She's baaaack!

I'm usually hesitant to write about my kid's attitudes, etc, because I tend to go all superstitious and fear jinxing the good. But that is absolutely silly and I'm not superstitious by nature (but when parenting is concerned I don't want to mess with a thing). So I am going to report some good news about my sweet girl Xylie.

In earlier posts, I reported that she was having a really tough time with the move. While she still misses her friends in Corpus, I can tell that she is finally returning to her "old self."

On a side note, Zayden is teething...which means...I don't do much sleeping..which means hang on to your hats cuz a cliche just might knock them off.

Back to Xylie---a few weeks ago she was really struggling. She was very sad and cried often. She was making friends and liked them very much, but she kept comparing them to her other friends in Corpus. She couldn't mention Delainey without talking about Hope and Amanda. She also became very shy around kids and had no interest in making new friends. She even cried when I took her to MOPS, a place she once loved.

This past week, however, I saw some major improvements. On Wed., we met some friends at Wannamaker Park. Xylie really enjoyed playing with Sammy and Issac, but she also made a new friend, John, in the sand box and had no trouble asking him to help her build a fort. The two played together for at least 20 minutes and they had never met before that day.

On Thursday, she went to her friend Cynthany's house for a few hours to play and had a blast as usual (Kim, if you are reading this, I owe you).

When I picked her up from MOPS this past Friday, she said that she really liked playing with "The flower girl." This little girl's name is Kailah (I may be spelling that wrong) and she was wearing a very pretty floral dress (hence the nickname). I tracked down her mother and plan to organize a play date! Xylie's MOPS teacher talked about Joy in Friday's lesson and I really sensed that it hit home with Xylie.

After MOPS, we stopped by the Kesler home to drop off some oatmeal pumpkin bread. Jaime invited us in and even though I had every intention of politely declining so I could go home and clean, I really wanted to spend some time chatting with Jaime. Xylie and Delainey played great together!

As if that's not enough socializing, we went to a picnic today for Napp's colleagues. We all had a wonderful time. As I was unhooking Xylie's car seat straps, I announced that I could see some girls playing in the yard. "Yea," she exclaimed, "I will go meet them." And off she went! She didn't need me or Napp to walk by her side. She confidentially waltzed right up to the playground area and introduced herself to the little girls and their grandmother. I just love that about her. That is the upside to her intense, spirited personality. Sometimes those characteristics challenge me greatly but I just love the flip side. It touches my heart to see my little girl exude confidence and joy with every step. I pray she'll never lose it.

In addition to making some new girlfriends, she had a fun time playing "boat races" with some pine cones and a bird bath with two little boys. She also is under the impression that Napp's boss is also her friend as well. He's a very friendly man and he and his wife Mary have two little boys. And actually, Mary and I have started a friendship of our own. So it makes perfect sense that Xylie would want to get together more with the family, it just makes me chuckle that she didn't try to arrange a playdate with the kids, she went right to the source! She told us in the car that she invited the "long guy" (Dr. Kuykendall is tall) and his family to come over for a playdate and she would share her fruit snacks!

Our social butterfly has returned and I am loving it!

My blogger's photo feature is down. Bummer. I'll post this now and add some pictures tomorrow.