Anna and Elli have been indulging in tantrums more and more lately. On Tuesday, in the check-out lane at the grocery, Anna lost it when she had to put the Dora yogurt on the conveyor belt to be scanned. She refused to stand up or be held -- she just screamed and threw her body about with abandon, utterly ignoring my attempts to calm her down. I finally plopped her back in the seat of the cart and ignored her while I bagged my groceries and paid. And I did NOT give her the yogurt back. I haven't figured out the best way to deal with these tantrums yet (especially the ones in public), other than not to give her whatever it is that she's screaming about.
Elli fell apart when I showed up in her classroom today. I never did figure out if she was upset because I brought Sam and Anna into her territory, or because I didn't immediately go sit with her (but it didn't help when I did go to her), or because she wanted to talk to me and her Dynavox was off (so she could listen to the rest of the class share, and see them -- it blocks her view of whoever is in front of her), or because it just totally threw her whole equilibrium off to have us appear there in the middle of her morning. She made quite a scene and totally shocked the entire class -- they said they'd never seen her cry like that. She finally settled down when we took her to an empty room, set up her Dynavox, and the other two found something quiet to play with (tossing balls out of a big ball pit -- we had about a hundred rolling all over the room within minutes). And we never did figure out what she was so upset about.
A different fascination (and a much healthier one) Anna has acquired is an interest in toothbrushes and toothpaste. She is amazingly skilled at reaching all of our toothbrushes, no matter how far back on the sink I place them, and I'll find her wandering the house with Sam's Tigger brush, her Dora brush, and/or the toothpaste tube (with lid open sometimes) three or four times a day.
Last night we discovered that she had found an excellent hiding place for her toothbrush and the toothpaste. We never found her toothbrush, though I did find the toothbrush when we went to bed (it was hidden in our bedding). And that must be the end of her toothbrush adventures - I'm going to try to keep them in the medicine cabinet from now on.
I seem to recall Sam going through this phase too. My ultimate solution was similar -- put the toothbrushes up high.
I believe Anna's fascination with toothbrushes may the reason why I'm up typing this entry at 4:15am. She caught a cold over the weekend, and has most likely passed it along to her brother and sister via the toothbrushes. I've been up with Elli for an hour and a half, trying to get her coughing under control enough so she can go back to sleep.
I feel very inadequate to make decisions for her because I don't know what's really bothering her. I can't tell if she's at the beginning of a cold and is coughing because of all the drainage and the sore throat, has some sort of congestion related to her enlarged heart (her cardiologist told me the pressure of a large heart on the lungs could cause coughing if she only has trouble when laying flat), has the flu (because she's really gaggy), or has some new pulmonary issue. I hate standing at her bedside wondering about things like this.
Whatever is going on, the tremendous increase in the amount of saliva she's producing has exacerbated it. In the last 3 weeks, her mouth has started generating 3-4 times what she was making. The medication we give her isn't helping anymore and the constant wetness is making her mouth and chin very chapped. She soaks a shirt within an hour. Bad as I hate to do it, I am beginning to seriously consider a procedure requiring general anesthesia, in which they use Botox to temporarily (for 3-4 months) stop her saliva glands. If she can't keep up with the secretions to the point where they are gagging her and causing skin problems, it's gone beyond social and appearance issues. We don't have many options in this area -- it's something no-one has really researched.
All is quiet in the girls' room. I should try to catch another hour and a half of sleep before I have to get up and decide if Elli is well enough to go to school. If she can go, I have get everyone going fast because I'm working in her room as a volunteer for their harvest party tomorrow morning. Will this be the scene of another tantrum? Her aide assured me that she will take Elli out of the room if it happens again and really encouraged me not to let this keep me from coming to school. We'll see.
