Confusing Times

One thing that is really hard about dealing with preschoolers in general and especially Kelsie with her particular difficulties is the unpredictability of what each day may bring. We have had such wonderful and exciting successes over the last few months, but now we are starting to see signs of regression again. I get so frustrated when this happens, because we finally think we have turned a corner just to be slammed back to where we started. This often seems to happen when she is learning a new skill ie potty training, but it doesn't make it any easier to handle. It can also happen for no apparent reason and it just leaves me confused and dissapointed.

Birthday parties are usually great for Kelsie no matter what is going on there, and no matter how much chaos is going on around her. That certainly was not the case this weekend. There was a party for her friend Connor at Fun Max Jump place, which we have been to other parties there. Well she immediately started complaining about the noise and only played for a couple of minutes before insisting that we needed to take a break. We wound up spending almost all of the play portion of the party sitting out in the hallway. She didn't want to go back in until it was time to go into the party room away from the noise!

This morning we struggled even more than usual getting her dressed and out the door. Getting her dressed is always somewhat of an issue, but this morning she fought us even more than usual reverting back to kicking and flailing around when we tried to dress her. We gave her a time out to calm down and it took her another 10 minutes or so after the time out of throwing a tantrum to even get to a point where we could attempt to get her dressed.

On top of that she didn't want to go to school today. She has been doing great going in to her class for quite a while now. We developed a routine where she sits on a bench outside her class for a few minutes and then she is ready to go in. Today that did not happen at all. She fought walking to class and then she clung to me when I tried to put her in her classroom even after her usual ritual. She wouldn't even go willingly when her favorite teacher came to the door to help! Kelsie loves Ms Amy and even when she had a really hard time going into class at the beginning of the year she would go to her. I hate leaving her when she is like that. Even though she didn't seem to actually cry it is not easy leaving your child like that.

I am really hoping this bad period does not last as long as the last one, which lasted almost 4 months. They are so hard on all of us and it is difficult to have to explain what is going on to people that have seen her do so well.