Conquering demons, I mean dinosaurs.

Like probably every kid in America, my kids love dinosaurs. They are kind of fanatical about it. When we visited the Natural History Museum in NYC, they could tell me the name of every fossil we came across. Yes, even the weird ones that I had never heard of. Oh to have their memory skills...

There is a T Rex Cafe in Kansas City. We tried to visit several times before. But each time ended with me carrying Noah in full on anxiety mode. And he was pretty much wrecked for hours after that. One particular time, we took Alex's family for a visit. Everyone had a nice lunch in the restaurant, while I spent a hot, sweltering hour in the sun, trying to calm Noah down. I think that was when we just gave up on trying to take him to T Rex Cafe. That was 3 years ago.

Fast forward to Mother's Day weekend. You don't know what your kid can accomplish until you try something, right? One thing I have learned in raising two kids with autism, is that you can't always just sit back and do what is always comfortable for the family. Sometimes you have to push them to reach higher. You have to go outside of your comfort level in order to thrive. Otherwise, life is just all about survival. Do you want to survive, or thrive? I want then to thrive, damn it!

Oh, our pushing can end in disaster at times. Like the last T Rex Cafe experience. But it often ends in a great life experience. So off we went to T Rex Cafe one beautiful Saturday. Getting off the exit, we immediately spotted Schlitterbahns latest water slide.  See that structure to the left? Yeah, that is supposed to be the tallest water slide in the country. Uh, no thanks.

No. Just no.

It was race day at Kansas Speedway. We could see RVs everywhere. Keep in mind that it was an evening race, and it was barely 11am when we passed the track. These people are serious about their races. I always say it would be fun to go to one race, but the reality is that I would be complaining about the lack of bathrooms after a few hours.

T Rex Cafe is just across the street from the track, so we were glad that we got there so early. There were some old race cars on display, and a sign that led people to where drivers would be signing autographs. We didn't stick around to see who would be signing. But here's an old car.

Noah seemed pretty excited as we approached the restaurant. I mean, happy excited, not "Birthday kids at three o'clock"  excited. "Birthday kids at three o'clock is not only a line from Toy Story, but Noah's safe words for "get me out of here!" 

We got there right as they were opening up. This place can get packed, and I didn't want to have to deal with a crowd, in case we needed to make a quick exit. The restaurant has some very large fossils outside. Pretty cool stuff.

Baby dinosaurs

This guy was lurking behind our table.

The restaurant is filled with animated dinosaurs. And every 30 minutes, there is a big thunderstorm and volcano eruption. It's pretty cool. Cool, that is, if your child isn't screaming in terror. And this time, he wasn't!

While sitting at our table, Noah was so excited, talking a mile a minute about all the dinosaurs. And he was able to verbalize the fact that he could not do this a few years ago. It's pretty damn cool when your kid is able to acknowledge the fact that he has been able to conquer something. 

Noah was doing so well. And seeing that this was a celebration, I went ahead and let them order their drinks in the "fancy" cups!

And now for your viewing pleasure, an assortment of pictures with us with our eyes closed. It's what we do.

Ok, these are better. Turning the flash off helped. You have no idea how many Alex had to take before he caught me with my eyes opened.

Look at my boy all happy! Praise God.

The crowning moment came when a table behind us was serenaded with the birthday song. That song is always good to cause a meltdown with Noah. Not this time. He couldn't care less. I tell you what, I almost cried tears of joy right there.

And one more of me with my eyes open!

We had such a nice, pleasant lunch. It feels so good to be able to enjoy things as a family. I love every minute of these days! 

I could not have had a better Mother's Day present than this day. It's great to see Noah enjoying himself, and not be frightened by the world around him. In the grips of anxiety, we were just trying to survive and get through the day without losing him to his fear. Now, we really are thriving.