The Wrong Walmart...

So those of you who know Logan, understand his need for routine and things he is familiar with.  If he had his way he would never have to leave his room, could play trains until he passes out every evening and survive on nothing but cheese sandwiches and cream cheese bagels.  He has been branching out lately and has even enjoyed our busy schedule.  We started prepping him before we leave the house each day with the schedule so he knows what is coming.  We have to include every detail, such as we are going to swing by the post office to drop of a letter, stop at the gas station, run to Walmart ect. If you throw in an extra stop, he gets upset because that wasn't the plan.  The plan was A,B,C in that order only!  So anyways we decided to take him to Charlie Safari last week which is a huge bounce house.  I also needed to stop by Walmart afterwards.  So I told him we will go to Charlie Safari and then we will go to Walmart.  Well Charlie Safari is 20 miles north of our house, and our normal Walmart is 10 mins south.  So me being an amateur thought we would stop by the Walmart right by Charlie's Safari.  That is where the trouble began.

So we pull in the parking lot and immediately Logan starts freaking out!  "This isn't the right Walmart."  "I will not go in there."  "This is the wrong Walmart."  And so it proceeded until he was almost in a full panic attack.  So I calmly explained that we were too far away from the other Walmart, and this Walmart was the same as the one we normally go to.  We spelled out Walmart on the building and everything.  And he was NOT having it.  It literally took me 15 minutes to convince him that he would not spontaneously burst in to flames if he entered the wrong Walmart.  I finally told him that they had more toys than our Walmart and we should go check out the new Cars 2 toys to see what they had before we pass judgement.  And as though a light switch flipped he agreed and he cautiously walked to the door with me. 

It was one of those moments I never saw coming.  We have been helping him with his coping skills and preparing him for changes in the plan, but I never thought a different Walmart would trigger such a strong response.  We survived our little shopping adventure, and today we went to a different Walmart, to see how he would react.  And as we were walking in he explained to Daddy that this was a wonderful different Walmart, and that it was OK.  And Sam and I both smiled with a sigh of relief.  I suppose we should get used to these surprising bumps along the way, and practice helping him through.  We have had these issues before at school with different things like the job chart, and the first time is always the worst.  Then when it comes up again and I remind him that last time it worked out and that usually helps ease his mind a bit.  I guess we are all learning coping skills, and it keeps getting better every day!