It felt unfair at that time. In San Diego we could see an Aditya who was trying to enjoy himself, but oftentimes finding it hard to even survive this chaotic world with places like the Sea World and the zoo.
Aditya and family went back to San Diego during the thanks giving break of 2014.
And what a turn around that was!
Two other families from our school joined us at the San Diego Safari park. The next day, they joined us at Sea World. And Aditya not just survived it all, he loved it.
Did you read that?
HE LOVED and CRAVED FOR the company of similar age kids from his school. And for mom, the cherry on top was that they were both BOYS!
Here are some examples.
1. Not a fan of going on rides, but tried the scary sounding "Manta" ride. Reported that he did not like it, but did not make a big deal about it.
2. "I do not want to do that ride on my own, I will wait for my friends." said A when other kids were at the restroom. And it was not because he did not want to go on the ride, he just wanted to do it with his friends! :) This was a first!!
3. Wrote journal entries about his trip! One morning, we found him bent over a notebook and he told me that he was enjoying the trip so much, that he didn't want to forget it, so he was journaling his memories :)
5. WRESTLED with the other boys at our hotel room! He had no chance, but in our eyes he won as soon as decided to compete:)
6. Took turns singing during a mini variety show at the hotel room.
It was not as if there were no challenges though. Aditya used to love rides when we went in 2008. This time around, he showed no love for rides. Also after Manta the ride that he took but didn't like, he became anxious about going on any ride at all. So much so that he suspected the helicopter simulation (which feels like you are on board a helicopter, with seats vibrating and he screen showing scenes of a snowy ride) to be a real take-off. Right before the ride was to begin, he wanted to leave. Once we told him that was too late, he decided to stay but was anxious. In the end, he was worried we had flown out of San Diego.
On the other hand it was easy to reason with him. (Easy compared to when we were beginning our Son Rise journey with him.)
Reminding him of a time when he had been behind a steering wheel in a car racing video game at a birthday party, Baba asked him to think of the Helicopter simulation as a video game, except someone else is driving the car. He seemed to be at peace when he got this. We then also showed him another ride visible from the window of that Helicopter simulation room. Later when we went out we also pointed inwards saying, "that is where we were the whole time during the helicopter simulation".
Apart from this one experience, he did sensational at the park.
We are saving the best part for the end of this post.
On the way back we all listened to a "Penderwicks" audio book. Aditya has been receptive to reading and hearing fiction books but was mostly hooked on to Gerronimo Stilton.
With Penderwicks, he showed an interest in literature a lot more his age.
Shreya (sister) later privately reported to Baba that she enjoyed the fact that Aditya actually talked to her about "normal" things in the car!
After the trip, he chose to borrow another book from the "Penderwicks" series on his own!
It's thanksgiving season! And we are thankful to our kids yet again for being part of our life and sharing this beautiful journey with us.
We were thrilled to read his hand written sandiego report card. And about his interaction with tiger roar, cheetah run, and birds flying . He is going to be a writer like his aaji. We are proud of u 4.
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