A Blistery, Blustery Day

My middle child has sensory issues. Currently, she’ll only wear stretchy pants or shorts, because jeans “hurt” her knees and ankles. I think it has something to do with how the seams rub against her legs. She’s very particular about what sheets are on her bed, because some of them are “scratchy.” There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which sheets are scratchy, they just are. She doesn’t like when the weather isn’t calm and sunny. Luckily for her, we live in the Phoenix Valley, so she does get 300+ days of sunshine a year. Yesterday was one of the days that the weather wasn’t to Anaya’s exact specifications. It was sunny, true, but it was very windy. Her sisters were playing outside, and Anaya wouldn’t go with them. At first she was paranoid that she would be blown away. Then, she told me that the wind was hurting her. I asked if the wind was blowing dirt into her eyes, and she told me that no, the wind was hitting her. We had to go to the grocery store to buy just the essentials- eggs, milk, and bread. Anaya was terrified that the van would be blown over. When we were at the store, a particularly robust gust of wind made something on the roof clang down pretty hard. Anaya lost it. She cried that the building was falling down, and that she would be killed. I had to move Avery from the front of the cart, and put her in with the groceries, so that Anaya could ride in the cart seat with her face against my chest, and her hands clenched over her ears. It was exhausting.