Holidays are Hard

This time of year is always the hardest.  Schedules are different, sleep patterns disrupted, diet....ha, well, might as throw that out the window.  Big gatherings of people, lots of commotion, jetting here and then there, sensory overload and then not knowing what to do with all the emotions that follow.  Holiday times can be hard for any neurotypical person.  Throw in a 5 year old boy with Autism and it can be an intense time.

We have made it through the thick of the holiday this last weekend and now trying to get through a week off of school.  Christmas Eve proved to be the most challenging day with 2 different stops, the transition in between and a late night.  Sunny was an important tool to help Charlie get through. The picture below shows how Sunny puts her head in Charlie's lap during car rides so he can snuggle her to help with the stress of the car ride and transition.  Charlie was having a meltdown during the short 20 minute car ride to the second Christmas gathering of the day and Sunny did her job beautifully.

Having Sunny by his side consistently is the key.  We've noticed Charlie's mood and behavior can stay pretty even when Sunny is with him and within reach.  Having to seek her out can be stressful to him.  Luckily, by the time we reached our next destination Charlie had settled, having had some Sunny time.

Charlie asked Santa for a Fedora this year.  I din't think he could get any cuter...until now.

Christmas morning was a nice relaxing morning.  We weren't rushed and were able to take our time to enjoy each other and open gifts from one another.  The biggest highlight of the morning was the reveal of one of our Christmas gifts to the boys.  A rock climbing wall in our house that they can use any time!  Crazy, right?!

Tyler and I are always looking for different therapy tools for Charlie.  When one of his therapists suggested getting a membership to a local climbing gym to help Charlie with some sensory input, we knew that would be hard to do for our family.  One, climbing memberships are expensive.  Even if Charlie's membership could be paid for through some of his disability funding, the remainder of our family would still need to pay for a membership.  And two, finding time to go to the climbing gym and prepping Charlie for that outing would be a task in itself.  So a few weeks ago Tyler and I started talking about building one in our own house that the boys could use at any time.  Tyler started building the walls and we found some climbing holds that someone local was selling.  An idea was born and we put it into action.  And boy has it been a hit so far!

Tyler adding on some holds Christmas morning

Christian trying it out

The main climbing wall is located in our main living room upstairs and will be extended on both sides of the hallway as well.  There are rules in place to ensure the boys' safety and if they don't follow the rules they will lose their climbing privileges.  So far this hasn't been an issue.  We plan to put a belay system in so we can safely help the boys climb if they want to climb higher.  Their climbing harness came in the mail today.  Yep, we mean business!

Later Christmas day was our last Christmas gathering.  Smaller group, yet still busy.  And by this time in the busy weekend Charlie (and Easton and Christian too!) had about enough.  They just wanted to be home, wanted to try out some of their new gifts and just relax.  Charlie was able to utilize Sunny during this gathering to help be calm.

We spent the rest of the evening on Christmas day back at home.  And between the new climbing wall and the help of Sunny- we were able to divert some meltdowns that could have been catastrophic. Charlie was done for the weekend.  It was clear how much climbing was helping Charlie that evening as he couldn't get enough of it.  He would climb over and over again.  Followed by some deep pressure from Sunny during a movie and Charlie was golden.  

Service Dog work can be exhausting

Now to get through the rest of the week unscathed.  No school and a schedule that still doesn't have the structure of a normal week...we still have our work cut out for us.  

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy new year!