Mother's Day Surprise

With the warm weather, comes family trips to the park.  As part of Mother's Day this year, we decided to have a picnic at the park with the family.  Normally our visits to the park are fairly short due to the fact that Ayden is just not a fan.  The park includes just a lot of things he is not fond of - differing terrains, climbing, sliding, swinging - you know, park things.  Over the past two years though, we have really been slowly working with him to try these things in the hopes that one day he would push past his sensory issues he has with them and enjoy himself.  It's a lot of patience and hard work that usually ends in whining and crying, which makes the park a mild headache for mom and dad.  

Last week, though, we heard some good news from school.  One of Ayden's paras had been working with him to get him to go down the slide at school by himself.  And she had succeeded!  Shortly after Ayden started going down the slide at home by himself.   Then we went to the park....and I'll just let this video speak for itself:

Climbing.  Sliding.  Walking on woodchips.  SMILING.

This in itself would have made my entire day.  But there was more.  This park had safety swings with backs and harnesses for the kids as well as normal swings.  I put Ayden in one of the safety swings with a lot of hassle.  We always have him try it.  He hates it, but he knows one try and then if he doesn't like it he's done.      Much to his surprise....

He LOVED it.

He love it so much he was repeatedly asking to return to the swings.  He would go slide for a while, then come and ask for the swings.  Again and again and again.  So after we ate we went back to the swings.  Mr Awesome thought we would push it a little farther and try him on the regular swings.

That smile is TWO YEARS of working with Ayden.  Two years of pushing, crying, whining.  I've waiting a long time for that smile.  And to top it off, when we said it was time to go home he told us no, but came without fussing and on the way to the van looked at me and asked for more.  I don't know if it was more park, more sliding, or more swinging that he wanted - but it didn't matter.  My little boy who usually leaves the park on sensory overload left happy and wanting more.  Easily one of the best Mother's Day presents I've ever received.