Saturday, October 16, 2010

sleepover

We had a sleepover for Erin's 7th birthday on Saturday. Four kids in total (and my partner's kids). Two on the spectrum, one possibly and one little person with an amazing imagination (like the other three) and a very cool 'tude.

I had a few requests during the week from the mums re: food, medication, sleeping arrangements and suggestions. It also helped that all of the mums are friends of mine and all of the boys had been to the house a couple of times before.

I had the evening fairly well planned out and the evening (and the boys) were happy to follow it. Erin was highly excited; counting down the minutes to the first arrival. Not surprisingly, he become overwhelmed a couple of times during the afternoon and evening. The first issue was that we were trying to keep them outside for the first couple of hours: we have had a very cold and wet winter here and Saturday was one of the first lovely spring days that we had had. In typical Erin hyperbole fashion he had a mini meltdown when his request to play inside was denied. "This is the worst day of my life", with his little friend, i'll call him Liam, by his side saying "I want to do what ever Erin wants to do". It was both heart-breaking and sweet at the same time. Once a blanket was laid out and plans to open presents followed by pass-the-parcel were announced Erin was content again.

Of course after they had had dinner inside and the sun had started setting they all wanted to run around in the twilight, being ninjas. Erin's only other mini-meltdown was when it came time to choose what dvd they would watch in bed. It had earlier been expressed to me that the one I borrowed from the dvd store - Alvin and the Chipmonks the sequal - would not do (you have to love the directness ;-)) I went through the ones that we had until I got a 'yes' from everyone.  explained the rules prior. Amazingly there was a dvd that they all wanted to watch - The Bee movie - but here is where I made the biggest mistake of the evening. I, for no conceivable good reason, decided to put that one aside in the possible pile and then keep reading out the titles incase there was one that they wanted to watch even more. I should have recognized the blessing as it was!

When I got to Jumangi, Erin gave a whopping 'yes' while the others cried with a resounding 'no!'. I ran out of dvd titles shortly after that and declared that the dvd that they would be watching was 'The Bee Movie'. At this Erin ran out of the bedroom with Liam at his tail. I found him in The Kid's Room covering himself with the cushions from the couch and looking very unhappy with furrowed brow.

Overall, however, the evening was a success. They were all asleep (after playing musical beds, sleeping toys and teddies) by 10:30. Erin was the last to drop off.

The week following was  particularly hard as Erin slowly returned to his routine. But now, a week later, he is happy and content again.

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