The Lunar Effect

Addy was OUT OF CONTROL yesterday & that is just not like her! Even though she is on the autism spectrum, she is high functioning & normally doesn't have any behavior issues. But today was a different story.

It started first thing in the morning. She woke up & Nick brought her & put her in bed with me. She was talking & singing, so I brought her in the living room & told her it was time to get up. Then I went back to bed. When I got up an hour later, Nick said "Addy must be mad at you!" I asked why & he told me to go take a look at what she had done. She took all the toys from the shelves in the playroom & threw them on the floor. And Nick said that she didn't even play with them. She just swept her arms across the shelves throwing toys to the ground! AHHH!

A little later I was trying to work out & she would not let me. She got out every board game she could find & kept telling me to "S T O P stop Mommy." (And how do I not stop when she calls me Mommy!) After about an hour and a half, I finally got my 45 minute workout done & went to go take a shower. When I got out, there was a HUGE MESS all over the living room. Addy had gone in the pantry & gotten 2 tubs of protein powder & dumped them all over the floor. She was using the powder as mortar between building blocks. (at least her pretend play is where it needs to be, right?!?)

I could not believe her behavior & if it had not been her birthday, she would have gotten in lots & lots of trouble! (Yeah right!) All day I just kept thinking, what is going on here. Am I too lenient with her? Is it because she's out of school for the summer & doesn't have that same structure everyday? Does she need to go to speech & OT twice a week instead of once or even start some ABA therapy? Whatever it was, I was really just wishing for a mulligan (golf lingo for a do over).

And then last night, I walked outside to go move my car from behind Nick's. And this is what I saw...

A FULL MOON! Could this be it? Could Addy be experiencing the lunar effect? Kids with autism are more susceptible to all kinds of things, so couldn't they be more susceptible to erratic behavior because of a full moon? Nah, probably not. But at least it gives me something to blame her behavior on & gives me hope that it will get better.
And guess what, today, she's back her normal self again!