first show

Last week was a blur of school, work, meetings, appointments, a birthday party, some other things I'm forgetting.

I guess one of our most important events of the week was our annual IEP meeting, our first "big school" IEP. It went well. Reading is big strength. He's reading at least a grade level ahead. Producing neat work is a weakness. His pictures and coloring are very scribbly and his cutting a mess, but he's always the first one finished at his table. Priorities.

And then on Friday a friend shut the door on Luke's hand. The school nurse patched him up and sent him back to class, but he continued to cry about it. I'm sure it hurt terribly. His fingers are bruised and swollen. But now he does have an solid excuse for his messy writing and drawing, at least for a few days.

Sunday afternoon we took Luke to his first ever live show, Mickey's Rockin Road Show. Just a year or so ago, I wouldn't have imagined Luke could tolerate the noise of a live show. But we saw a commercial for this show (The one and only time I saw it advertised. Notice all the empty seats.) and Luke asked to go. They advertised tickets available for $12. Maybe if you sat in the parking lot.

Luke didn't ask for any of the overpriced souvenirs but really wanted some Dippin Dots. $5 for that little cup Lamar's holding.




Our seats were not the best, but I didn't know if he could handle being too close. I didn't count on the fact that we wouldn't be able to fully see the screen behind the curtain, that at times was kind of important to the storyline. He never complained though.



Checking out the $11 program we offered to buy him during intermission. He completed all the activities in it today.

So the main reason we've never attempted a live show, or the movie theater until recently, is sensory overload. Until recently just applause in church was overwhelming for him. He's made great strides handling noise recently. But another concern was his attention span and ability to sit still. His behavior at the show was just about perfect. He was older than a lot the kids there (tons of 2 and 3 year olds) but he never moved from his seat, taking it all in. The other kids were EVERYWHERE, and so were there parents. Maybe my expectations are just a tad high sometimes.

After the show we walked down by the stage to check out the confetti they released during the grand finale.

He was so sad when the show was over and we headed home. He didn't meltdown though. He was just very quiet on the way home and asked when we could go to another show. And then he fell asleep in the car. Sweet day.