Pictography

Elena has been going to bed PERFECTLY since I wrote the last post. Now, last night, I thought we were headed straight for the Meltdown ("MD"). We'd been getting a lot of talking back and defiant behavior (not uncommon on a therapy day), and sure enough, Elena threw a fit when we told her it was time to get ready for bed. She typically yells, screams, and hits things (normally not people). During these fits, she will say things that make sense, like "I am NOT HAPPY WITH THIS!" and other perfectly other reasonable feelings. But, if we don't give in (which Jason and I do not), then it turns to MD central, where Elena just yells and screams--no amount of talking will calm her.

Until last night.

Jason was on "MD duty" and he tried several different ways to try to calm her/explain the situation. I was upstairs putting Vivian to bed. 40 minutes later...it was quiet downstairs--conversational even! I went downstairs cautiously, and heard Elena say "I learned my lesson" somewhere in a sentence--and we went ahead with bedtime as usual once I entered the room.

Smiles. No problems. Not even a lot of questions.

After I kissed E and left the room, I expected the screaming to start. Even so, I figured, tonight was an achievement. But--it never got loud. Elena never called for me. She just went to sleep, like the two nights previously.

"Jason--what did you DO?" I asked, needing an explanation of this miracle.

"I drew her a picture."



THIS? This stick figure-picture saved the evening?! Basically, it says (left-side column) "Daddy and Elena ready to play (game of) Life, happy" and on the right column, "Elena hits--Daddy is sad. No Life."

Stick figure drawings are now our #1 weapon against MDs. Who would have guessed that??