I Figured Something Out

Taylor has always been difficult to understand. We've tried to figure her out and just really struggled. Well I had a wonderful moment this week when I figured something out. Now when Taylor gets hurt or upset and starts to cry, she doesn't just cry. She screams and yells, and you'd think she was dying. She doesn't like to be hugged or anything when she's upset either. In fact you can't really get through to her no matter how hard you try. It's frustrating because we'd like to help her calm down as well as to get her to stop scream-crying, but she won't let us. We're helpless, and she tends to go on and on and on for a bit.

Well I finally figured out how to calm her down . . . make her laugh. It really helps if I turn what happened into something funny. For instance, last week Payden had been swinging things all day and kept hitting Taylor. Then she'd spun herself into the couch and gotten hurt. Then that afternoon Shelby ended up accidentally hurting Taylor, too. Taylor was upset and crying, so I asked her, "What is it - Beat Up Taylor day? Payden's beat you up. The couch's beat you up. Now Shelby's beat you up. Is it my turn next?" Taylor started laughing and that was the end of the crying.

Today we had another moment. Payden had spilled water all over the kitchen floor. Taylor came running in. She usually doesn't run in to tell me something; generally, she tries to yell from wherever she's at or she'll come to tell me, but today she had to run and tell me something. Well of course, she ran right in the water and slipped and fell flat on her back. She was screaming and crying, of course. I picked her up and hugged her (I think she was in too much pain to fight the hugs). In her crying, she told me that her pants were all wet, so I said, "Well, why was your bum trying to clean up the floor? It's not supposed to clean up the floor." She started laughing, calmed down, and that was it.

I'm really excited to have figured this out. Any piece of information that helps us understand her better is SOOOOOOO wonderful. The nice thing is that she'll even let us hug her now because we can calm her down. Amen to inspiration!!