Outstanding Day at the Amusement Park

In a continued effort to keep Jonathan's mind moving, we went to an amusement park today that is a few hours away from us. It was cold, but well worth the trip. Jonathan and Vanessa had a total blast.

We spent about 8 hours at the park. During that time, Jonathan was totally excited and willing to do everything except for 2 roller coasters. I stayed with him while everyone else went to those rides. It surprised me that Vanessa was willing to do everything. She was very scared of one, but did it anyway. I should have purchased the picture just to show her her very scared face when she grows up. Her face was priceless. And after that, she went to another one. I thought she would have been traumatized, but she wasn't. The things that Jonathan enjoyed the most (driving cars and bumper cars), she didn't want to do. But despite the differences in tastes, they both loved it.

One thing to note, in 8 hours, Jonathan did not complain about being tired, not even once. And he did not ask to go home. I did notice that he was walking with his tip toes and kind of funny a lot lately today (putting the whole foot on the ground instead of heel-toe). I corrected him 3 or 4 times and after that, he walked perfectly normal.

Now I am very confused about my theory that he might have a varied version of Mitochondrial disease. If he did, he would have had to stop a few times during the day to recover. But he didn't. This kid is a puzzle himself :)

Jonathan wanted to play with C. all the time. He wanted to sit next to him in all the rides. It was very cute. So did C. They both kept saying that they were each other's friends. C is just 1 month younger than Jonathan, neuro-typical (NT) and with a very wide imagination. He and Jonathan never cared for each other until late last year and more this year. Jonathan teaches C. how to play with electronics and Jonathan loves to follow C. when he invents new games. Good balance.

At one point, they started playing in a playground which has a section for small kids and another one for larger kids. Vanessa and N. went to the small kids section (not knowing that they have grown this year enough to go into the big kids section) and Jonathan and C. when to the big kids section. When they saw each other separated by a net, Jonathan immediately said that he wanted to go save her sister. I didn't know that she could come across to the section where Jonathan was and I told him that she couldn't. And he started crying because he wanted to be with "his sister" and wanted to "save his sister". The lady that was facilitating there told me that she could come over, so she did and Jonathan was very excited to see her. Then some kids started throwing balls and Jonathan said "don't hit my sister". That was total music to my ear.

Towards the end of the evening, Jonathan noticed that it was getting dark and got concerned that it was sunday and he could not play the Nintendo Wii Monday through Friday and he wanted to play a bit today before we got home. So he told me that he wanted to go home so he could play some Wii. I told him that we had to go eat dinner first and he told me about the Wii and night time, etc. I told him that I would let him play just a bit when we got home, and after he thougth about it for a minute, he told me that it was okay.

On the way out, we saw a 3D cartoon movie and all the kids wanted to do it. It was an action movie and some of the rows had moving chairs. Vanessa and N. were not tall enough to ride the moving seats, so we sat out front with them. Jonathan and C. went with their dads to the chairs. When the movie started, I was terrified that it simulated a roller coaster and Jonathan didn't like roller coasters today and was going to scream to get out. I was really worried. I kept turning around but I couldn't really see them. At the end, I asked his dad and he said "are you crazy? he loved it. ask him". So I did and Jonathan said "I loved that movie. I want to do it again". So I went with him and he kept telling me what to do and not to be scared. During the movie, Jonathan was laughing so hard, that I enjoyed listening to him more than the movie itself. It was a rough ride. But he totally loved it.

Excellent day, all around.

The only negative thing I want to note is that during dinner, C. wanted to play with Jonathan with C.'s small spiderman characters and Jonathan looked at him in dismay and then looked at his dad like "I don't know what to do daddy" and then sat back and started sucking his thumb. He still has such problems pretend playing with other kids.