I Don't Know How To Calm Down

Abby may be the very most perfect Abby that I could want but I know there are times when she can say things not nicely, when she can be impatient or selfish or whiny... but do keep in mind, so can I.

That said, there are few times when she literally just melts down. Those days have been behind us for several years and happily so.

Today she freaked out.

Over what? I'm not entirely sure. I believe it was a mixture of tiredness, hunger, and multiple boo- boos.

It was sort of like a cartoon. We were over at Pearl's house and they have these little kid lawn chairs and Abby's was set up on an incline (and Abby was a little loose with her leaning) and the chair kept tipping over. The second time she got quite a scrape on her elbow that she didn't even notice (they were playing in the cold water, so I don't think she could really feel it) and I didn't point it out, knowing that the blood would upset her.

Well, sure enough I saw her notice it and she really flipped out. I had to pick her up and remove her from the situation to try to calm her down and she wouldn't.

I uttered the most fantastic phrase ever to be heard at a pre-school, "I can't understand you when you're crying, you'll have to stop before we talk" and each time I said it she got about a half sentence out that was distinguishable. And finally I pieced together that she couldn't calm down. "The crying won't stop, Momma." And several other such phrases.

Well won't that just melt a parent every time?

So I just sort of talked and drew her attention to other things and sure enough that crying was having a really hard time stopping. We prayed (and God excused me for rambling on a bit continuing with the distraction therapy). A cold treat helped quite a lot but everything was setting her off again so away we went.

She calmed down very quickly and vegged on the couch for a good hour and was good as new... after she ate a cup full of goldfish and 3 taquitos.