Our Smiley Girl

School is out, and no more meds for Little Girl as we begin our summer brain balance experiment! Hooray!

Two days off the meds and we already have our happy little girl back!

She followed me out to the car after church. I kept turning around to check and make sure she was still behind me. And every time I did, she just smiled. She smiled and she smiled and she smiled. Oh, how I have missed that smile.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, she was blowing a whistle. Suddenly she stopped and said, "Uh-oh. I forgot my Littlest Pet Shop at Sunday School." Holding my breath I said, "Well, maybe you can get it next week."

I was holding my breath because I've become accustomed to the medicated Little Girl of the past few months, you see, and the medicated Little Girl would have proceeded to have a total meltdown at this point.

The nonmedicated Little Girl? She kept whistling, and nary a word was said about it again.

The medicated Little Girl spent her Sunday afternoons engaged in solitary play that typically involved becoming engrossed in some repetitive strange activity, like cutting out pieces of paper and lining them up or something, and when urged to do something a little more productive, or to come visit family members, or to play with Baby Boy, she would go into hysterics because she HAS TO FINISH THIS.

The nonmedicated Little Girl? She picked flowers to decorate the cat's grave. She played with Baby Boy on the swingset. She made shadow puppets on the wall. She rode bikes. She visited family without complaint and was friendly and cheery and affectionate the entire time.

Oh, and she ate dinner. She ate and she ate and she ate. (She's lost about 8 lbs since starting the meds and she was scrawny before she started!) She ate more for dinner yesterday than she's eaten for all of our Sunday dinners combined since she started these meds, and that is not an exaggeration. At this rate, she'll hopefully gain her weight back and look healthy again!

It is so good to have our Little Girl back. She will never go on that wretched medication again if I can help it.