About a month ago I got a permission slip in Casey’s backpack. I checked his backpack for his name thinking I had mistakenly looked into Carter’s backpack. Nope. They were taking an entire special needs class to the fair. Who’s idea was this?! So I didn’t sign it or return it.

Then when I was chatting with the teacher (she calls me about as much as my husband) she asked about it. The last time we took Casey to the fair I ended up sitting with him in the car for an hour. And the time before that. Casey HATES fairs. And with as hard as things had been for him, I wasn’t going to chance him getting there, freaking out, then having to spend the day sitting on the bus with a paraeducator. I knew the class couldn’t handle losing one of the help, either.

But his teacher is awesome and talked me into it. Instead of having him ride the bus with the other kids, I decided to take him, so when he freaked out, I could be the one who sat with him in the parking lot (or in this case, could just leave). I didn’t realize until the night before that the time had come to go to the fair. I think that was a good thing because I would have dreaded it all week and found countless excuses to not go. But Friday came and I was ill prepared to back out. So we went. We met up with Casey’s class- they were sort of easy to spot- and the most amazing thing happened. ALL of the kids in his class ran to Casey and hugged him. They shouted, “Yay! Casey is here!” I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough. By the time I had, the crowd had dispersed and were anxiously on their way to some exhibits. But this cute little girl had grabbed Casey’s hand and held it. Casey doesn’t hold hands. He just doesn’t. Except this time.

I took Peyton with me because we think his acting out might not be so much because he’s inherently evil, but because he’s not getting enough attention at home.   So we’ve been paying a lot of attention to him. It only builds his power. This is him scowling at the lady who was trying to show him how to crush corn in a grinder thing. He was way cute with her. He really is a cute kid. And funny. So. Dang. Funny.

 I’m sad I don’t have a better picture of this. Casey didn’t want to go to the pig race (he hates the sound of people talking over a microphone outside..) so we went inside this garden exhibit thingee. Inside this exhibit was a meticulously landscaped display. There was a fountain and green grass and what do my boys do? They climb on the display and roll down the hill. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get a good picture, but in this one you can kind of see the people walking by looking at the pretty exhibit as my kids rolled down it.

This is Casey on the carousel. The freaking $3.75 a person carousel.  Sounds bug Casey’s all too sensitive system, so as he rode the horse, he also had to manage to plug his ears.  I like this picture because it’s so Casey. So so cute.

Casey did remarkably well. He lasted over two hours before the sounds and the action finally got to him too much and we had to make our escape. Casey’s doing SO much better than he had been. We’ve got him on a new medication and it’s making a huge difference. He’s interacting more with his brothers, he’s got a little more control over anger and he seems all around calmer.  It feels like we’re getting him back a little and I hope with all of my heart it lasts. The side effect of the new drug is increased appetite. Holy. Moly. Casey said himself that he was a “stick figure” because he’d gotten so skinny on his ADHD meds. So a little weight gain wouldn’t be so bad, right? He’s eating us out of house and home. At the fair the kid had three sandwiches then on the way home had one of those gigantic pieces of pizza from Costco. Amazing.