A Visit To the Museum With the Tasmanian Devil

Last night we decided to go to Temple Square and see the lights. We arrived early and were pleasantly surprised to find that there was a children's exhibit being featured at the Church History Museum. We decided to kill some time there before the lights came on. The cute little missionary at the front desk pointed us to the children's exhibit so I made a beeline for the escalator. Spirit looked at me with those "How many times are we going to go through this Dad," eyes, and headed for the elevator. Because if there is an elevator, we're gonna use it. I didn't want to risk a meltdown so I put up little resistance in using the elevator. After a quick ride up the elevator the bedlam fun began.

Spirit found every camera, computer, and interactive activity they had. In about 12.23 seconds. Then we got fixated on the ship and the fishing. Nothing else could be done until we had fished from off of the fake Nephi ship. This was one of the most popular attractions, making it a line waiting situation. Spirit isn't too keen on lines, especially when there isn't really a line and it is more of a turn-taking situation. This is hard for Spirit for a couple of reasons the first being that he can't really read the situation so it is hard for him to see that things may be wrapping up for a set of kids, and secondly he isn't the most patient of people.

So here we have a situation with very little predictability and one that requires Spirit to read the clues of others. Yeah you can see the frustration coming from a mile away. Luckily this frustration was a little less exaggerated than we have experienced in other situations, but it was there still the same. Luckily we got done with the fishing, the one attraction that Spirit was willing to spend some time on, and headed off to experience the rest of the museum. We covered that in about an additional 6.27 seconds and were out the door to look at the lights.

In Spirit's mind everything is a race back to normalcy. I feel like anytime I take him away from the routine it is only a matter of time before we have to get back to his box. It's like there is a timer that begins as soon as we leave the car, and the little timer tells Spirit when he has to be back to normal. I can add to or take away from that time based on the engagement or discomfort. Show him something he likes, I may get another 10 - 12 seconds, get him uncomfortable and I just lost 2 - 3 minutes. This is all based on the frustration gauge. It would be nice if this gauge could be worn like a watch where I could just ask Heart, "Hey check the gauge and see if we can afford to go here or go there." Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Thus, by the time that we reached Temple Square for a perusal of the lights we were on about 5 minutes tops. And we covered the entire grounds in about that flat. Then it was off to the car and back to the normalcy box.

I must admit that having a name for why Spirit reacts the way he does is helpful. But one thing is for sure, Heart and I still have a lot to learn.