A non-preferred outing

The insurance company is stipulating that Noah have a non-preferred family outing once a week. So, today I took Nate and Noah to Kohl's, Macy's, and then lunch. Of course, I also took Brittany and Travis.

We practiced Noah's proximity to me in the stores. He did pretty well. He can handle walking with me with or without hand holding. It's the waiting in line that is difficult. We had to wait at both Kohl's and Macy's. He only slipped away from us once and didn't do any dropping to the floor. He actually went into a dressing room and tried on a pair of pants without any problems.....a first.

We worked on Nate's ability to keep up while walking in the mall. He is soooo slow. He helped by carrying my bag. He had a small meltdown in Macy's. I took Noah into the dressing room and Nate stayed outside with Travis and Brittany. He was not happy with me being out of s sight. Luckily, the store wasn't crowded. He kept yelling, "There's Mommy!". I had to open the door of the dressing room so he could see me to calm him down. That is something we will try again.

We then had lunch at a non-preferred restaurant. When we were walking in the mall, Noah kept saying "I want pizza, I want pizza!". So, we did not have pizza. We went to Qdoba. Noah ate tacos and part of a cheese quesadilla. Nate ordered and paid for his lunch himself. The guy working was very patient while Nate took out his wallet and counted his money.

Since Noah was so good, he deserved a reward. He and Travis bought gummy bears at the candy store. Travis told him, "Gummies in the van.". Noah was on a mission. He walked throu the mall, into Macy's, down the escalator, and to the door. He really wanted his gummy bears. He didn't drop to the floor when we only rode the escalator once. He put his jacket on and zipped it himself. It was quite something to see.

The insurance company is getting tricky. Suddenly, the boys' treatment plans are being scrutinized by someone new. They are now claiming that school hours plus outside therapy hours should not exceed 40 per week. Hmmmmm......this is all new. They want the boys hours to decrease since they have made progress. Don't they realize that they are making progress because the staff is here so much? Someone from UBH needs to live in my house for a week.