Ice Cream Social

Last night the boys had an ice cream social at their school. They do this twice a year to promote the book sale that they have.

We brought the kids to the book sale, which I knew would be bittersweet. The kids really want to go, both for very different reasons, and then we as parents have to deal with B-man and his behaviour.

Its events like this that make dealing with B-man and his aspergers extremely tough. He wants to go, because he hears everyone talking about it at school, and enjoys being able to pick out something with mom and dad, and of course he LOVES that he can have an ice cream sundae afterwards.

BUT... he gets EXTREMELY ANXIOUS at the amount of people. He has a lot of conflicting feelings since the school gym is a comfortable familiar place to him and the majority of faces are those of classmates and teachers, however, those people are also there with their families!! Which in post cases doubles if not quadrules the number of people there. He cant handle this. Then to add in the fact that he also needs to DECIDE on a book that he wants us to buy.

Needless to say, it was an interesting night. All that B-man wanted for books were preschool like picture books, Im guessing because these were a safe easy choice, vs having to delve into the madness and actually seek out a book he may actually enjoy. I refused to purchase such a book for him because lets be honest, these books arent cheap and I am not going to buy something they will never touch again. So I tried to help and he was relentless in the picture book category, so we took a break and I suggested he go have ice cream.

In the meantime, I helped AJ pick out a few books. Can I just say NIGHT AND DAY.. its amazing that two siblings can be so entirely different. AJ chose 2 books and then went to mingle with his friends.

I spot B-man wandering around aimlessly eating his sundae, wearing most of it either on his face or shirt. EEK!! I quickly sat him down to finish and then hoped to find him some books and leave.

We did agree on 2 books-one baby-ish book and another challenging book for him.

Now we are saying goodbye... again a chance to watch the 2 boys and their ways interacting w peers and teachers.

AJ walks around like he owns the place saying good bye to all his pals and they all know him.

B-man walks over to the table of teachers and stares until one asks him if he is leaving, and he shakes his head and they say bye and he shyly says good bye.

WHEN DOES THIS GET EASIER?!?!?!?