We’ve had a couple of tough days.
We’ve seen a bit of behavioral regression around the board lately.
Today at church, Jonah’s teacher informed me that Jonah will not stop standing on the table in class.
This does not surprise me, since Jonah has also done this at home On the dining table… but it has been almost a year since he last did it.
When he used to do it, it was ALWAYS as a way to get our attention, so we remedied it by simply not responding to it and praising him for getting down. That worked….
…at home.
Now at church in his class, there are other kids also present, and they don’t simply ignore his behavior. They give him the attention he is seeking and he continues to climb up on the tables…
I gave the teacher some ideas for getting him to come down (like first “this”, then “that”) and hopefully that helped.
I didn’t hear about him throwing toys this time and I didn’t get called into his class (Thank God) so hopefully that means that didn’t happen…. I’m choosing to believe it didn’t happen…
But when we got done with the service, Jonny had to go to choir practice. Usually Jonah will play in the bouncy house and run around the church while Jonny is practicing.
But tonight they had a special baptism service… and Jonah was HOOKED.
Jonny has been baptized, and Jonah has watched the video of his brother’s baptism DOZENS of times.
So tonight, whether he wanted to watch people get baptized, or just wanted in the water (more likely), he was enthralled with the service…
…for a good 5 minutes.
He wandered around the sanctuary. Peered at the baptismal on the stage… watched the worship team on and around the stage…
They were pretty understanding overall, but then Jonah started running. All over the sanctuary. If I tried to keep him still, he protested loudly. But they had started the actual service and he was becoming a distraction so I corralled him in and carried him out into the foyer…
…and that’s when the meltdown began.
Jonny wasn’t quite finished with choir practice or we would have left right then.
But I wanted to see if I could figure out a way to calm Jonah down enough to watch without bolting or screaming… but no.
It was not to be.
So it was a good 10 minutes of spreading “autism awareness” all over church.
Most the people in the congregation know our situation so I wasn’t too concerned about getting “looks” and all that.
I tried to let Jonah watch the baptisms through the door (they are clear and Jonah could see), but it was not good enough. I showed him a live feed on the TVs in the foyer. Not even close to helping. The screaming was ear-piercing.
It was about this time I saw Jonny finishing up with choir, so I called it a “day.”
I just picked up Jonah over my shoulder,(no shoes or coat) and hauled him to the car, Jonny and Mama in tow.
Jonah’s decibel record was broken about then.
And then he wouldn’t sit in his seat… and then Jonny decided he couldn’t handle Jonah crying…
So … 2 simultaneous meltdowns in the car.
It feels like I have been here before recently. (I think that’s 3 meltdowns in 3 days)
But I made sure the car battery didn’t die this time…
So we waited in the car for the meltdowns to abate.
I taught Jonny to cover his ears and count to a hundred to control his anxiety.
I put on a Super Simple Song video for Jonah.
And we waited.
15 minutes… half an hour… 45 minutes… AN HOUR…
Finally around 9pm, Jonah climbed back in his seat and put on his seatbelt, and we headed home…
Of course, when we got home, it took another 10 minutes just to get Jonah OUT of the car.
That has also not happened in almost a year.
He finally made it to bed, about an hour past his normal bedtime.
I wish I had an “undo” button I could push for times when a meltdown is triggered so I can better prepare myself before it happens again.
I don’t know exactly what Jonah wanted to do in the service, but I know that’s the most interest he’s shown in being in the sanctuary while it is actually being used.
We may try again next time, if he’s still interested and hopefully it will go better, but tonight?
We just needed to get him home.