Poor Whitney has not been feeling well this week and it turns out she has a virus. The past two days, her feeling ill has led to many more tears than usual, exacerbated by her strict interpretation of our patterns and a rigid mindset.
Yesterday Whitney did not want to put her pants on when we were on our way to take Chompers outside. I told her that we wear pants when we go outside and the pants eventually got on despite a great deal of protestation and unfortunately tears on her part.
This morning, we had about an hour to kill before leaving for her doctor’s appointment. I suggested we go for a walk. She got very excited and went to the laundry machine and started banging on it. I could not figure out why she was screaming at the laundry and assumed it was because she wanted to play more with the piece that captures the lint (she had just taken the lint out of it as I shifted the laundry from washer to dryer). I finally opened up the dryer and she pointed at the striped pants she had worn the day before, which were still wet. She had apparently noticed that I placed them in there when I filled the dryer. I tried to explain to her that we need to wear “pants” but not that pair to go outside, and showed her another pair for her to wear that was dry. Poor thing, she was so confused and could not understand that a) she didn’t need pants because she was actually wearing a dress, and b) she could wear other pants and still go out. She screamed forever as I took the rest of the laundry out of the dryer and put only the striped pants in the dryer so they would dry more quickly. Eventually she ended up wearing the nearly dry (although a little wet) striped pants.
With pants on, we went outside to the car to get her shoes, which I had left in there yesterday since she fell asleep on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. As soon as I opened the car door, Whitney went, “Woof Woof,” the sound she makes to indicate not only dogs but in this context that she was prepared to go back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When I put her shoes on and tried to explain that we were going for a walk, she screamed and just wanted to crawl into the car seat to go to see Francis, Minnie et al.
So I put her in the car seat, damp pants and all, and off we went quite early to the doctor’s appointment. So much for a walk! Usually she loves frolicking but poor thing, today she was so rigid and could not make sense of what I was trying to say to her.
