Busch Gardens is Ben's Personal Hell . . .

and we forced him to go back. If you want a refresher of how Ben did the last time we took him and the girls down there, just look up June 2006 here in the archives. I think Ben had finally recovered from the last time and here we go, dragging him there again. I mean, come on, isn't 3 years enough time? It was Free-Military day a couple of weekends ago, so we made an overnight trip, much to the delight of Katherine and Caroline, who btw, thoroughly enjoyed themselves even if their brother didn't. It one of the very few advantages to having a disabled child that most theme parks seems to be very accomodating towards our family once the situation is explained at their guest relations area, and we can bypass most lines using the handicap accessible entrances. We didn't push Ben on any scary rides this time, but took turns watching him while we rode with the girls, and in some cases, by ourselves. He balked at the Grover themed roller coaster in the Sesame Street kids area and almost tore the hair off of Rob's legs during the ride, so we thought better of it and only made him go in the River Ride (once!) and the sky ride (purely for transportation purposes, I swear) . He more or less forgave us and mellowed out as the day went on, obediently using the public potties when asked, and enjoying the German Ooom-paa band that played for us while we ate dinner. All in all, this trip wasn't quite trumatic experience that the last one was, and he's still riding his bus to school without fearand isn't suddenly afraid of baths or haircuts. Still, he's now terrified of riding his little green bike again (sorry therapists!) and was quite wary of the pool yesterday, but warmed up to it after a few minutes. I think we hit a happy medium.