By Marcia Mickelson
This Friday, in San Antonio, we celebrate the Battle of the Flowers. Every April, there is a Battle of the Flowers parade in memory of the fallen heroes at the Alamo and to commemorate the victory at the Battle of San Jacinto.
We've never been to the parade before. In fact, we don't really do parades. Since my oldest son was a baby, loud noises really have bothered him. When he was one we went to a small, town parade, and the band playing really set him off. He started screaming and wanted to get out of there. We left right away. We tried going to see fireworks, but it was always the hysterical screaming. We took him to a BYU football game, and even the noise there was too much. He hated the vacuum, blender, hairdryer. All of those noises made him cry. From early on, we could tell that he had sensory issues, and it sort of threw up red flags that would eventually lead to his diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome.
Thankfully, he has overcome a lot of those sensory issues and loud noises don't bother him as much anymore. We still haven't gone to any fireworks shows, but I'm just glad we don't have to drive an hour out of the city each New Year's Eve when our neighbors do fireworks, like we used to. He's okay with just staying at home now. In fact, last Fourth of July, we even did some fireworks ourselves, and he was fine. Such a huge step for him.
Well, I was happily surprised when he suggested we go to the parade this year. That's huge for him. He's come so far. So, I spent all morning driving around the city tracking down tickets for the parade on Friday. I'm thinking it will go well. For us, it's not just a parade, it's a huge step.
