Since I take his brothers out for outings and such, Auntie Guilt started setting in (100% fabricated in my head - Muffin and Fam had NOTHING to do with this) a little while ago. It just so happened around the same time that Build A Bear came out with Care Bears. Care Bear LOVES Care Bears (hence the nickname)!! He used to sleep with 30 on his bed!! I texted Muffin and Care Bear saw the text and got soooo excited! Soooo... in my Auntie Brilliance, I suggested Muffin and I take him to Build a Bear to get a Care Bear.
We set a date for last night. We all had dinner at their house and then the three of us headed to the closest Build a Bear near us (about 30min away). We didn't tell him where we were going or what we were doing. Muffin only told him that I was taking him out for a surprise Tuesday night....she was probably telling him this for 4 or 5 days or so. He was so excited when I got there last night!
We finally arrived at the mall and went to where Build A Bear was. It just so happened that it was at the top of one of the escalators, so we saw it as we came up the escalator. Except.....what we saw was the temporary walls they put up when they are remodeling a store. Yeah. Then Muffin noticed that there was a sign that they were still open, just around the corner. Yay!! In the hallway of the mall. With about 1/3 of their normal selection of bears and accessories. And... NO Care Bears. Anywhere. We even asked the workers...nope.
If you have spent any time around an autistic person you probably have an idea of what's coming next...... needless to say he was not happy. Plans changed and he wasn't ok with it. At all. We explained to him that they were renovating and we would come back when they had Care Bears. Neither one of us thought to call ahead to make sure they had them (isn't hindsight wonderful?!). As a somewhat consolation, we got him a Coolatta at Dunkin Donuts (he loves them).
I considered going to another Build A Bear, but the nearest one that I knew about was over an hour away at that point (further away from home) and it was too late to go last night. Never thought to ask the worker's nor did they mention if there was one nearby, so we assumed there wasn't.
We also had to stop at the grocery store and he was crying and talking about it the whole way home. While at the grocery store I thought to check the locations of Build a Bear....there was one 15min away from where the mall we were at......at this point we had perishable food and were 10min from home. As Muffin was loading the groceries into the car, I secretively called the other Build a Bear location to confirm that they had Care Bears - they did! Yay!
So, Aunty thought on the way home, and we made plans to go tonight after I got out of work. We didn't tell Care Bear - we told him we had to go run errands tonight and he had to go with us because his dad would be working and he couldn't stay home without mom. By the time I left to go home, he was asking if there would be a surprise when we ran errands..... We told him maybe, lol. He is a smart kid!!!!
You would think this would be over....but oh no! There's always more! You can't make this stuff up. I got a text from Muffin this afternoon "can we stop at a pet store tonight also? Care Bears favorite goldfish died this afternoon" Yeah. It was his first goldfish (he's had it a year or so I think) and he was inconsolable for most of the afternoon. Of course I said yes, who wouldn't have!!!
So......... to try to avoid another fiasco tonight, I had the forethought to CALL the other Build a Bear location this morning and have them put one of each Care Bear on hold for us. I was about to explain why and they didn't even ask! We had dinner at Muffin's house and then headed off to the other mall to Build A Bear.
He picked two that he wanted (Cheer Bear and Tenderheart Bear), put the stuffing in them, gave them hearts and heart beats, and then picked out an outfit and accessories for Cheer Bear (she's a girl - she needs to be beautiful). He didn't want to pick out clothes for Tenderheart because he has a lot of Build a Bear clothes at home already, but no girl clothes. He thinks all women and girls in dresses are beautiful, so Cheer Bear got a sparkly gown, high heeled shoes, underwear and a bow headband.
We stopped and "resurrected" his gold fish (ie: bought a new one) and he was his happy self again!
Here he is, at home, with Cheer Bear and Tenderheart Bear (who managed to acquire clothes once they got home)! I love this kid so much and it killed me he was so dissappointed last night. I'm glad we were able to "fix" everything tonight for him!!!
The first picture was taken by me in Build A Bear.... the second was taken by Muffin once they got home!!!
~Chelle *o*
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