Planets and profound moments.

Bright Eyes was exceptionally grumpy today. He was refusing to go places, bossing everyone, correcting tiny mistakes and just generally being obstreperous. Finally, he pushed it all too far and was sent to the couch whereupon he just exploded and broke down and found himself quite at the end of it all.

The words that came out of him were these: "It's all rubbish. Everything should be destroyed. There should be no such things as planets. I'm a weirdo. I should go in the dump. I'm left out of this family. I'm the odd one out. I hate everything in the world...." and on and on in the same vein.

I tried to give him better words and said, "I hear that you feel bad. You have terrible feelings inside you. You're struggling a lot right now."

"Yes, I feel bad," he said.

"Where does it feel bad?" I asked.

"In my brain," he replied.

"How does your brain feel?" asked his dad from the kitchen.

"Everything's orbiting around so fast in there," he said. "My brain is full."

He spent some more time on the couch. We binned the dinner he refused to eat ("It's rubbish. I'm not eating anything") and let him go upstairs and calm down. 

Poor little kid. I know how I feel when my brain goes crazy once a month. Imagine that multiplied by a hundred and I think that's how he felt tonight with everything 'orbiting' around.

The question is: why today?

Holidays and a different routine?

A change in homeopathic remedy?

A sneaky dose of gluten? (He promises that he hasn't touched it)

Reaction from a playdate today, plus new children playing at our place twice this week?

I wish I knew. I'd like the slightly calmer, more flexible, happier child back please.