Bring them to Comic Con!!

Yesterday Hubby and I brought the boys to our first ever Comic Con, and we had a blast!  I, of course, lost it a wee bit when we first arrived. The noise, crowd, and stress of keeping eyes on all four boys in the midst of the madness was unsettling and I did find myself snapping at Hubby.  It took me a bit, but I was able to settle into the environment after a little while and calm down.

Dad was having WAY too much fun, and even the boys were all behaved very well! 

First stop: Shooting Storm troopers!  This was a favorite for the Tot, who did get scared a few times and made me carry him a LOT!  Some of the storm troopers scared him, as did a few other ghouls running around. It could be why he insisted he didn’t want to be Tommy, and needed to be Ironman!

The Tot waited on a pretty long line to become Ironman, almost patiently. Then sat as still as a statue with no facial expression whatsoever while having his face painted.  After which he waited for a Thor hammer from the balloon artist and proceeded to run after me and Little Man to “fix” us with his hammer! Little Man, who was running around the event like a madman with some friends showed up right after Tommy became Ironman and NEEDED to be Spiderman, so back on line we went.

I found out during his Spidey face painting that he has my sensitivities to aerosol sprays when his ears started to tear and he was choking on the smell of that red spray for his hair! Little man handled the environment rather well the aerosol notwithstanding, but kept disappearing on me into the crowd and just when I was about to completely lose it in a panic, he’d pop back up out of nowhere! All it took was for me to turn my back to pay for his face painting! Boy, I cannot wait to get a service dog and have an extra set of paws to give us a hand in public!

Aspie Teen had a good time, and wants to go again next year! He is already picking out what costumes he may wear. I am always happy to see the Teen get excited about something—anything! He was, however, the first ready to leave. Despite wearing his sunglasses inside, and keeping his headphones on his ears, he began to complain about headaches and the noise, and the crowd, and people pushing and bumping him at about the one hour mark. The Teen was also the most exhausted after the event (we did stay about three hours, but that included my taking the Teen, Tot and Baby to the McDonald’s for a half hour so Dad and Little Man could enjoy some exhibits on their own.) Aspie Teen passed out in the car on the way home and was the first to head to bed for the night! Even short outings and socializing can be overwhelming and exhausting.

We picked up the Captain America movie from Redbox on our way home, and the Teen didn’t make it through the first half hour.  Little Man, at about 8 o’clock, said he had to finish the movie tomorrow, rubbed his eyes, took a shower and put himself to bed.  He was snoring like a bear before 9 o’clock! The Tot came home, played Lego City, and a little after nine walked down the stairs and announced he was tired and going to bed!  I began to check on the beds to see if their pods were there because these could not be MY kids.

The only one who didn’t knock out that early was the baby…because this is what he was doing at during Comic Con… That kid can sleep anywhere!

All in all, we had an awesome family day, which happens so rarely lately it was a very  nice change. Hopefully things will begin to look up around here.  We need more outings that go well, more family time that is at least manageable if not peaceful and FUN. We have been having way too little fun around here this past year.  We are currently awaiting to be paired with a service dog for the Tot, which will hopefully aide us in public—not only with the Tot but I am thinking the dog will be a tremendous help with Little Man too! Can’t wait!