G clutches onto things. she grabs things and holds them, she says things and repeats them over and over again. she says the alphabet and i believe enjoys saying it as she finds comfort in the expected. she counts to 10, over and over again, proclaiming with joy the number 10.

i think i do the same. the patterns are more complex, more self-chosen, closer to the heart, but my hanging onto them for comfort is just the same.

the dog does it, her patterns are just very very simple. the rest is filled with happy-dog fog. G can not amuse herself for 5 seconds without needing something she really really needs or saying something familiar. Kila can stare off into space for hours, but woe be unto any interloper into the space she is guarding for hours on end. and don’t get me started on Jo and her desperate clinging to her comfort zones.

G’s grasping for familiarity is cute when she’s happy, but quite awful when she is cranky. cranky and fluid are not two words that can be used together around G, unless by fluid you mean p. i’m afraid she likely gets this from me, or i’m just interjecting my relevance into her being bitchy. either way, i am at my worst about routine when shit has got me down. if i am stressed, i really don’t like, say, not being able to find the remote, to the point of letting that bother me more than the stress that led to it. the hard things i have to handle, so the little stuff receives all my angst. it can make me quite sour. G at least does not have this personal failing; everything to her is OF COURSE vitally important. she, however, has not had to survive the last 2 years pissed off about every burned out light bulb cause of the burden of a tinyHuman.