Oh yes, I can relate to the need to know about every conversation happening around her. Knowing isn't enough - she needs to be involved in them. We are working on it...
Also the loud noises although probably not as bad as some others are experiencing.
Other "quirks":
- a need to spin. Whether she is dancing, swimming, on a tire swing - she spins and spins and spins. I get dizzy just watching her.
- a need to "dress for the occasion". Whether we are going to school art night, a theater performance, lunch for mother's day - whatever it is. She gets all decked out in a "southern belle" type of hat, feather boa, frilly/lacey anything, gloves, high heels, make up and jewelry. Did I mention she is 7? Until last year she usually added a crown to the ensemble but now the big hat usually suffices.
- totally throwing herself into her dramatic or imaginative play. The imaginary friends are gone but a recent one involved deciding she was going to open a restaurant and asking every day if we could PLEASE go shopping for the furniture, decorations, cookware, etc. She found an empty restaurant and was ready to sign a lease and start serving customers. Again, did I mention that she is 7?
- she has to have several books going at once but since she is significantly LD it means audio books in the car and DH and I reading at night. We are in the middle of the 4th Harry Potter book in the car. At one point something happened and a character jumped up, pulled their wand and said a spell. DD said it along with her. "Have you listened to this before?" "No, don't you remember in the first book they were taught that spell in one of their first classes. " "Have they used it since then?" "No. I just remember it."
- a need to perform - sing, dance, act - at every opportunity. It doesn't matter if she has an audience or not.
- she gets TOTALLY absorbed in every performance she watches. Cheering in the political rally for Teddy Roosevelt while watching "Teddy and Alice", leaving the theater crying if a favorite character is killed, jumping to her feet and yelling "Bravo" when a particular performance really thrills her, etc.
- a fascination with historical times and figures. We already went through the Pilgrims and American Revolution. Now we are reading biography after biography of Teddy Roosevelt and Sakagawea. She recently explained to a waitress at a restaurant, who turned out to be a moonlighting 4th grade teacher, that President Hoover wasn't a bad guy - people blamed him for the Great Depression but it really wasn't his fault.
- a total fear of disappointing a teacher or getting into any sort of trouble at school. She is totally freaked out by color charts and other public shaming systems even though she doesn't get in trouble.
- a true, deep appreciation for aesthetics. A beautiful flower, painting or piece of music totally captivates her.
