Dichotomy

Medication

I had my visit with the PMHNP on Friday. It wasn't nearly as bad as the thought of it.  So now I'm newly medicated.  Here's to this round's worst anxiety symptom (constant jaw clenching going on about 2 months now) stopping so my teeth can stop aching.  Stupid anxiety.  Stupid depression.  Stupid chemical imbalance.  The only side effect from the medication so far is the one I always get: the urge to throw up when I yawn. 

Shooting

So that police shooting that happened a few days ago happened just outside the apartment building D and I lived in when we first moved to Portland.  I don't watch local news, but I played the video some woman took of the shooting and noticed it looked really familiar, so I looked up the address.  I'm more fascinated that I recognized the location from a grainy video than that it happened near where we lived.

Weekend Goings On

Mom landed here on Saturday.  We've been going non-stop since she got here.  On Saturday, we came home, then headed out shortly after that for our date night.  We dropped Avery off at the G's, then headed to Wildwood for dinner, then to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at a theater on NW 21st.  I expected the theater to be uncomfortable since it's one of those single screen older theaters, but it was just fine.  The movie was also very good. 

Today, we walked the dogs this morning, then Mom and I headed out to lunch at Native Bowl.  Following a quick stop at Flavourspot Waffles for a dessert waffle, we went to get Mom's haircut by the guy who cuts mine.  I think the new style is really cute, though she might need to get the front trimmed a bit more for her tastes.  We'll see how it comes out tomorrow.

This afternoon, we went to Elise's 3rd birthday party, which was a smashing success with tricycling, scootering, bubbles, and a playground.  Getting there, however, was not so easy.  See next topic.

The Avery Dichotomy

Avery seems to have two modes: stellar and awful.  To provide some balance, I'm going to note her two modes from this weekend. Here's the email RHG sent me on Saturday night regarding Avery's behavior that evening:

Avery was stellar tonight.  Sat and ate very nicely (when all the other kids were tearing around the house screaming), played nicely with everyone, said thank you at the right times, etc.  You would have been so proud.  All the parents were amazed she's only 2.5yo and said she's very mature for her age.

My rules to them tonight were: no kicking, no screaming, no jumping.  As soon as I left the room Elise started to kick and Avery said "hey Friend Elise, no kicking."  :)

Now that you know we have such a stellar and wonderful daughter, I shall go on to describe this afternoon.  D told Avery no to a cookie.  1.5 hours later, we finally managed to get some shorts on the girl and go to Elise's BD party.  She had what I think must be the longest and most massive fit to date.  The cookie set her off, but I know this situation well enough by now that it could have been anything.  I really can't do the tantrum justice in describing it.  It was just that massive.  I have tried all sorts of methods of trying to snap her out of the tantrum, but the one that I'm employing at the moment is sitting with her in the room while she has the tantrum, not saying anything, not moving, and just letting her go to town.  When it seems like she's winding down, then I attempt to engage her with a question.  If she answers it, showing her mind has switched back to its usual mode, then I know we're on our way to wrapping that sucker up.  If she screams, "No!" then I know we're getting ready for another cycle.  In these situations, she most definitely does not like to be touched.  She also doesn't like for me to talk or move around. Those offenses result in penalization of another 15 minutes of tantrum.

One of the more interesting things to come out of this particular tantrum was my observation of what she does when she's asking for something, then decides she doesn't want it.  Once in full-on tantrum mode, she'll start screaming she wants something or someone: "I want my ducky towel! I want my ducky towel! I want my ducky towel!"  This scream is yelled at the top of her lungs, veins in her neck bulging, face turning red, limbs completely taut, and legs kicking the floor.  For the record, it makes no difference to the tantrum if I get her what she's asking for.  After asking for said item for 2-3 minutes, she will then start saying, "I don't want my ducky towel! I don't want my ducky towel!"  Again, this is all at the top of her lungs and is irrelevant as to whether she's given the item she's been requesting.  Here's the interesting part: when she's yelling she DOESN'T want something, she folds herself in half, then scoots backwards.  If she is yelling she DOES want something, then she kicks in a motion as it going forward.  She did this with about ten different things and it was the same pattern with each item.

So, yeah, there you have it.