When we really connect

I love it when I feel like Janey and I really connect, really share a moment together. The best time for that is in the car, when I play music. I made up a CD of Christmas songs, even though it's a little early for that, and prepared for her to freak out the first time I played it, as she usually does, but instead she was so happy. None of the songs were totally new to her, which helps. I look at her in the rear view mirror when she is enjoying music and we look right at each other and smile. I feel like it's one of the few times we connect with each other without having to talk. When we got out of the car, she was already singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Of course, tonight she got singing it again and got "stuck" on it, something that hasn't happened much late, when she is singing something and can't stop although she obviously wants to, and she get more and more upset.

The other night, she asked me for a necklace,which surprised me as I didn't think she knew that word. I gave her one and she put it on and said something like "Oooh..." which doesn't sound like much, but she said it in such an engaged tone, exactly like a woman would say that if she put on a dress that looked just right or something. She was so happy in such a "normal" way. She went and looked at herself in the mirror for a long time. That is an area where she is probably more mainstream than me. She loves to check out her clothes, hair, accessories, in the mirror, and turns around to see how it looks from all angles.

She gets very upset every day right when she gets home from school. I remember my mother saying my sister used to do that too, like letting out all the tension of the day. I try to be understanding and have food ready and give her all my attention, but I think she needs to freak out a little anyway. I would not think of school as being tension-filled for her, but I guess it is.