This Is How We Roll

4th of July has come and gone.  We love this holiday.  It's one of our favorites.  Lots of family (either on Tyler's side of the family or mine), good food, tons of fun.....but it's a little tricky for us as well.  With all of the fun festivities come overstimulation, lack of sleep and sensory overload for Charlie.  All of which result in massive meltdowns.  But we've learned a lot in the last year and we tried to be as prepared as possible.

We knew we were going to a parade.  And in the past he has had a hard time sitting through them.  He just get's too overstimulated with everything to look at, gobs of people all around, candy being thrown, people yelling "go get the candy", and the noises of all the cars/trucks/tractors/fire trucks/police cars, etc going by.  One word people......earmuffs.  These handy dandy tools have made all the difference in 2 parades so far this summer.  He was reluctant to put them on at first and even asked me "why do I have to wear them but my brother's don't have to?"  I reminded him he didn't need to wear them if he didn't want to, it was his choice.  And here was the result.....

This was at the very beginning where the police cars were flipping their sirens randomly and the service men were firing their guns.  Poor guy.  I reminded him that he could put his ear muffs on if he wanted to and that no one would mind if he had them on.  He finally put them on and started to enjoy the parade a bit.  

He was reluctant to go get the candy at first.  He didn't want to leave mom's side.  As soon as mom sat on the curb with him he became more interested.  And he sat for the entire parade.  Over an hour of taking in the whole parade.  

We didn't plan to go to fireworks.  It would end up being too late on a weekday night when we all needed to get up the next day.  Plus, after such a busy day we were surely in for some meltdowns if tried to stretch it too far.  But, all in all, the 4th was a success.  We had other tools to use if the earmuffs were a bust, but luckily we didn't need to get them out!

Charlie and Dad rocking sunglasses and earmuffs at the Spring Grove Parade 2 weeks ago