Whisper Day

If this idea is already copyrighted in some parenting book, my appologies to the author.  If not, I’m just lazy for not copyrighting it before I publish it here on this blog, because the idea is genius if I do say so myself:)  Whisper Day is something I think Chloe and I might try once every couple of months–we have had an awesome day today!  Right now I have ZERO voice.  I don’t have a stuffy nose, fever, sore throat, or hacking cough with this illness, but I am unable to speak above a whisper so that’s what we’ve done today.  It is amazing to me that Chloe has joined in on this because she is a loud child.  I personally love the drama associated with this tiny peanut’s personality, but others tend to get a headache if they’re around her too long and she’s comfortable enough with them to let her little light shine through!  She makes some of the most grating screaming noises that you can imagine, but after today I’m afraid that my enjoyment of her may be contributing to her use of this particular tactic.  Her volume is just usually up, as is mine and we like it that way.  Or so I thought.  I have to admit today has been rather relaxing.  I guess people are right, loud can be stressful sometimes.  I still like the drama, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to work on our quiet voices every now and then.  I would suggest this to anyone dealing with a loud or spirited child and finding themselves frustrated with them.  My sister came home for lunch and automatically just started talking quietly to us.  It’s certainly contagious.  I hope this illness is not contagious because I can imagine that Chloe will not be thrilled if she gets sick.  My parents also hope it is not contagious because they are coming to pick her up tomorrow and take her to their house for a couple of days so I can try to recover some voice before Christmas Eve, and get presents wrapped, and get the house cleaned up, and get a little decorating done so it looks festive, and, and, and….

Enough of my rambling about today’s lightbulb moment, here are some pictures taken in spite of my pathetic illness!

 

pretending to sleep (drama queen)

 

one second later

 

Breakfast with Santa party at my Aunt & Uncle's house

 

please ignore the cleavage, it happens when you gain weight!

 

Chloe and her cousins

 

Chloe and Great-Uncle Peter

PS- I’ll save this for another post, but Chloe got her ears pierced a few weeks ago.  I thought she was the most beautiful person in the world before that, but the earrings might have made her even that much cuter!!!  About that time her hair decided it would plaster itself over her ears so you can’t see them in any pictures.  Don’t worry, Da Holly G at Kick Ass Bows (notice the button on my sidebar) has created the worlds greatest bows and they are going to solve some of our hair styling troubles!  Chloe’s baby-fine hair is no match for Holly’s no-slip grip baby bows.  She looks so unbelievably cute in them, but as you might guess Chloe has to be in the right mood or they don’t stay in.  Drama!!

Have a Merry Christmas if I don’t get back to this until then!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Ok, it seems like the only news I have to share on this blog are family dinner celebrations, but that’s about all I’ve been up for lately.  So as to not shift the focus of this blog too far off of Chloe and her adventures that will probably remain the focus.  She is a party girl, what can I say?!  As I was laying in bed the other night, trying to settle my mind so I could fall asleep, I kept seeing snip-its of the last year like a home video running through my head.  Our family is huge, and loud, and fun, and wonderful and we all get together every chance we get.  Getting ALL of us together gets harder as everyone is getting older, getting married, having in-laws, having kids, etc. but our partial family gathering for Thanksgiving this year was 25 people.  Anyway, the video montage running through my head was a series of pictures of Chloe at these family gatherings over the past 15 months.  It illustrates our attachment journey better than anything I could come up with so I’m going to try to give you a still version of it, of course with my brilliant commentary:)  The point of this post is to show you what I am most thankful for this year, rather than just telling you.

Chloe’s grief upon meeting me in Vietnam was heartbreakingly fierce, devastatingly emotional, extremely loud, and very brief compared to what I’m sure others have experienced.  I have some pictures, but I won’t share those here.  She was just over 9 months old and she recognized her Vietnamese name even with my poor imitation of the beautiful language.  She was loved by someone before me, and after only two days decided she would show us a little bit of her personality.  She decided she would deal with me as her new mom and screamed immediately and uncontrollably as soon as I put her down, even briefly to go to the bathroom if anyone else held her.  This lasted for several days, but she eventually decided to let my cousins who traveled with me hold her, which saved me from sheer exhaustion and more importantly from falling into the river during our rain-soaked tour of the Mekong!

 

Day 3

Mekong Tour

About 2 months after we got home I had a 1st birthday party for Chloe at my Grandma’s house.  We kept it small, just family, but as I mentioned that was still 25+ people in a small-ish space.  She started crying the minute we walked in the door because there were so many people, and would barely let my cousins or sister (her favorite people after me at that point) hold her.  This was as close as she got to enjoying the party after a few hours of being around the crowd and not letting anyone really hold her.

Contrast that with these pictures I took of her at home about the same time.

A couple of months later, she had become friends with a few more of my cousins and was getting used to the normal crowd of family.  This meant that she was enjoying these parties a lot more, but when we got home she would not let me put her down and had to fall asleep with her face pressed against mine and her arms tightly around my neck.  It is one of the most bittersweet memories I have of that time.  The closeness and the cuddling was the greatest feeling, but knowing the sadness and the anxiety behind it made me heartbroken for Chloe.  Christmas, February birthday parties, etc. all went along about like this.  As time continued to pass, she got braver at the parties and less anxious when we got home.

By spring she was starting to venture off on her own at parties and wasn’t glued to anyone.  She could run (toddle) around after her cousins and try to have a little fun on her own, but still wasn’t always thrilled to let more than a handful of people hold her.  Her comfort level continues to improve around our family and close friends, but she has what I think feels like a healthy level of stranger anxiety.  She does not need me to hold her for more than 10-15 minutes after we arrive somewhere, and has slipped out of our pew at church to perform some dance moves in front of everyone once or twice!  She is two, but is almost always happy, sweet, funny, singing, dancing, and giggling out loud.  She is a riot to be around and the more words she adds to her vocabulary the crazier life gets around here!  I am so happy with how things have progressed over the past 15 months.  I am still in awe of Chloe’s all-out personality, this girl does not do anything half-way!!!  Whether it’s having a mouth full of teeth before her 1st birthday, or going from toddling to climbing, running, and jumping within a couple of moths she finds something she wants to catch up on and just does it!  She is just not giving me much to worry about any more, which is really saying a lot for me.  

Here are a few more before and after pictures comparing this fall to where we started.  I could not be more thankful for Chloe or more humbled by the gift I was given in being able to be the mom to raise her.  I am so appreciative to her first mom for this opportunity, and only wish I had a way to contact her to tell her just that.

And just a couple more pictures because I love how cute they are in this hat!

Happy Thanksgiving!