Last night, we drove our family to the local rec center to swim. It takes Little Guy a while to warm up to this idea, so all day I kept reminding him that we were going to the swimming place with the "big bucket that dumps water". He became really excited and kept asking if it was time to go yet.
We arrived a little later than planned, but a full hour before they closed - or so we thought. I had taken Little Guy back into the dressing rooms and changed him into his swimsuit before we discovered that the pool closes one hour early on weekends.
BIG TRAUMA resulting in this:
A HUGE MELTDOWN.Little Guy has trouble with transitions and surprises anyway, but this was just about more than he could handle. Here I'd been preparing him for this special event all day; we drove to the facility and everything, even putting his on swimsuit only to have our plans fall apart.
Confusing enough for a "normal" two-year-old. But for one with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, this disruption in routine can be devastating.
Desperately trying to calm our frantic toddler, my husband and I scrambled to find a Plan B. There was no way we could go home without swimming first. It was growing late at this point; many of the indoor facilities were closed, and the bad weather precluded any outdoor options that we had.
Luckily, I remembered that the gym where I hold a membership has a pool (which I've never used). I made a quick call and discovered that it was scheduled for "family swim" for another forty minutes.
We booked it over there as fast as we could!
Little Guy was able to go swimming, and this story had a happy - if somewhat unplanned - ending.
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