ERRANDS

The day after Christmas is starting to be one of my favorite days. I am not a Scrooge by any means, but as a mother of children who thrive on strict routines, it is nice to feel like everything is going back to normal.
As my husband and I were running errands this morning, I was reminded of why I no longer enjoy the "shopping" experience. With the 3 year old dealing with nonverbal autism and his brother having similar sensory processing issues, going to a store is not the experience that I think anyone who is involved would enjoy.
To get an idea of what someone with sensory processing issues has to deal with, imagine if you had REALLY good hearing and could hear everything around you, including the humming of lights. Now amplify the volume a little with all the sounds at once and I am pretty sure you would be annoyed with that kind of noise 24/7.
That is one reason why I try to limit the amount of shopping I do with my little ones.
So sad to say our errands were not that successful or enjoyable this morning. The 16 month old was hitting his head over and over again onto the the front of the grocery cart, while the 3 year old was slamming his sippy cup into the side of his head. The husband and I opted to have one of us run into the other stores we had to go to while the other sat in the car with the boys!
After all the running around, we figured that it was time for everyone to have a feel good snack. Wendy's to the rescue!! With the 3 year old and 16 month old grinning from ear to ear and talking gibberish, I was smiling too!