Friday

Julia and I are beginning this day slowly -- breakfast in front of Sesame Street and a bit of a cuddle. A commercial on PBS for a new show called Dinosaur Train and Julia is besides herself. Do people still tape tv programs?

I brought Julia to registration for school yesterday, and she did a great job. Registration is pretty boring for the kids and there is no reason to even bring them, except that they are home and can't be left alone. There are forms to fill out a few fees to pay and a few grownup conversations. Most of the business was set up in the library and as I was filling out forms, she picked out a bunch of books and sat herself down to look at them. She even wanted to stay in the library, and did so very well, as I went to the office to deposit all the forms.

Yes, behavior is changing.

Julia's play has dramatically taken a turn to reflect that she is anxious about school. Since yesterday, lots of her dramatic play mentions school and she also gets angry quicker -- signs of her fear, I think. I laid out and she put on one of her new skirts bought for school. It is colorful and soft and Julia loves it so it was an easy dressing. I did remind her that the skirt was for the new school year. Oh, yes, we are transitioning.

This morning with Ellen (one of the line therapists), Julia is sharper and bossier (if that is possible). Much more of her loud voice and yelling when things are not exactly her way. This is her need of control kicking in when big transitions happen. The up side of all of this is still that Julia wears her heart on her sleeve. Her emotions are right there and up front, and so, much easier to deal with than if she was secretive, depressed, and quiet. More of the up side -- when the bossiness passes, Julia is really sorry for the behavior.

At one point, Julia was yelling and wanting to hit. I am not sure that she hit Ellen, but she fully intended to. I stepped in and cuddled with her, holding her in the way that protects me. It took about 10 minutes for her to get really angry, recognize her anger, find and get in sync with me, tell me that she was afraid (although not the why of her fear yet), and sing "row, row" with me. It was pretty much a picture perfect holding and calming, and I am very happy to see how we are working together. The months of doing this almost every day together paid off this morning.

I wonder if she will be a sullen teenager???

Our diet is transforming! We are almost GFCG. Yesterday, Julia asked for a glass of Almond milk, which I can now eat in my cereal, and she enjoyed the wheat free Cheerios as well. We have found spaghetti that we like, and Julia is really enjoying rice noodles with her soup. Although it is an inconvenience to do without wheat bread and pasta, and we are also missing milk based yogurt, this change is going remarkably smoothly. Summer with lots of fruit and vegies really have helped, and being home and cooking is an incredible plus. I give it another week before we are really GFCF and then I'll start counting our time.

At AT, Marilyn made the observation that Julia seems to like all bugs except for spiders. I thought about it and it is true. Julia collects and plays with every other sort of bug that she can catch. She tried to catch bugs that I would never handle, but she is deathly afraid of spiders. Of course, at this time in Wisconsin, especially this year, we have spider webs everywhere. Our vacation really encouraged the proliferation of webs inside and around the porch. And Julia is afraid. Marilyn hypothesized out loud that there may have been lots of spiders in her room in China, and I can agree with that. I never thought of it but the quality of the fear of spiders and of where she lived in China is the same.