Sophie's concerns

So there's 2 things that really seem to worry Sophie lately: going down the drain and car washes (but not at the same time).  You could say that she kind of obsesses about them a little, especially car washes.  I'm sure it's just a phase she's going through, but I don't know that she's had these kinds of concerns before (or if she has, she maybe just couldn't express them as well).

Going down the drain I first heard her worry about over Christmas time at my parents' house.  After using the toilet, she flushes, which she's always done without too much concern (and that actually surprised me, since some are really loud).  This time she said, "I don't want to go all the way down."  Then washing hands she said the same thing.  We just tell her that no, only water goes down the drain and she's not going to go all the way down.  She doesn't worry about this all the time, but it's still pretty regular.  The funny thing is that I don't think I've heard her worry about this in the bathtub nearly as much, which is probably a good thing.

The other thing is the carwash.  Back in December we were going somewhere in the car after it had been rainy and nasty for a week or so and the car was just filthy.  So we went to a carwash.  After I paid the money and we were waiting for the car inside to finish up, Sophie decided that she didn't want to go to the car wash, after all.  I told her too bad, we'd already paid the money.  Well, she was not happy that.  And when it started, she cried and cried pretty much the whole time.  I'm sure it's sensory overload for her, with the noise and the brushes spinning around and the car rocking.

But afterward, she seemed to like the idea and talked about it and how clean the car was now.  She'd play car wash with her toy cars, too.  And all of a sudden, she was seeing car washes everywhere.  I had no idea there were so many car washes in our vicinity, but she was spotting them.  It helps that she can actually read the car wash signs.  And her speech therapy just moved to an office complex that's right behind a jiffy lube.  Every day she kept saying, "that's the carwash!"  and I'd say, "No, honey, it's the mechanics, where they fix the cars."  But, sure enough, there is a carwash at the jiffy lube.  I had no idea, but her car wash detector honed in on it.  So now every time we go there, she's talking about the car wash and how our car is clean and we don't need it.

Well, Sunday Stephanie and I hijacked her and took her to another carwash in Grapevine.  It's quicker (and cheaper) than the one by our house.  But Sophie was still not happy about it.  There was a lot of bawling.  But afterward she talked about how nice and clean our car was.

Anyway, it's just something we have to power through.