Sunday Session

Our therapist came today to continue to work on his outing behavior.  It took about eight minutes to get Jimmy into IHOP for breakfast.  A man even stopped to offer to help us - after the Red Lobster fiasco, I wanted to run and hug him just for asking.  As usual, Jimmy wanted to go to McDonalds.  When we got to our booth, he took his notebook and made pictures with the Golden Arches, a circle with a slash through it, and writing the word "No" underneath, to highlight the fact that we weren't at his preferred dining establishment.  We got him settled down and he ate pretty well.  

Next stop was Petsmart, a break he usually loves.  He walked through the store with his hands over his ears.  Not standard behavior with him - he has some degree of noise sensitivity, but it usually manifests itself in more extreme ways.  He was as engaged with the birds this this time, didn't want to see the fish, and looked only briefly at the cats in the adoption center.  

Target went fairly well.  No meltdowns.  He helped with the carts, even getting things out for checkout.  He spared us the drama of "Mom, you didn't buy my DVD of choice" separation anxiety.  Maybe he knew "Terminator 2" wasn't that great a film.  

Our Sunday community outing didn't go perfectly, but given how they have been lately, I will take today as pretty successful.