It sounds like a small thing...

Saint Ouen, Jersey

It sounds like a small thing. It’s a big thing.

At playgroup last week a boy tapped Coraline just lightly and she burst into tears. At a different group a baby brushed against Coraline and she burst into tears. Coraline has had this a fair bit recently.

It sounds like a small thing. It’s a big thing.

Kevin, Coraline, me and Coraline’s Godmother Payne arrived at our friends’ in Jersey on Thursday for the weekend. Coraline cried at their dog moving near her, and she cried near their one year old, and I began to think, “is this sensory, are we doing this right? Who can I ask about what this is? Coraline starts pre-school next week, how will she be with all the children?”

She has had this recently where she can dissolve around other children quickly. I even felt tears come over me unannounced on Friday morning about it, which felt very unusual for me, a sadness, and a feeling that I didn’t feel equipped to navigate it. And I am thinking, and over thinking, about this sensitivity. Sensory sensitivity? I know we will learn.

Yesterday (Saturday) in Jersey we had a get together with our friends, and their extended family in their garden. Coraline actually put her hand out to stroke their dog. Coraline sat in the ballpit with the two other toddlers and had a great time. A few days had meant she’d got her sea legs. It just happened like that. I don’t know if this is how it will be for preschool, but for now to see this yesterday, we were so happy, and we felt so proud. We thought, wow, she did it!

It sounds like a small thing. It’s a big thing.

Payne says, “it’d be a very short post if you’d written what I’d said; ‘it’s a phase.’” #ourstory

Outside El Tico’s