Jordan's California Blues

Last night, Jordan was taking a shower when she stubbed her toe on her shampoo bottle. While some crying and moaning was expected, she could not be consoled and so I sat down on the side of the tub and had a mom-to-Jordan talk. At first, she just kept whining about her toe, but then when the cat started adding her own whining (she's been particularly annoying since we moved here and meows all the time), Jordan kicked her - literally - out of the bathroom. I told her that kicking the cat is not an appropriate response, and she started crying even more. I finally got her to admit that all the crying was not about the stubbed toe and the whining cat (really?) and we had a pretty good talk about things that have been bothering her.
The biggest problem she has is that her birthday is tomorrow and we had planned to have a birthday party (with a Halloween theme, of course) with Eric and the kids. Because the fires have closed freeways and made travel between cities almost impossible, it is possible they won't be able to come. She has been all about the birthday party for the last month. She called Eric in September to make sure they were available to come up for this Saturday. We got a Halloween cookbook and have been planning meals. The house is decorated with cobwebs, skeletons, and bats. I told her they would be able to come sometime, even if not on Saturday, but she's not good with changes in her schedule so she's been praying several times a day that the fires will stop so that her cousins can come for her party.
The second thing she's worrying over is being the new kid in school. I assumed this would be a problem, but she never mentioned it before. Yesterday, however, she was upset that "all" the kids in her class had been at this school before and so they would share stories about what happened last year and talk about events that Jordan isn't familiar with and so she feels left out. I'm not sure our discussion made things better, but at least I know what she's worrying about now so we can keep working on getting past them.
*sigh* a mother's work is never done :)