And You Shall know her by her trail of Hello Kitty's....

As most of you know, Lovely Little Girl is on the Autism Spectrum.  Very high functioning, but still on the spectrum.  One of the things you learn when you do research into Autism Spectrum Disorder is that many people on the Spectrum have special interests.  Boys tend (and I'm generalizing here) to obsess over things like trains or something else.  They become fixated and obsessed.  Girls also do, but they (and again I'm generalizing) tend to obsess over things that girls like.

My daughter is a Hello Kitty fiend.  Strange since both her mother and I are dog people.  In fact we both believe that cats are sent from hell to spy on us.  We've never had a cat, and since Lovely English Lass is very allergic to them, never will.  So imagine my surprise when LLG suddenly took an interest in Hello Kitty.

You see, LLG has had many special interests.  There was first Upsy Daisy from "In the Night Garden", and then it was Sleeping Beauty.  Shortly after that it was Ernie from Sesame Street.  Then came Hello Kitty.  And to be fair to all of them, this one seems to have stuck for a bit.

My daughter is now a Hello Kitty industry unto herself.  She almost never goes out without at least one Hello Kitty on her body, and numerous times carries at least one Hello Kitty doll with her.  She has at least 3 Hello Kitty toothbrushes, one Hello Kitty toothbrush holder, 3 Hello Kitty dolls, one Hello Kitty egg-shaper (it makes hard boiled eggs look like Hello Kitty) a few Hello Kitty containers, and numerous clothing options including socks, shirts, nightshirts and hats.

We counted the other day at dinner, and she was wearing 7 Hello Kitty items of clothing.  It's one of those things you notice if you see her all the time.  She begs to be allowed to wear Hello Kitty.

As a male with two brothers, this kind of obsession with Hello Kitty is a bit weird for me.  I had my obsessions of course, but it was never like this.  (At least I think not.  Mom and Dad, no comments from you please.)  However, it does seem to be perfectly normal for kids her age to love Hello Kitty.  (Or Sleeping Beauty, or even Ernie for that matter as evidenced by a joke on the TV show "The Big Bang Theory.")

Lovely English Lass did kind of have an obsession like this, but it was with the band Take That and specifically with Robbie Williams.  (I have it on good authority that she went to see the same concert three nights in a row.)  I've also been told that this is actually quite normal for little girls.  In fact, I remember seeing a ton of unicorns and horses from girls when I was younger, and numerous girls going crazy over New Kids on the Block.

So I guess this phase will continue, and maybe it'll change to something else.  Lord knows I'm not looking forward to seeing her get obsessed with boys, or rock bands, or Flying Spaghetti Monster forbid, Justin Bieber.  I suppose I can deal until then with Hello Kitty clothes and watching her DVD of "Cinder-Kitty" for a while longer.