We Did It!

Yesterday we did something I have been waiting 7 years to do.We took Camryn to an amusement park, Busch Gardens to be exact, and we lived to tell about it! She did great and had so much fun and I actually am thinking of going back! The original reason for going was for Natalie, who also had never been to a theme park. Her birthday is this Tuesday so instead of having a kid party at home, I used every trick up my sleeve to convince her that going to Busch Gardens would be SOOOOOO much better than some boring party at home. Really, it was just me being sneaky and not wanting to have the house we just got all moved into and put together detroyed in a matter of minutes by a preschool birthday brigade. But I also knew that she would absolutlely love it and we already have annual passes, plus she gets in free because she is under 5, so if it would work in my favor too, well that was just a nice, big bonus.
So, like I was saying, this trip was really about Nat and her birthday. But, Camryn going to something like this was a pretty big deal as well! The only place that would even come close to a theme park that she has been would be the "permanent carnival" type place in Port Charlotte and really, that doesn't even begin to compare, so this was really uncharted territory. All of my family was going as well, so I knew we'd have backup, which is always helpful in these situations. I also knew that Busch Gardens has a special pass for special needs guests that allows them to go to the front of the line, which for those of you saying "That's not fair" I say to you, "Fine, "I'll wait in line with you, in fact I'll wait in line directly behind you. Hope you don't mind ear piercing screams and getting kicked in your shins!" And, from the very bottom of our bag of tricks, the totally overpriced, hard plastic, way too small but it will work rental stroller, a must for Miss Cams.
Sunscreen check! Medication, check! Bright yellow camp t-shirt that has the word Autism printed on it for those who wonder why that little girl is biting her hands in excitement or having a huge meltdown in the middle of the walkway, check! And we were off! 
We got parked and to the tram, which could have been the only thing we rode all day and Cams would have been over the moon. She sat close to Brad and when we took off at the heart racing 10 mph, she scrunched her face up in sheer delight and squealed at the top of her lungs! "Wanna ride the roller coaster!" she yelled out. We hadn't even made it to the entrance of the park and she was already having a blast. We checked in, got her special pass, got the stroller and headed off to the Sesame Street Safari area, which if you haven't been there, is an awesome place for little ones. On the way we passed a kiddie airplane ride, you know the kind where you sit in behind a bar and the planes are on a metal "arm" that goes up and down as it circles around. Well, of course Nat and Mace wanted to go on, and I knew Cams would flip over it, but when I got closer, I saw that all that was keeping the kids in the seat was a regular seat belt. Have I mentioned that we have a special seat belt guard in our car because one of Cams favorite pasttimes is unbuckling her seatbelt and crawling all over the car, pinching everyone in her path, usually when I'm on some super busy highway? Well, yeah, so there was no way I was putting her on an elevated ride with only a seatbelt between her and her first skydiving experience. So Mason and Nat rode and Cam sat in the stroller and watched. :(
As we made our way to Sesame Street, we passed the aviary, where you can purchase nectar (which apparently is made from melted gold, as it costs five dollars for 2 tablespoons worth) and the birds will land on you and eat out of your cup. Hmmmmm, I don't know about this. Free flying birds, within Camryns eager reach? Is there a waiver I can sign protecting me from charges if Cams were get one of these things by the neck? We decided to go for it. There were so many feathered friends flying noone would notice if one went missing. Mason and Natalie ran off with their nectar, laughing and having the time of their life. Cams stayed with me, her hand in mine, looking at the birds and saying "Muwah!(Making kissing sounds) I like their eyebrows. I like their hair. He wants a licky face." That's Cam language for " I really like you and I want to sit in front of you with my mouth open while you lick my face." She was surprisingly calm, enough in fact that I was able to let her hold the cup of nectar while a small parrot drank from it, which delighted her to no end. We said goodbye to the birds and headed off to Sesame Street and I just have to tell you that we couldn't find it, so without even realizing what I was saying I asked a park attendant " Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?" As soon as I said it I thought I would pee my pants in laughter. But anyway, we got there and sat down for a "live" show with Elmo, Cookie Monster and the whole gang. I had my doubts about how Camryn would do with the whole show thing. She will not sit for a 30 minute show on T.V., but maybe because the characters are right in front of her here she would. Plus, the fact that is was about 200 degrees and we were all in a heat coma would probably work in our favor. And it did. Camryn sat on Brads lap and clapped to the music, waved to the characters and was fully engaged for the entire show! Mason and Natalie were lovin' it too. Natalie even got a pat on the head from Abby  Cadabby! Woo-hoo!
