Although Rachel got to sleep in a bit this morning, I still had to wake her up. Her bed was rather messed up, which is unusual. It makes me wonder if she didn't sleep well or if she was awake during the night. She used to get up sometimes in the night and play. I would usually hear her and go put her back in bed. Sometimes I could only tell because the toys were all put away when she went to bed and when I went in to wake her up there were toys out but she'd be in bed asleep. I don't know what she did last night.
She kept saying "I can't" all morning. She had to be reminded several times to eat. She kept getting food on her spoon, and then just holding it while staring off into space. She did finally finish eating, and was fairly focused while getting dressed. She got a little confused halfway through and couldn't seem to remember if the pajamas were coming off or going on, but other than that she was okay. She was fairly happy most of the morning, unless someone spoke to her. It was kind of the same at church. As soon as anyone said anything to her she would respond with "stupid" or "shut up" or something equally impolite. Usually it was fairly quiet, so hopefully people were unable to hear her. She used to really enjoy social interaction. I'm not sure why she doesn't anymore. At one point during church I smiled at her and she said "Is too, you're a butthead.*" Sometimes I miss her less socially awkward days.
Yesterday she wanted to spend most of her time in her room. She was looking at books. She got quite a few out and really looked through most of them (after sorting them into piles) so I was happy about that. I like it when she really plays. The day was relaxed and quiet for her. She was rather uninterested in lunch, but since she had eaten a good breakfast a little later than usual, I didn't pay too much attention to it. At dinnertime, however, I did become concerned. She didn't eat hardly anything. Usually (lately, anyway) she does one of two things; she either eats by herself without much difficulty, or she doesn't eat without being told to take each bite. If she's having a rough time eating, she'll frequently do what she did at breakfast and hold a spoon with food on it until someone reminds her what she's doing or she inadvertently dumps it on her lap. Regardless of how she's eating, she'll usually eat just fine if someone feeds her. Last night she kept getting bites, but then wouldn't put them in her mouth. She wasn't spacing out, she just wouldn't put it in her mouth. What ended up happening is that she just managed to stir her dinner up into a very mixed up mess and wouldn't eat anything, even when I tried to feed her. She took a few bites, but didn't eat much. She didn't want any pie, either. Part of me wanted to insist she eat since she hadn't eaten much lunch, but the more rational part of me knew that one or two meals isn't going to be a huge issue and if she's getting sick and I insist on her eating, it will definitely come back to haunt me. Literally. After eating breakfast a little slowly she seems to be fine today, so I have no idea what the deal was last night. She was relatively happy during the evening and went to bed without any issues. One more thing I guess I'll never know.
* A word to the wise: I'm not into swearing or using vulgar language. My kids generally comply with my reigning in of their word choices and Rachel doesn't hear very much bad language, so it's not generally a problem. I really hate the word "butthead." A lot. It makes me cringe to type it. I'm not sure where she heard it, but the first time she said it I was determined to make sure that my sweet little girl knew that it was inappropriate and would strike it from her vocabulary. So I made a big deal out of it. That was a mistake. She now knows that she will get my attention if she uses it, and it's a really good way to push mommy's buttons. So she uses it. A lot. And now there's really nothing I can do about it. I can't reason with her, and I can't punish her, and I can't reward her in any way that will make a difference. I have to learn to ignore some things. I'm getting lots of practice. The sad thing is that it's entirely possible that she was mispronouncing a perfectly legitimate word the first time, and I created the problem by overreacting. Oh for a time machine!
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