Steps forward, steps back

Janey is doing a lot of screaming in the mornings again. I have no idea usually what in the world is wrong. Something sets her off and she just cries and cries. I try the whole routine of asking if she wants different things, holding her, etc, and finally just try to ignore it, which is what I have been told to do. It goes against my nature but seems to work better than anything else does.

She has done some good talking off and on lately, though. Yesterday in the morning she said "I want my coffee and I want my whipped cream" I don't think I've heard her use a compound sentence like that before. In the car after school yesterday, she was looking at some book and I said "What are you reading?", the kind of question I ask a million times and she never answers. This time she said "What are you reading? You can say 'I'm reading a book'" Then said "I'm reading a book" It was in a rehearsed voice, and I am sure she learned that kind of response at school, but it was nice to hear.

On and off day

We drove out yesterday to meet my friend Judy, who I had never met on person before, just on the internet. It was wonderful to meet her. I was worried about how Janey would do, as she was going to meet Judy's 3 year old granddaughter Jamie. Overall, it went well. Jamie was a wonderful talker and very advanced, which is nice to see but also always a little hard to see, but she had an outgoing personality and just refused to take "no" for an answer in playing with Janey. They ran around together, danced together, did well without Janey really talking. It was good to see. But then on the ride home near the end she went into crazy mode. She didn't like what we got for dinner, and wanted "cheesecake" which can mean many things---sometimes really cheesecake, other times little packets of cheese and dipping crackers. She just started screaming for it, and I mean screaming so loud you could not even hear yourself think, and thrashing in her car seat and having one of the worst tantrums I've ever seen her have. I really thought she would hurt herself badly. It was awful. We did our best to ignore it, as anything we tried to do just made things much worse. Eventually she wore herself out and was okay. I think being social tires her out so much and makes her so taxed that she has to decompensate. It was a long drive.

Planning skills

Janey loves whipped cream, and we sometimes give her a little mug full (like an espresso cup). Three times today, she got the whipped cream out of the fridge, found a little mug and found a spoon, and brought them all to me. I was impressed---it seems to me like that requires fairly complex thinking and planning ahead, which I wouldn't have guessed she had as much of as that shows.

Sunday was very exciting, as Janey ASKED to use the potty, sat on it for quite a while, and actully finally did pee in it! First time EVER she has peed in a potty. And it was more impressive it was her idea. Maybe I should have followed my instincts and let potty training be more driven by her. However, I certainly wouldn't call her ANYWHERE close to potty trained, but it's a step in the right direction.

We never know where she thinks these things up

When Janey does speak in a clear sentence, it's often something we have no idea where she gets. This morning she said "Don't stick your thumb in the ice cream---it's NOT funny!" She also said "I want to go on the merry-go-round". The other day she said "I can't see the far-away things. Please help me" These sentences comes out of nowhere and are in such contrasts to her usual talking, which is often just sounds---lately she likes GaGaGa. Or how she talks when we ask her a question and insist on an answer and she takes the rare route and does answer---often then it sounds garbled and like someone with speech articulation problems, which she really doesn't have, at least usually. Her talking is so mysterious. And then there's the snatches of songs---often songs I've played in the car. Last night, over and over she sang "Making lazy circles in the sky" from Oklahoma. Her taste in music is very specific. She likes show tunes usually, but not super emotional ones, she likes songs with a clear voice and a clear beat, she likes dancing type songs but NOT disco---she can spot disco a mile away. Sometimes I think she likes a song so much she just can't take it. Last night I was playing "On the Road Again" and she was thrilled, clapping and happy and smiling, but then started to scream. I turned it off and she was saying "On the Road again ON! On the Road again OFF!" I figured out she liked it but it was just too much excitement right then. She is interesting to figure out, but when you live with her all the time, it goes from the theoretical to the practical and gets very tiring.