The EVERFLOW

Hello my beautiful flowers! I hope you all are doing good! How are you?

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A bus ride, a crowded grocery store and one very determined little adventurer.

I just sat down after today’s adventure with E. As you know, he has autism – level 3 – and is non-verbal. Due to him not having the after-school care thingy for the rest of the summer, I have to come up with a million ideas of what to do with him – like I normally do, but living here, it’s not that fun. At least he enjoys it.

Today’s adventure; bus, grocery store, bus and home.

He has been nagging about the trip we went on to another city – bus, train, shopping, train, bus – and I have always felt really bad for saying “not today, maybe tomorrow” etc.

Today he repeatedly said “bus, shopping – bus” and started to get ready > pants, shirt, underwear (he took care of his hygiene himself), brushed his teeth and hair, put on his shoes and jacket.

“Ready!” all of a sudden I heard while I was out on the balcony.

I laughed when I saw him ready for an adventure, so I took him on a bus ride (he is obsessed with buses) and the joy when we finally sat down on the bus. Oh my.

When I saw the parking lot at the grocery store, my heart started to beat super fast and I felt that I didn’t want to do this. The parking lot was MAXED with cars! It was insane!

But I had promised E, so I ignored my feelings and we got off. I told E to hold my hand and whatever he did – do not let my hand go.

Luckily, if a child gets lost in Sweden, people usually help them find their parent or notify store staff. So while I was worried about the crowds and the noise, I wasn’t worried about E getting abducted or anything like that.

While inside, oh my God. I wanted to turn around instantly. My mind was racing:

“How will this go? How will E act?” (He gets tantrums when there are a lot of people and noises.) “Where are the hearing protections?” etc.

Toys; as a reward (before actually entering the food sections of the store), I got him a second train. I knew that would help him stay a little calmer because he could focus on that one.

Food sections; thank God I have taught E to hold the cart in front of me and me behind him. So it’s me – E – cart.

Because oh my Lord how insane people are when holidays are happening in Sweden. This time; Midsummer.

We literally had to do a maze between people to grab our stuff and when we were outside after the shopping, I let out the biggest sigh of relief. We were done.

Remind me to never go to grocery stores during holidays or a few days before. It was worse than Christmas time and people in Sweden are insane when it comes to Christmas and Easter.