She's at it again!

I have mentioned before how Eden seems like she comes in and out of "reality" sometimes. This morning was one of those mornings for her. She had got up sometime in the night to come sleep with us, again. I didn't even realize she was there until I woke up. I got up, quietly and tried to let her sleep for a little while. She of course woke up like 5 minutes after I left the room. I think she may have some sort of radar, feel the change of temperature in the bed or something.

As she was waking, I had noticed she was a little "different". She was making weird noises and doing a lot of stomping and running. Eden being the person she is, this is actually not unusual but I noticed it was different. The girls were slowly buzzing about getting ready for school and I was getting Eden's clothes. She was playing with one of her sisters and still running around the house. I just decided to let her be and see what happened. She hadn't said a word to anyone. I did manage to get a video of her this morning when she was playing with our dog. I just happened to see my Ipod as she was doing this and grabbed it. This is it: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1985687096670&set=vb.1678050049&type=2&theater (if you have issues viewing it it's because it's through Facebook. I didn't realize it wasn't on camera when I took the video.)

In the video clip of her, she isn't saying anything at all it's all just noise. She loves to use the dog as a sensory tool. The dog (being a puppy) loves to play with Eden, so it's a great match. I do have to watch Eden and make sure she is easy with the dog and the dog doesn't get too wound up. If the dog get's too rough with her Eden will grab her face and start digging at her. You'll notice, that she doesn't even hear me, it's like I'm talking to no one. She looks at me like she knows I'm talking, but I have to resort to physical intervention to keep her from getting too excited and hit the dog.

She did go to her sister after and put her "sock" on her and keep repeating, "I'm going to control you." over and over in her best robot voice. That is a game that Eden and her sister play, but it involves a lot of pushing and most of the time it involves her almost suffocating her sisters. I keep a close eye on her when she does starts saying that to them. And usually have to pull her off of them. This is the stuff I don't get because when she is her "normal" self she is so loving and gentle.

But then she did something she hasn't done in a while. She went into the little box we have with her sensory tools in them and got out her body sock. She was rolling around, stretching it out, and grunting as she was in it. After a few minutes, she got up and went to my room. It was dark and quite, she stayed there for about 2 minutes. She came out of the room walked right up to me and said, "I'm done now." She asked for me to finish brushing her hair, got her socks and shoes on herself, and helped me pack her lunch.

This is Eden in her "sock" She loves it.

It is such a hard concept to grasp sometimes. How can a child so smart, who can talk so well (most times) go from that to not being able to put together a full sentence? She won't answer me when I call her or ask her a question. To change in the matter of a minute (sometimes seconds) and be engaged, loving, gentle, and to actually participate in a conversation. It's so difficult to explain this phenomenon and I wish I had a way to show people. Most people see her when she is "normal". That's the way we as a family plan it, so it's easier on us. It sometimes makes me so sad to see her like that, she can't control it, it kind of control's her.

I think my next post will be about stimming. It's and interesting subject to me, and I really think Eden's way of doing them is super interesting (as well as frustrating). She does things a little different than the other kids we know on the spectrum so I'll have to explain it.