Mini Melts

I wish this was about the ice cream. It’s not.

Just when you think it seems like forever since you’ve spread any autism awareness….BAM!!!! 

Serves me right for thinking it.

About a year and a half ago we took Riley to his first concert at the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. Crazy right?? We had good reason… J1 was performing.

Prior to going, G had acquired some noise-cancelling headphones for ummm…himself. What better time to see if R would take to them. 

Well…he rocked the headphones!! So much so that he barely looked up from his iTouch unless I prompted him. 

This past week we took R to his second concert. Only this time to watch J2 perform. Even though it was a smaller venue, the sound seemed so, SO much louder!  Maybe it was the lower ceilings. Maybe it was because my ears are almost 2 years older. Whatever reason…it seemed really, REALLY LOUD!!!

Halfway through their set, R started to unravel. G tried to get him to put on his headphones. He refused. He started to scream. He started to flail his arms. He was NOT happy.

I was sitting across from Riley. G was beside him looking at me. I had to scream at G to trade seats. It became a scream fest. Only thing we had going at this point was the noise. It was so loud that nobody could hear Riley screaming at the top of his lungs. I didn’t try to stop him. That would have only made things worse.

The flailing arms?  Ummm…yea. People behind us may have noticed or else they thought he was doing some sort of crazy dance moves. Whatever.

In between screams I put the headphones on him. He screamed in my face. It crossed my mind to scream back at him. I refrained. Only because we were out in public.

He flailed some more.

I placed my hand on his back. I said nothing. I avoided eye contact.

He started to calm.  He stopped screaming.

I glanced over at him. He said “Phew. I’m all sweaty.” as he wiped his forehead.

He WAS sweating. I was sweating.

A few more minutes and “It’s too hot. I need to sleep downstairs.”  “Absolutely you can.” To be perfectly honest, I would’ve let him sleep on the roof if he wanted.   

A few more minutes and he was back doing his word search on his iPad. I don’t have any pics. I was ummm…a little preoccupied. 

I write about this because things aren't always sunshine and rainbows in Riley World. There are still times when autism rears its ugly head. It is not nearly as frequent or as severe as it once was but it is always there. In the background. Usually when I have become too complacent and least expect it. 

Yet there is still growth. What used to take hours and HOURS to recover from when he was young…at almost 24 years old, it took only minutes this time. Many minutes. Minutes that seemed like hours at times but minutes just the same. AND he was able to use his words when he was able to.

And here I thought we would get away with an autism awareness free month.  Silly me.