As Cole reminded me this morning, it's September! Can you believe it?!? With only a handful of 90 degree days this summer, I feel like it hasn't arrived yet and here we are, with sunsets happening at 7:40pm.
My last entry had us preparing to go up north to a cabin with Pat's family. We prepared Cole the best we could, packed up and hoped for the best. It turned out to be a wild ride for us....
The first two days for Cole were as close to unbearable as they could be. Cole was incredibly out-of-sorts. His behavior was extremely difficult. To say we were struggling with him was an understatement. Cole was very aggressive. He was screaming, punching, kicking, yelling, crying, slamming his head against the truck window, kicking the truck, running and jumping in the air and landing on his shins. He was so physical to Pat, Connor and I. It was out of control and we were a millisecond away from going home without packing up; yes, it was THAT bad.
We were experiencing the two most difficult days with Cole that we's had in a long, long time. Pat and I were doing what we could to keep Cole from hurting us, himself, the cabin and our vehicle. There was a time when he was literally chasing Connor around a park to physically attack him. He is so strong that we could barely contain him and stop the behaviors. And the behaviors lasted for about 36 hours. I wish I was exaggerating.
Thankfully when Saturday morning came, Cole seemed to settle in and accept the change in routine for what it was. He calmed down and for the next 36 hours we all got to enjoy ourselves. Cole went tubing, swimming, fishing and played in the sand. He enjoyed a sword fight with his cousins and he loved finding sticks in the woods. I even managed to find a John Deere excavator that wasn't in use, so he got to sit in it and pretend he was digging with it. Pat took Cole home on Sunday evening with Aunt Katie and Uncle Troy. He did a great job in the car and was thankful to get home and be back in his usual routine.
It's hard to know why he struggled so much. It was a new cabin, a place he hadn't been to before. There were also six boys between the ages of 8 and 3. That made for a really loud cabin at times and I think that was hard on Cole. I think he also got jealous of Connor, who often played with the other cousins, instead of giving Cole the attention he was used to. Regardless, it proved to be incredibly challenging for us and rewarding in the end. A wild ride, none the less.
Since we've been home from the cabin, things have been going pretty well. We took Cole to Bunker Beach yesterday for the first time since 2006. I remember taking him there back then and it was so hard. Cole played for a while, but then stripped himself naked because he didn't like the feeling of his wet swim suit. He was very hard to keep track of and he was really aggressive to me. What a difference a few years makes. He was so happy to be there. The four of us ended up staying for 3.5 hours and we enjoyed the pools, jumping in the huge waves, riding the tubes and even climbing on the high rope above the pool. I was so proud of Cole. He is making progress. I swore I wouldn't attempt this again, but here we are a few years later having tons of success. It makes me realize that Cole can do anything he sets his mind to. He loves to live life just like we do and why should anything stop him?
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