Perseveration

Rosie's cousin observed out loud that Rosie 'talked funny' today, but as far as I could tell, the family festivities went well for her. She played with her cousin for hours and it seemed to work out well. It helps that her cousin's younger - just turned 5 - and Rosie at nearly 8 can take a somewhat bossy role - the play goes 'her way.' I don't know that this will work in the years going forward, but in the meantime it does and she got some much-needed socialization.

The difficulty of course is that it was completely overstimulating for her, and so when we finally got her packed off to bed it took two hours for her to unravel all the strain of the day. After four courses of weeping and a wrangle about the fan being off and a lost 'lucky' bead, she finally dropped off. The fan, of course, goes round and round most soothingly, but it's freezing cold. The bead was more difficult - she's been clutching 'lucky' objects lately, usually bits of ribbon or small shiny things like quarters or in this case a silver bead. She kept losing it in the bed, setting off another storm of weeping and desperation, until her dad and I finally got some clear packing tape and taped it to her pajamas. Fantastic - all better. Asleep in five minutes, once she didn't have to worry about it.

I can envision a night in the not-distant future where the kid goes to sleep covered head to toe in 'lucky' beads, ribbons, and small sticks and rocks, stuck with tape. Like a juvenile what do you call it, katamari.