Penny's latest complete-and-total freak-out trigger is.... littering? She becomes concerned when she sees a piece of loose paper or a napkin or anything like that blowing around on the side of the road when we're driving. She always asks who it belongs to and if they know they lost their napkin/paper/whatever and if they are going to come get it. Last week at our play date with Ally we were eating a pop-tart and it was windy and the foil pop-tart wrapper blew off the table. Penny hopped down to go get it, but the wind kept blowing it so that I guess she thought she'd never be able to catch up to it. She lost her ever-loving mind and had a massive melt-down. Even after I successfully retrieved the wrapper and assured her it was all fine, I still had a hard time calming her down.
Then Tray took her to our property this afternoon and they flew a kite for the first time. They were apparently having a really good time, until the kite caught on the side of the barn, the string broke, and the kite blew into the pond and got hung up on something so that it didn't float on over to the bank. Tray said Penny's freak-out was horrendous; he almost had to yell at her to reach her enough to even listen to him so she could calm down. And I know it wasn't (just) because she was upset they had to stop flying the kite. It was way beyond that. I think it has something to do with things not behaving in ways she expects them too - or in ways beyond her control. I'm not sure, but I would love to know how to help her out with this one.
(Oh, and also loud noise, while we're on the topic of advice-seeking. Every single time an ambulance or fire truck blows a siren anywhere within the Troy city limits, Penny asks very worriedly if it is coming here. And I always tell her that no, it is not. The hospital is not very far from here, so we hear them daily. And we have the same conversation. Every. Single. Time. She also still runs from the vacuum cleaner, power tools, kitchen appliances, or anything else that is "too much loud" -- including people. The child has never had a smoothie because I can't operate the blender in her presence. We've also had to leave the playground because they were mowing the field next door. Although, to be fair, I haven't worked with her much on this one considering that I also dislike people/things that are "too much loud.")
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