences and sensory overloads are often met with this pose:

By far the most useful item we purchased for this trip was a set of child-sized headphones. We bought a set for both kids to use with our laptop on the airplane. What we didn't expect was that George loved them and used them throughout the week, whenever he wasn't sure of a situation.

In the house filled with new people, outside at a museum, travelling through busy airports, they gave him the separation he needed from the world. They worked well for watching videos at the airport when our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, too!