Forgot to Knock on Wood

I wrote a fairly cheery and optimistic year end post last night, about the success we've been having lately with working to keep Janey happy by doing things she asks for before she has a chance to melt down.  I forgot, however, to knock on wood in reality and in writing after finishing the post, and of course, Fate noticed that.

Today was horrible.  It was not a good start to the year.  Janey spent most of the day screaming.  When she wasn't screaming, she was manicly laughing, or flinging herself around frantically.

What went wrong?  Part of it might be have been that no matter how much we might want to, sometimes we can't do what Janey wants, and she wanted a lot of car rides.  Tony was tired, from her being up early and him being up late for New Years Eve.  He was a trooper and took her for a few rides, but she wanted more.  She also wanted walks, TV shows she wasn't able to name and who know what else.  We tried hard, but as soon as we'd calm her down a little, she'd lash back out.  She bit me and bit William in the course of the day---neither of us hard, but any biting at all is not something we really like.

We think part of what was bothering her was losing three baby teeth in the course of a few days.  Janey's teeth are odd.  She didn't get any teeth at all until she was well past her first birthday, and the baby teeth have been quite slow to fall out.  The dentist told us that she was at age 10 at about the dental level of a six year old.  Now her baby teeth seem to have decided to fall out all at once, leaving her mouth I'm sure feeling odd.  She has some adult teeth slowly poking through where the baby teeth fell out, and they are hurting her.  She said to Tony in the car "My teeth are rolling out!" which was an impressive sentence.  We are trying to explain to her that it's a normal thing to have happen, but I doubt she really gets it.

She might also have PMS, as she has recently entered the stage of life where that happens.  The first few months of that fun stuff weren't bad, but I know that PMS can be a very, very strong force for kids like Janey, and another thing there is next to no way to explain to her.

She tried today.  She really did.  At one point she wanted to walk to the store, but asked me in the middle of a huge fit.  I was worn out enough that I didn't take care not to ask questions as I usually do.  I asked "Do we have to be calmed down to go to the store?" and Janey quickly answered "Yes!"  I asked "Are you calmed down right now?" and she honestly said "No"  I said "Can you try to calm down?" and wonder of wonders, direct answer number three in a row, she said "Yes"  I told her to take some deep breaths, and she did, and calmed down enough that we did take the short walk to the store, where she was very good.  That lasted until about a second after we got home, when she started screaming again.

I will be glad when vacation is over.  I'm sure the lack of routine is yet another reason Janey isn't doing well.  I have to hope today is not a harbinger of the rest of the year, and I don't think it is.  But I won't forget to knock on wood next time.