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Alyx is in Redding for a week visiting my mom and sister.\u00a0 She called me after the first two days and I was almost certain that I would never see my daughter again.
\nShe went into an obscene amount of detail on everything that Auntie Kathy has been feeding her.\u00a0 She is sort of picky about the things she likes to the point of frustration.
\nFor 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.\u00a0 Toast is okay with butter, but not with Jelly; unless it’s toast with Jelly but not with butter at the same time.
\nVegetables are Satan’s creation and she will have no part of them; except raw carrots. cold. only really cold.<\/p>\n
Now, my view on the whole eating thing is, ‘If I made it, you’re eating it.’\u00a0 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’.<\/p>\n
Since she’s been up at my mom’s house she has been calling everyday with something new she has tried.
\n“Mom, guess what I like now?”
\n“Cleaning your room?” I ask hopefully.
\n“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.
\nThe conversation\u00a0 came to an abrupt end when she smelled popcorn.\u00a0 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!”<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 SPOILED this child is going to be.\u00a0 I’m never going to hear the end of\u00a0 “Auntie Kathy can cook this or that…” Yeah, got it kid. She’s the friggin’ McGuiver of the kitchen.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I decided to take Shea out and get her some new clothes.\u00a0 For those of you that ‘know’ her, she gets ‘attached’ to certain things and those certain things are her ‘lucky’ things.\u00a0 She wore a 20 lb jacket in the middle of summer because ‘it made her run faster.’ and it was ‘lucky’.\u00a0 We have all seen the devastation it causes when her ‘lucky’ clothing wears thin metaphorically and physically.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t even want to show you her shoes.\u00a0 Most would say, “Well she gets a lot of use out of them.”\u00a0 No. She doesn’t.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to buy her new shoes at least once a month.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Black shoes. No other color because they will be black in less than a day. NO JOKE. I wish I were kidding.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 They fired everyone and hired kids right out of beauty school. REALLY, right out of beauty school…that day….no joke. not kidding.\u00a0 She was fired up and ready to cut, shear and shave.
\nWe showed her a picture of the hair she wanted and I sat down to watch the transformation.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 When she was done I rushed her out of there and into the truck. “it’s okay baby, it will look finnnnnnnneeee.”
\nShea was smiling from ear to ear. “I LOVE IT!”\u00a0 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.
\nWe got home and I pulled it out and started trying to make it look better.\u00a0 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.
\n“Yep. Looks good.”\u00a0 Wait a minuteeeee here. It did look good. the woman didn’t screw it up after all.\u00a0 Yeah, she wasn’t cutting it right and it look a lot shorter when she was cutting it, but wow…it looked awesome.\u00a0 Shea grinned and smiled the rest of the night with her new shorts, top and hair cut.<\/p>\n
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.
\nWhoa. THIS IS MY DAUGHTER?\u00a0 She talked to me willingly? She came and got into my bed to sleep with me? WHAT THE HELL?
\nToday she woke up and didn’t ask for anything.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
One on one with Shea this week has been so awesome.\u00a0 Maybe auntie Kathy and Mom can keep Alyx for awhile while I get to know my baby daughter better.\u00a0 Yeahhhhh, probably not a good idea.\u00a0 She won’t be able to fit into the minivan as it is!<\/p>\n
Thanks for all the comments, emails and prayers.\u00a0 It’s working and updating will come soon. promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alyx is in Redding for a week visiting my mom and sister.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.’\u00a0 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\u00a0 came to an abrupt end when she smelled popcorn.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 SPOILED this child is going to be.\u00a0 I’m never going to hear the end of\u00a0 “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.\u00a0 For those of you that ‘know’ her, she gets ‘attached’ to certain things and those certain things are her ‘lucky’ things.\u00a0 She wore a 20 lb jacket in the middle of summer because ‘it made her run faster.’ and it was ‘lucky’.\u00a0 We have all seen the devastation it causes when her ‘lucky’ clothing wears thin metaphorically and physically.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t even want to show you her shoes.\u00a0 Most would say, “Well she gets a lot of use out of them.”\u00a0 No. She doesn’t.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to buy her new shoes at least once a month.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They fired everyone and hired kids right out of beauty school. REALLY, right out of beauty school…that day….no joke. not kidding.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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!”\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.”\u00a0 Wait a minuteeeee here. It did look good. the woman didn’t screw it up after all.\u00a0 Yeah, she wasn’t cutting it right and it look a lot shorter when she was cutting it, but wow…it looked awesome.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Maybe auntie Kathy and Mom can keep Alyx for awhile while I get to know my baby daughter better.\u00a0 Yeahhhhh, probably not a good idea.\u00a0 She won’t be able to fit into the minivan as it is! Thanks for all the comments, emails and prayers.\u00a0 It’s working and updating will come soon. promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/randomandodd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}