We get to the mall and Beans is looking around at the different stores you can see from the parking lot and asking which one was The Mall. Whoops. Missed a concept here. I did take him to the mall recently with my brother, but we only went into the Guitar Center store that we entered directly from the outside. Needless to say, Beans was a little confused.
We get in the store and Little Man starts freaking out a little. Not behaviorally (thank goodness as I don't know what I'd do just having had surgery) but he was so anxious. He refused to walk anywhere near the railing (we were on the second floor) and all the people were stressing him out. Poor little guy was so overwhelmed. I had to hold his hand the whole time (he is coming up on 11 years old) because he'd either start to freak and go the wrong way or he'd see something and get distracted and start to go off who knows where. Oh yeah, Rachel, this is what having a son with autism is. Yes, he's so fortunate to be high-functioning, but there are so many situations we don't even think about that are too much for him.
Luckily the salesgirl at Journeyz was very helpful, even with a crowded store, and helped us find the socks and we got out of there quickly. We needed to go down to the first floor so our next adventure was to brave the escalators. Little Man was apprehensive again. Add to his he's not the most coordinated person in the world and his visual spatial awareness is very lacking and escalators are quite exciting. :P He held my hand and I told him when to step and he did good. Once he was on he wasn't even worried.
After we left the mall, my plan was to take the kids to Tom Brown Park. I was happily surprised to see a Michael's craft store as we left the mall. We stopped in there and found some race car transfers that I'm going to try on the backs of his orthotics. I'm hoping they work okay. They should look much neater than that plain white if they work. While we were there, the boys each had to get a hat and a tail.
Then we finally made it to the park. Here they are all decked out (Little Man's not in his orthotics...I've totally slacked on that but my resolution this week is to have him wear them everyday.) You can see Beans' tail in his hands.
Beans loved wearing his new accessories. He said kids kept coming up and asking him about the tail and grownups kept coming and asking where he got his hat. Such a little attention seeker.
Probably the funniest moment of the day happened on the tire swing. I was pushing the boys and dropped my camera. Of course it landed right under the swing. I give the boys a big push and bent down to grab it, figuring I had time. Well, I did in fact have time to grab the camera and then - you guessed it - slam! The kids came back and bumped me and I fell flat on my butt. We were all laughing hysterically. And I have to admit the shredded tires covering the playground work well - neither the camera nor my behind suffered any damage. ;) 
Beans loved climbing this rope pyramid. He is such a monkey now! He'd climb up there and wave his tail around. Unfortunately, try as he might, Little Man could not keep up. He got up on about the first level and slipped off scraping his arm. :( He's so tough though, no tears just back to playing.
Tonight we're dying some more Easter eggs then the boys are heading to bed in anticipation of a certain bunny's visit in the night. We had such a great day and the kids are off all week for Spring Break so I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store.
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