Another outing!

We've had such an interesting day today, I just thought I would share the things that happened. We have been in New Hampshire all day today. We went shopping, out to eat, and did some sight-seeing in the White Mountains near by. Eden is not the easiest kid to take on an adventure. She thrives on order, predictability, and if nothing else we do what is called story-boarding to help her prepare herself for what is going on that day. We will give her a series of events that are going to happen so nothing is unexpected. Today we had no plans and we didn't even know where we were going exactly.

When we left the house. it was early, because Eden does better before noon time. We stopped and had breakfast at DD, we had everyone go to the bathroom and apparently when you turn on the light the fan comes on. It was very loud in there and Eden started in getting hyper and getting a little screechy.  Going out into the parking lot after, she ran into the parking lot so fast we had to grab her and pull her back to keep her from running into traffic. Ugh, if I could change one thing about her the fact that running into a parking lot, even up a mountain or into clothing racks  (as you will hear later) would be the one thing I wish I could change.

We went to the Songo Locks to see the boats go through the locks from Long Lake to Sebago Lake which are at 2 different levels. Eden and the other 2 girls were fascinated with the way the boats went up and down with the water level. Eden stayed with us about 1/2 the time even with us letting her run a little to get some "energy" out.

In the car, she did alright, but we can no longer have the older girls sit next to her because she hits them and in a seat belt driving I can't help them stop the behavior. She doesn't think she is doing anything wrong, and sometimes I think she is trying to play with them. But they don't understand that. She did tell us she had to go to the bathroom by saying, " Potty too!" about 30 times until we could find a public restroom in what seems like the busiest and smallest grocery store in the state on a holiday weekend.

What were we thinking? She did OK, for Eden that is. I have to guess that there were about 75 people (not kidding) were waiting in line to check out at 5-6 checkouts (Yes, they were all open and the Service desk was even pulling double duty). Eden was waiting in line with me for about 3 mins and started screeching a little, and I knew what was coming. I was looking around for Ed praying he would come and save Eden, because you could see she was trying her hardest but she was loosing it slowly. I was almost ready to leave without my 2 items and he swooped in and took her to the car.

We went to a few stores because we had to get some school shopping done. Each store we looked for a cart to put Eden in. When we couldn't find one Ed was always willing to take her out of the store to the car. He had to do that in every store including when we went out to eat. I'm very thankful that he is willing to do that kind of thing for me and the other girls because they seemed kind of disappointed when we didn't even get that 20 minutes she usually gives us. They wanted to try on clothes and do the whole shopping experience. Ed ended up spending most of the time in the car. Eden needed to go to the bathroom a lot and did have an accident while I was in the store. We had taken her to the bathroom at least 4 times in 2 hours and after that she had an accident in the car.

That's why when we were mostly finished with the shopping and he suggested we go to a few places near by to sight-see I agreed. We went to a place called Cathedral Ledge (Highly recommended and not for those who are afraid of heights) We were at the bottom where there are trails that you can hike to the base of the cliff and look up. It was completely beautiful, but Eden wouldn't stop running. She was so close to running off the trail. I was so afraid to let her out of my sight. She wouldn't stay with me, hold my hand and took off on two occasions where I couldn't even see her, I had to get Ed to run after her. She was very scared and said so when we got close to the cliff and tried not to freak out but you could see she was working hard at it. When we went to the top she wasn't as scared and did manage to listen very well (it was all fenced in). I was so concerned because she wasn't listening; I told Ed to go without me because I couldn't trust that Eden would listen enough not to run off the edge and at that time I didn't know there were fences. She had another accident while on the mountain.

We went to one more store, she was trying to be so good, but I knew she wasn't about to stay with us because of all of the stores before, so I put her in a cart. She cried and cried but after a while she was OK. I bought her a lunch box while walking around I let her hold it. She was again getting screechy and over-stimulated and ended up hitting me in the face with the lunch box. It was in front of a bunch of people. It was so obvious that she hit me that I saw people stop an staring at me. I'm not sure if they wanted me to yell at her or what, but I was just as shocked and embarrassed as they were. I just wanted to go, and we did.

When we got home, Eden had wet herself for the third time. She doesn't have accidents and when she does there is some reason for it. It could be that she has an infection of some sorts there (not out of the question) or even that she is doing a little regression. That happens some times with her. For every two or 3 good weeks we have we can have a bad one, with lots of regression and I think she has been working on this one for about 3 or 4 days. She has been progressively more difficult, doing some odd oral-sensory seeking (like chewing on clothing which having her chew gum helps), she was pulling out her hair piece by piece today I'm not sure why but I noticed she had hair in her hands all day.

She has been having difficulties going to bed for the last few days also.The last couple of nights she hasn't wanted her ritual bedtime routine that we have done since she was a baby. She cried herself to sleep last night and tonight she wanted to be swaddled and rocked to sleep (Which Ed did, and enjoyed every second of). I'm not sure if this is a regression or just her needing more attention, it is so hard to figure out when she can't talk about what it going on.

I have been taking this weekend to help Ed also. Going out into public with Eden is sometime scary, not because she is naughty. Only because she is unpredictable in her actions and reactions. I've also been teaching him that if she is exhibiting bad behavior while in a store we should not reward her with leaving the store (I know that is what she wants). We need to correct the bad behavior and then we can take her out. He is doing so much better with her now. I think he is less afraid of situations and is more prepared to deal with them instead of taking her away from them.