goodfountain

If I were to describe a normal day for our family, especially a normal weekend day, it would inevitably include a tale or two of frustration in regards to managing Chee. How we couldn’t do this or had to cut short that because she wasn’t handling whatever it was well.

Today was completely different. She handled everything we did … and handled it well. Not just today, but yesterday also.

Big, big things too. We all went out to the flea market to close up our booth. Normally she is terrified of even coming near our booth, but today she came inside, she straightened stuffed animals on the shelves, she interacted well with our employee, she pulled the curtains to help us close up.

We went out to eat afterwards and she was incredible. From ordering her own food, to quietly coloring pages while we waited, to telling the server, Byyyyyeee! she was the poster child for manners and (dare I say it) impulse control.

But the big news of the day, of the weekend, has to do with her hair. No, not the haircut we’ve been working on, but, and this is of equally great magnitude to me, Chee wore barrettes!

I’ll say it again. Barrettes!

She is a girl who has been firm in her dislike, hatred even, for barrettes. If I would manage to sneak one in when she wasn’t paying attention, she’d cry and wail and summon the demons to get it out of her hair. In Chee world, where specific, unusual fears are understood only by her, barrettes are evil.

Were evil.

She’s worn her barrettes for two consecutive days. I won’t declare victory just yet though. She needs to wear them to school tomorrow and leave them in all day. Then victory.

I can’t tell you how much it means to me that she wore these barrettes. Everything connected to grooming tends to be a battle with her lately. She has been resisting taking baths and brushing her teeth. My haircut social story has had zero effect. And her hair is just a mess.

But tonight we had fun with barrettes! Just before bath, I took out the package and we looked at all of the colors and designs on them. She loved them. She tried to put them in her own hair. She put them in my hair. It was a girly mother-daughter dream moment.

The barrettes were the icing on the cake of a perfectly delicious weekend. Her language, her behavior, her sensory processing. They were all on. She was on.

For being spring break, it’s been a lousy week. Lousy weather, lousy sicknesses going around. No matter how lousy, though, it has ended on high note. A super high note.

It was really fun too. Fun watching all the pieces of the puzzle come together for her. In her. Delightful.

I’m tossing the social story aside for now. I can live with the shaggy long bangs as long as we can work with barrettes. I’m definitely ready to be done with the pony tails. A mom can only deal with the same ponytail for so long.

Maybe by the time I’ve had my fill of barrettes and am ready for a change, she will be too. Headbands, anyone?