With that out of the way, I wanted to take Cams to Jungala to see the tigers, the white ones in particular. By now, you should all know her obsession with white tigers and her famous side kick stuffie, appropriately named "White Tiger". I was sure she would flip out in the observation tube where you are literally face to face with the tigers. And she did, but not how I was imagining it. She loved looking at them through the big glass windows. " Muwah!Muwah! I wanna give him a hug. He wants a kiss. I like his eyebrows." (She has to stop saying this to everyone or people will think she's not being sincere) ;) She was so into it and I was so enjoying watching her. It's these times that I look at her and see her pure and total fearlessness and innocence, because the truth of the matter is, if that big glass wall wasn't there, she would be down there, right in that gi-normous tigers face, kissing his nose,giving him "licky face" and complimenting his brows, with no worries of being mauled. She didn't see the sharpness of his fangs or the length of his claws, She only saw his beauty and softness and grandeur(sp?). I love that about her! Seeing how excited she was at this viewing area, I couldn't wait to get her to the glass "periscope" so she could climp up and see her beloved eye to eye. But when we got to the stairs to climp up into the VERY small enclosure, she freaked. I knew she didn't like stairs, she won't climb them at all at the playground,but I didn't even think about it being an issue in this setting. I pulled her up there, but she was so wrapped up in not liking the whole stairs and closed in thing, that she never even noticed the tiger napping less than five feet away. Oh well.
By this time it was so unbearably hot that most of the group wanted to do the River Rapids and cool down. Nat couldn't go, too small, so I stayed with her and everyone else went on, including Cams. I wished I could have seen her on it. She loved it, as I knew she would!
I wanted to see more animals, but we got there at 4:00 and we didn't have much time left. Mason really wanted to ride the Cheetah Chase rollercoaster, so we hurried over to the Midway area. Camryn was chanting" Wanna ride the Cheetah Chase with Daddy! Wanna ride the Cheetah Chase with Daddy!" What was so funny is she had no idea what the Cheeta Chase was. She had heard Mason say that throughout the day, so she was repeating it. However, she loves to go fast, so we figured we'd give her a thrill and let her ride. I have such mixed feelings when it comes to things like this. I want her to go and experience the same things her sisters do, but with her sisters I can say"Okay, you can ride but you know it goes super fast right? And you know it will be kind of scary right? And you know once you get on there is no getting off right? You still want to go? Okay" But with Cams I can explain all I want and she's not going to comprehend like her sisters and I still let her go but feel guilty and scared for her as she sits in the coaster car, grimacing and twitching, no idea that she will be speeding over hills and whipping around corners in just a minute. But she rode and she loved, although the picture on the screen at the counter showed her with a look of nothing less than pure terror on her little face. I totally bought that picture! She got off galloping and laughing, apparently unfazed by the wild ride she had just been on. The day had gone so smoothly up until this point. So smoothly in fact that I was scared. You know how right before a big summer storm the air goes totally still? The sky gets that yellowish tint and all is quiet? Well, I got that feeling, a feeling that there was a storm a'brewin' and I was so right. We were leaving Cheetah Chase, Cams was in the stroller and then she saw it. The carousel, in all it's twinkle light Carnival splendor, spinning around right before us. She was out of that stroller and making her way through the crowd within seconds. Arms flailing, face grimacing, she was on a mission to get on that carousel. It's already in motion? Not an issue for Cams, which is why I was racing after her, stretching out my arms trying to snag her shirt. I grabbed her before she made it past the turnstyle, but not without much resistance and screaming, Oh the screaming! People were staring and the Autism shirt was by now a moot point, as it was dark and no one could see printed out in little black letters that this was a child on the spectrum. No, all they saw was a four foot, sixty pound child biting her hands and arching her back wailing at the top