90% Chance of Sunny Days

After my last dark post, things have calmed down.  Or that is, most of the time.  If you took away about 10%, or maybe less, of the last week, it would be one of Janey's best weeks.  In many ways, she is doing wonderfully.  We have noticed a strong uptick in her talking.  She seems to be truly trying to use sentences more.  She has used the potty successfully at least once every day for five days now.  She has treated us to a ton of her huge happy smiles.  She's been quite a lot of fun to be around.

But the 10% stormy weather?  Pretty tough.  We had a couple truly horrible diaper incidents and a few unbelievably intense screaming fits.  However, there is a quickness to her dark times than we've never seen before.  In the past, a sad or upset Janey meant the next weeks were going to be sad or upset.  Now, she seems to move past the moods quite quickly.

After I wrote last time, quite a few people mentioned Janey might be starting puberty, and that PMS type symptoms in autistic girls can be very, very tough.  I think it's very possible that might be the case.  In a way, that makes me relieved.  Not that I am looking forward to all that, but it gives a reason for how Janey might be acting, and gives me hope that the other, better times might be the new norm.

Janey had her annual physical today.  She rarely sees the doctor in between physicals, as she is extremely healthy.  She basically never gets sick.  I don't think she's missed a day of school due to illness for three years or so.  Her older brother William is the same way.  So her doctor was seeing her after a year of change.  And Janey put on the charm, hugely.  I don't think he's ever seen her at her best, ever.  He has know her from the day she was born, and her brothers long before that, but she has always been very upset during doctor's appointments.  Today, she was in a wonderful mood.  She talked for him a lot more than she ever has, she cooperated in being examined, she sang and danced around, and she said goodbye to him by name after the appointment.  Something in the way it all went made us feel quite hopeful and good.  She has grown up in the last year, literally as well as emotionally.  She is exactly at the 50% percentile in height and weight, and she suddenly looks like a big girl, not a little girl.  Everyone at the office noticed it.  When I looked back at a year ago, I could see that in some ways, she's made good progress this year.

Here is a picture of her at the doctor's office, smiling her 90% of the time smile.  How I love that girl.