Re: Abandonment issues?
She is actually not as bad now as when she was younger and although she was really stressed when Mark was sick and worried, she didn't handle it any extra stressed as you would expect from someone with "good-bye" issues -- her response to it seemed perfectly normal for a child her age.

As she's getting older, she does "recover" better but it's like loss in stories or movies always catches her by surprise and she has no defense against the feelings...so she always cries hard. But with the bed, which she knew we were replacing, she cried a little and only when alone so when she has some time, she has more self-control and isn't swept away by the emotional storm, but I don't know that she *feels* it less and I hate to see her sad.

I do worry because the whole thing is so...inexplicable. There's nothing I can point at and say, "There's where it started." We have always had a very stable life with little conflict in the house. She hasn't lost anyone (with the exception of the goldfish, hamsters, and rotten gourd.). She showed no particular separation anxiety about preschool or the rare babysitter so she doesn't seem to fret about impending loss or the potential for loss. All her life people have commented on what a cheery well-adjusted person she is (well, people who haven't seen her reaction to Steve leaving Blue's Clues).

The only other hypersensitivity she has is to music. When she was an infant she would cry if she heard music in a minor key so I couldn't sing lullabies to her (and by that I don't mean fuss, I mean weep...quiet tears running down her face...as an infant. I'd never seen anything like it. Infants fuss, bellow, squall...but they don't usually weep.) She still experiences that.

We'll talk about it some and she says the good-byes don't make her think of another time or feel like another time...they just make her feel sad.