Children's Museum of Denver. As we're walking up to the entrance of the Children's Museum it's easy to see that there is a line to get in. We usually don't get here this early. I've learned from the past that kid focused activities are usually the least crowded on weekday afternoons, but today we arrived at 9:15 (they open at 9).
Lines are hard for us. Mia quickly gets agitated when she has to wait her turn. I don't attribute that so much to Autism but rather to being 3 years old. We are about 20 people away from the check in counter when Mia starts "tapping" (lightly hitting) me on the shoulder. This is her way of telling me "Hey lets go inside". "Mia we have to wait our turn" I tell her. Mia has heard this phrase come out of my mouth before and her reaction is just about what I expected. She lightly starts banging her forehead against my cheek. "Mia, don't hit me. I don't hit you" This prompts her to just do it harder and accompanies it with a whine. I can see the other parents body language adjust slightly. I know we've all been there when it comes to a crying baby. We have sympathy but ultimately we just want the kid to shut up. I have a hard time when it comes to disciplining Mia. I get caught in betweeen Autism and 3 years old. I would hate to yell at her for something that is causing her genuine distress but Ive also been raised to believe that certain behaviors must be met with consequences. I often find myself frozen in that in between place. I resign myself to holding her head to stop the blows.
Once we get checked in, Mia knows exactly where she wants to go. The Kinetics exhibit is her favorite. The museum built an elaborate Rube Goldberg device in which plastic balls are sent through vacuum chutes and through a series of mazes which pool into a large bin thats hangs from the ceiling. Every five minutes an alarm goes off (which Mia never seems to hear) and the balls dump to the floor. We typically spend an hour at the museum, today Mia spent the entire time at Kinetics. "Mia, time to go" she pretended not to hear me. "Mia, let's go". Still no response. Finally I had to squat down right in front of her face "Mia, let's go". "Ahhh" She threw her hands up and let her body go limp to the ground (remember this is her signature move). I was reading over a list of goals that our Occupation Therapist sent home. At the top it said Mia is a "Fall Risk". I think that's pretty accurate.