of her lungs. And her pathetic mother standing there, unable to restrain her unruly child. I looked around at the crowd, sure to make eye contact with everyone to let them know I didn't care what they thought and that whether or not it looked like it, I did have my child under control. We finally made it onto the carousel and Camryn clammored up the tallest horse there, of course. I gave her a shove to help her make it to the top and once she swung her leg over, I reached for the seatbelt to hold her in. Only, on this carousel, there was no seatbelt! THERE WAS NO SEATBELT!!! Oh my lord, are these people kidding me? My autistic daughter is straddling a slippery plastic horse that will go up and down while spinning in circle not to mention she was in the outside row and there is no seatbelt! And I had about 30 seconds to process this because I no sooner had discovered the lack of restraint than I heard the familiar Brrrrring!" and the carousel started to turn. Oh this is just great! I wrapped my arm around Camryns waist hoping that would help to hold her in. It was at this time that a friend of ours who had come with us that day and was watching from the sidelines and apparently had no idea that I was hanging onto Camryn for dear life decided to start waving at her. OMG! So, Camryn, who was only holding on with one hand anyway at this poing and biting the other, lets go and starts waving back.Not only waving back, but arching her back in excitement, causing her to slide around on the seat. It's at times like these that I always wonder why is my life not being filmed? My friends and I always say "Where are the cameras?" when situations like this arise. So you can imagine what was going on in my head "Where are the cameras? Where ARE the cameras?" Camryn was now not only waving to our friend, but everyone else as well, so she was not hanging on at all, which meant the only thing keeping her on the slippery pony was my poor stretched out arm. When was this ride going to end? Well, shortly thereafter it did and that presented another problem. Cams is like a toddler and like all toddlers, she wanted to ride again, but we had to leave. And like most toddlers,she threw a fit that she didn't get to ride. However, most toddlers do not weigh over sixty pounds, so her fits are a bit more invloved. So there I was dragging her kicking and screaming off this God forsaken carousel praying I'd make it to the stroller without yanking my arm from it's socket. My brother was watching from the sidelines and although he has no kids, it was so bad even he could tell there was only one thing to do....cotton candy run! He rushed off and came back with a huge bush of the stuff, pink and sticky and just the thing to get Cams mind off the carousel. Uncle Tommy we owe ya one!! By this time, it was 9:00, the park was closing and it was raining. With every raindrop the cotton candy got stiffer and stickier, but it had Cams attention so I didn't care, I'd chisel it off her later. By the time we got to the tram, her shirt was plastered with the stuff, hard patches of pink fuzz all over her body. We boarded the tram, which again, brought total elation to her. We piled into the Suburban and breathed a sigh of relief. We did it. We came, we saw, we conquered and we are all still in one piece! For any family, an amusement park is a huge undertaking. The planning, the waiting in lines, the heat,the whining, the tantrums. It can be exhausting. But for our family, it's not only a huge ordeal, it's a huge achievement. It's just one more thing we weren't sure we could do, but we did it anyway and we made it! And I'm already planning on going back this week, but this time with only Mason and Nat while Cams is at camp. While we had fun and saw some neat stuff, the focus was mostly on Cams and what would be best to do with her. My other two girls had a great time, but we skipped several attractions that they would have loved because it wasn't suited for Camryn. So Cams got to go, she had a great time and now I will go back with Mason and Natalie. There will be no waiting for special passes, no fear of birds getting strangled, no nervously awaiting the yellow sky.And it will be nice to experience it that way. And when we walk by the tigers den and all the kids are pressed up against the glass in awe of the fierceful creature I bet I won't hear a single child saying"Muwah, I wanna give him a kiss!" They won't see his fabulous eyebrows or want to rub up aginst his "licky face" and I will smile at how lucky I am to be the mother of the little girl who does :)