I Don't Understand Her

Haley has been doing some odd things lately.  Well, I think they're odd.

She has been opening windows.  She can open the windows in our bedroom that look out onto the culdesac, the front room windows, the window in Shadow's room (the laundry room) and the window in the bathroom that she shares with her sister.

I keep explaining to her that it is cold outside and that we don't want the windows open.  I have told her that it makes our heater come on too much and that Shadow will get cold.  It is not sinking in.

My other daughter walked in to the laundry room the other day and said that she had left the window open in there.  I have no idea when she opened it.  It was really cold in there.

It's driving me crazy.

When she is taking a bath and the water is filling the tub if I look away she turns the water all the way to cold.  I didn't realize she was doing this for awhile.  I always ask her to turn the water off when the tub is full enough so I haven't actually turned it off for awhile.  I thought the water seemed cool and I also thought that maybe our water heater wasn't keeping up.  I usually give her a bath in the evening about the same time that we are running the dishwasher.

I saw her turn it down the other day.  Well actually she was sitting there shivering and I looked over at the tap and it was turned all the way to the right.  I cannot figure out why she would do that.  I turned the water on warm to rinse her hair while I was washing it and she said "Better."  I told her not to turn the water down anymore. 

I don't know if that is sinking in either.

It seems like these are things that she has learned to do so she does them.  I don't know.  As I type this I realize they are similar in that it would seem she is too warm, but I really don't think that is it.

The other thing that is not sinking in is that we are not going to Grandma and Grandpa's.  She mentions it everyday.  Some days are worse than others.  Yesterday the girls didn't have school because of Veterans Day.  That completely messed her up.  When she got home on Wednesday she said "School Friday."  I said "Yes, you will have school on Friday, but not tomorrow."

Something about being home made her think we were going to start packing.  She has had her toys packed up for awhile now, but she started stacking her videos and wanted me to get the "case" out - the bag that we pack videos in.  She just keeps pointing at the stack and saying "Case." 

She got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa on the phone last night.  I don't know what was said, but she did come downstairs and say "Gobble. Gobble. Gobble. Grandma.  Pie."  So I assume they talked about Thanksgiving.  This morning after I got her ready for school she went running in to our bedroom.  I followed her to see what was going on and she pointed at her new suitcases and said "Case."  I tried once again to explain that we are not going anywhere.  That conversation went on all morning.

A little while later she was sitting on the couch watching a show with the cat on her lap and talking about going to Grandma and Grandpa's.  She tries to get me to agree with her.  It is a trap.  She will say something with an inflection in her voice and if you say something like "Uh, huh."  Bam, she's got you. 

I didn't do that.  I told her that she was going to school today and she said "Friday."  I said "Yes, today is Friday and you are going to school today.  Tomorrow is Saturday and you will stay home."   She started crying. 

Huge tears rolled out of her eyes and down her cheeks.  I got her a tissue and dried her eyes and blew her nose and left her sitting there.  By the time the bus arrived she had composed herself.  I don't know how we are going to make it to Thanksgiving.