Lovely Sunday!

We took the kids a park in Charlottetown this past Sunday.  It was a beautiful sunny day and so many people were out walking on the boardwalk and playing in the park with their kids.

We rarely get to take all the kids to one place at the same time.  We don't go out to eat at restaurants anymore because Ian would climb out of a high chair and won't stay put in a chair.  I don't ever take them to a grocery store all at the same time, it's just too much.  First we'd need separate carts, one for Ian and one for Lyla, then I have to watch Amy at all times to makes sure she's following along and doesn't wander off somewhere.  I even have to watch that she doesn't get in peoples way because she has no spatial awareness.  I can't even let my eyes off her in a parking lot because I don't think she'd notice a car that was heading straight for her.

We met another mom in there with a son with Autism, funny how the world brings us together.  She just happened to have a lovely looking dog and Curtis went up to see it and started talking, telling her that we got a dog for our son to train as a service dog, and the conversation started from there.  I was watching her two boys as they talked.  The eldest has Autism and is about 10 or 11 and the other, I'd say was about seven or eight.  The younger boy was watching out for his older brother, making sure he didn't stray too far from where their mother was.  I was envious.  I wished that Amy was responsible enough to watch out for her brother like that instead of being in her own little world oblivious to what's going on around her.  She was playing mostly by herself on the jungle gyms announcing how she was the Queen of them and playing out some kind of imaginary play with just herself.  That girl has some imagination!

We had Samantha with us, my sister's daughter, who is thirteen.  I've trained her well on how to take care of Amy and the other kids, she watches over them, especially Amy, like a mother hen.  Ian just loved going from one thing to another, climbing on the monkey bars, he's a great climber.  Ian and Lyla both love the swings so we popped them in and they had a great time.  All the while I was keeping an eye on Amy, making sure to keep tabs on where she was and also to make sure that she doesn't wet herself.  Amy still wets herself sometimes.  She'll become so focused and involved in an activity that she'll ignore her bodies bathroom cues.  Luckily, there were no accident and we had a lovely time at the park.  Then we visited with Curtis's family for supper, which was surprisingly unchaotic!