Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Aunt Annette, Uncle Conan, and family. It was fabulous. The food was great, the company was even better, and Claire did reasonably well. Annette was so considerate and even set aside yams, potatoes, and corn for Claire that were GFCFSF.

Here's how Claire did: the closer we got to Annette and Eric's house, the more anxious she became, saying things like, "I will just stay in the car." "I don't go into new houses." "Why didn't we just stay at Grandma and Grandpa's?" Nothing I said made her feel better, so when we got there, I just carried her into the house. She didn't want to be put down, and only said 'hi' to people when I prompted her to, which is actually an improvement: she used to just cry in those situations. But I was hoping she would say hello spontaneously. Sigh. During dinner, she did lots better. Meals are structured, she knows what to do, and she did very well. She even had a good time. She sat across from Lex, and he made her laugh for 10 or 15 minutes playing with the turkey table decorations Kiersten had made.

After a few hours her behavior started to deteriorate, and I would make people repeat things they said to her so I could prompt her to respond appropriately. For example: Lex said, "Claire, can I hold you?" And Claire screamed "No" at him and started to cry. I picked her up, put her back in front of Lex, and had Lex repeat, "Claire, can I hold you?" Then I prompted Claire to say, "No, thanks," and praised her. I should have repeated that process until she said "No, thanks" unprompted, but I would like Annette and Eric to invite us over again, so I'll save fun things like that for our house or my parent's house.