Behavior

Ayden Jane is not typical of kids with PWS in that she has NO lack of energy. What I find instead is that she is incredibly challenging when she does not have a chance to get that energy out. Swimming has been our survival skill of the summer. I believe that it is energy release plus somehow calming to her nervous system.

I know, it sounds like every two year old you've ever met. There is a difference though. When Ayden Jane gets in this over active/stimulated mode, she pushes things too far. I cannot tell yet if she can control some of it or not, but what I do know is that direct confrontation is NOT the answer.

The latest part is a direct, "No" or yelling at me. It is willful. She will push to the complete limit every time. If she is warned it will tone down, but she will look you in the eye and test. When punished, she will look you in the eye and test again. This does not happen often and always ends up with Ayden Jane in a room to herself until she regains control. It also only happens when she is not given enough swimming, bouncing, running, climbing.... To satisfy that drive inside her.

Gary got to experience it last night. We took her to the mall with us to get a few back to school things for Noah, Mckenna and Ayden Jane. She had spent the morning doing laps in the car with me and at the eye doctor for herself. The afternoon was not very active either and we had not been swimming in 2 days. Ayden Jane was awful. She wanted to pull everything off everything, ran if we went to pick her up, yelled about her clothes being itchy... It was sort of like a toddler in sensory hyperdrive. Loud, fast, strong, opinionated, disobedient... She was the same the last time I tried to shop so I just haven't gone in a while. Gary's response was we would not be able to go out any more.

I told him not acceptable. I was not going to be trapped at home because of this. I would plan better and take her more often to get better at it but that I refused to stay home. I think her behavior just surprised him. He had not seen her behave like that before and when he tried to deal with her the same as he did with all the others, it was obvious that it would not work.