Gray Baby Elephant

Sometimes I think I can get away with the normal things that everyday moms can get away with. Sometimes I can and sometimes I realize it's never worth trying! So Sadie has grown out of her cute pink car seat and according to her age, weight and height is ready for a booster seat. According to her trunk weakness and compulsive behavior I am not ready for Sadie to be in a booster seat. This means spend 300$ on a 5 point harness that will last her 7 more lbs. or invest in a special needs car seat retailed at an ungodly amount. Luckily I researched a program that helps families obtain special needs car seats and I have been working for the last 3 months on getting one for Sadie. Yesterday I got the call that the seat was finally in and I had just enough time to pick up Sadie from school, make the hours drive to pick up the seat and make it home for ABA therapy. Bro and I picked up Sadie and just started driving. Like any other mom I didn't want to hear the whining and whaling about how long the drive was going to be, so I didn't say anything and surprisingly they didn't ask. Bro fell asleep and Sadie watched a movie and all was well. We ended up in a small office where two very nice ladies then wheeled out a big gray car seat. What came next was Veruca Salt times 96. Sadie screamed "IT'S NOT PIIIINK!!!!!! I WANT PINK!!!" Tears welled from her eyes. " I- do -not -like- NEW- CAR -SEATS!!!!" She wouldn't stop screaming. As I frantically started to fill out paper work, the small office seemed to shrink smaller as we now had every staff members attention. They offered her stuffed animals, fruit loops, gold. Ok maybe not gold, I was a tad bit frazzled at this point. Nothing could console her. I realized then I made a huge mistake. WHAT WAS I THINKING! Sadie cannot handle big changes without preparation and I had offered none! I usually have a social story with pictures or  I have talked about the new event for like a week. Major Mom fail! A thousand silent car rides were not worth this. I often have wondered how it looks to others when I'm explaining away my childs very terrible behavior. Here these people were giving us a practically free expensive car seat and my daughter was appearing to be the hugest brat on the face of the earth. I can't express how much it bothers me when people only see this and not the very sweet side of Sadie. That was the longest 35 minutes of my life. I knew she would get over it, and I have certainly learned my lesson. I was however happy to send this email to the nice lady handling our case:

Dear Liz,

 I Just wanted to thank you for working so hard on getting us the car seat. It fits her perfectly! I also want to thank you for graciously enduring my daughters tantrum yesterday. I think you will be happy to hear that this morning Sadie was overly thrilled to announce to her kindergarten class that she got a brand new car seat and it is the color of a baby elephant!

Sincerely,
Nicki Smith