Alyx is in Redding for a week visiting my mom and sister.  She called me after the first two days and I was almost certain that I would never see my daughter again.
She went into an obscene amount of detail on everything that Auntie Kathy has been feeding her.  She is sort of picky about the things she likes to the point of frustration.
For the last few years she won’t eat any jelly that isn’t homemade by her Auntie. She has since decided that a turkey sandwich can’t be eaten on anything but wheat bread.  Toast is okay with butter, but not with Jelly; unless it’s toast with Jelly but not with butter at the same time.
Vegetables are Satan’s creation and she will have no part of them; except raw carrots. cold. only really cold.

Now, my view on the whole eating thing is, ‘If I made it, you’re eating it.’  and she looks at you with these eyes that softly say, ‘but if i do, I will die…and if you’re okay with my funeral on your hands, so am I. I will sacrifice my life so you can say you’re a good parent and made me eat food that will clearly kill me’.

Since she’s been up at my mom’s house she has been calling everyday with something new she has tried.
“Mom, guess what I like now?”
“Cleaning your room?” I ask hopefully.
“MASHED POTATOES!” and when Alyx gets excited about something, she talks at heroin speed. I got the complete menu of everything she has eaten in the last 48 hours.
The conversation  came to an abrupt end when she smelled popcorn.  I told her to hand the phone to Auntie Kathy and she said, “Oh God, Mom please. Don’t tell her not to spoil me!”

For the last couple of days she has been calling and bragging about all the fun stuff she’s doing and all the new foods she is eating.  SPOILED this child is going to be.  I’m never going to hear the end of  “Auntie Kathy can cook this or that…” Yeah, got it kid. She’s the friggin’ McGuiver of the kitchen.

Yesterday I decided to take Shea out and get her some new clothes.  For those of you that ‘know’ her, she gets ‘attached’ to certain things and those certain things are her ‘lucky’ things.  She wore a 20 lb jacket in the middle of summer because ‘it made her run faster.’ and it was ‘lucky’.  We have all seen the devastation it causes when her ‘lucky’ clothing wears thin metaphorically and physically.  When it looks like she’s getting a little too attached to a pair of jeans, we have to hide them for a week or two so she can move on to other clothes.   I don’t even want to show you her shoes.  Most would say, “Well she gets a lot of use out of them.”  No. She doesn’t.   I have to buy her new shoes at least once a month.  At one point in the school year I was convinced that she had to be getting into fights and she was being drug along the pavement and that is why her shoes were falling off of her feet, covered in black marks and tar and what were once a nice shade of black is just now shreds of the inner lining.  Black shoes. No other color because they will be black in less than a day. NO JOKE. I wish I were kidding.

She also got her hair cut. I started to freak out because the lady that was cutting her hair wasn’t the normal 70 year old that cuts her hair.  They fired everyone and hired kids right out of beauty school. REALLY, right out of beauty school…that day….no joke. not kidding.  She was fired up and ready to cut, shear and shave.
We showed her a picture of the hair she wanted and I sat down to watch the transformation.  I’ve been watching my sister cut hair my whole life and I can tell you RIGHT NOW this woman was doing it ALL WRONG.  When she was done I rushed her out of there and into the truck. “it’s okay baby, it will look finnnnnnnneeee.”
Shea was smiling from ear to ear. “I LOVE IT!”  I wasn’t convinced. She was going to melt down soon and I would have to pick up the pieces of broken baby heart and mend them with love and a straightening iron.
We got home and I pulled it out and started trying to make it look better.  She smiled the whole time. Looking up and me lovingly as I pulled the hair to try to get it to grow back a little bit. “You like it mom?” She was sucking on the sucker they gave her.
“Yep. Looks good.”  Wait a minuteeeee here. It did look good. the woman didn’t screw it up after all.  Yeah, she wasn’t cutting it right and it look a lot shorter when she was cutting it, but wow…it looked awesome.  Shea grinned and smiled the rest of the night with her new shorts, top and hair cut.

This morning she crawled into bed with me and half asleep she said, “Mommy, thank you for my new clothes and hair cut. I love them.” and fell back asleep.
Whoa. THIS IS MY DAUGHTER?  She talked to me willingly? She came and got into my bed to sleep with me? WHAT THE HELL?
Today she woke up and didn’t ask for anything.  I asked her if she wanted to return the movies and maybe stop by the hair cutting place so I can tell the woman how much I loved it. I’m sure they don’t hear that often at Great Clips and I wanted her to know she had a repeat customer and I would loyally follow her through her whole career if she would make my daughter smile like that after every hair cut.

We got her a pair of flip flops. White and blue. A pair of sunglasses and a new purse (BOGO!) and she was thrilled to be alive. She held my hand and gently hugged me (which is so different than the obnoxious hug she normally does where it knocks the air out of you and is done more to annoy you, than to show affection.)

One on one with Shea this week has been so awesome.  Maybe auntie Kathy and Mom can keep Alyx for awhile while I get to know my baby daughter better.  Yeahhhhh, probably not a good idea.  She won’t be able to fit into the minivan as it is!

Thanks for all the comments, emails and prayers.  It’s working and updating will come soon. promise.