My poor baby girl had a horrible stomach flu that lasted six days.  It was awful and exhausting for both of us.  On Thanksgiving, I finally caught the bug and got sick in the middle of cooking:(  The next day I was pretty much laid out on the couch or in bed.  Pete even took the day off of work to care for me and Chloe.  Chloe was so sweet to me.  She would bring me pillows and crackers and her favorite stuffed dog to make me feel better.  She would periodically check on me to make sure I was still “happy.”  I was in total awe of her kindness and compassion after she said things like “I’ll take care of you Mommy” or “I’m so sorry you’re sick.  I’ll make you feel better.”  She made funny faces to make me laugh and gently rubbed my arm to soothe me.  Chloe even “cooked” me some soup in her kitchen.  At one point, I didn’t quite make it to the bathroom and ended up vomiting in a bowl in the hallway.  Chloe ran right over, knelt next to me and said “Its okay, Mommy.  I’m right here.  Just take a deep breath.”

How did she become so kind and understanding?  How did she survive this flu for six days with such spirit when I could barely stand it for a day?  How did she watch her mommy get sick and not get upset but instead try to comfort me?

I love her.  She is the sweetest girl I’ve ever known.  

Oh, and Pete was great too.  Not only did he take care of me, but he bought me ginger ale and tabloid magazines AND organized the kitchen cabinets!

I knew I wouldn’t be good at this blogging thing.  I should do it though, considering my memory is for shit and I need to at least have some sort of log of our life.  Pardon all the pictures…we’ve been busy.

Pete has been home for about a month now.  It was a little rough at first.  Having someone home offering to help with stuff like dishes, bills, trash, etc. is sort of odd.  Not that I don’t appreciate the help, its just that I’m okay doing it by myself.  It takes awhile for me to relinquish the control and just let him do it already.  And of course, he had to start meshing with Chloe and I’s routine and that was trying for all of us.

He had two weeks of light working days and then two weeks completely off.  We tried to do as much as possible without feeling overwhelmed.  Its weird that we’ve lived here for almost 2 years and Pete hasn’t really been able to enjoy the place much.

So here’s a quick recap of our time together…

-Chloe got a new fish.  His name is Normie.  He’s just a Beta, but he has an aquarium and $100 worth of tacky plants and accessories.  Chloe is still quite good at making sure he is fed every day.

-We took several trips on the boat and we’ve found “our” spot right past the Coronado Bay Bridge.  There’s a small beach along a golf course that we are able to anchor our boat and picnic.  Its quiet and peaceful there and surprisingly we’ve been able to collect quite a few shells.

Our spot

-Pete is all about spontaneity and randomly wanted to go camping on the beach.  I’m not quite ready to take the kiddo camping yet, so instead we quickly packed an overnight bag, drove downtown and splurged on a suite at the Hard Rock Hotel.  It was awesome.  We walked to a yummy Mexican restaurant and then had dessert at Ghiradelli’s.  The next day we just lounged at the pool.  What an amazing pool it was!  The cabanas and daybeds were to die for.  It was definitely an expensive splurge, but we had a great time!

Checking out the room

Rocker chair

Living area

pool side cabanas

-We also went to Sea World, Legoland, California Adventure and Disneyland.  Phew!  Lots of walking, lots of sweating, and tons of bad food!  Our hotel in Anaheim was so nice.  We got a suite with a separate room for Chloe so that Pete and I could do whatever we wanted after she was in bed.  Disney was a blast and we were able to see most of the characters, including an Enchanted Walk with the Princesses, and we tortured Chloe and made her go on every ride that she was tall enough for.

Beginning of Enchanted Walk…still a little nervous

From now on I think I might start posing like Snow White.

Goofy’s Gas Station

Mickey and the family

Paradise Pier at California Adventure

Strolling in Downtown Disney

Fishin’ for a prize

-Finally, my parents and sis came to visit for boat time, family time and a last minute stop at Legoland.  Fun was had by all and my family just couldn’t get enough of Miss Chloe.

Not bad for a tripod made out of beach towels

The girls

Aunt Jen

Chloe could see us coming down and yelled “here come my best friends!”

Weeeee!

Riding the horse track all by herself.  She was SO proud!

I’m not a big fan of heat or sweating, so the thing I love most about Summer is being out on the boat with my loves.  While its hot outside, the cool breeze refreshes and relaxes me.  I love eating lunch on the boat and just soaking in the sun and listening to some good tunes.  As you can tell by the age of Chloe in the photos, one of these boat rides is long overdue.

My Loves

Doritos, Coke and Beer.  Doesn’t get much better than that.

Driving the boat in Mission Bay

My loves again

Chloe and I were practicing our emotions today…

Surprised

Sad

Happy

Mad (she actually stood up so she could stomp her foot)

I only had to stage one of these (I’m sure you can guess which one).  The rest were actually in my backyard today.  Enjoy!

A is for Alligator

B is for Brick

C is for Chime

D is for Dirt

E is for Eave

F is for Flowers

G is for Green

H is for Hose

I is for Inside

J is for Jeep (what??  I missed the shot of the jaguar running through the yard, speedy little dude)

K is for Keys

L is for Lion

M is for Monkey

N is for Noodle

O is for Orange

P is for Pink Petunia (do I get double points for that?)

Q is for Quarter

R is for Rocks

S is for Swing and Shadow

T is for Tree

U is for Ultra (yes, I occasionally have a beer in the presence of my child)

V is for Vine

W is for Water

X is for Xray:)

Y is for Yellow

Z is for Zig Zag

I think at one point or another all parents believe their child is pretty close to perfect.  I know I did.  Chloe is loving, funny, sweet, smart, etc.  Most days I’m in total awe of her.  There is just one thing that makes her not-so-perfect.  Social anxiety.

I don’t know what to do or how to cure her, but she has some major social anxieties.  Yesterday’s trip to the park was a disaster.  There were two kids her age and three babies.  Seemed perfect…just the right amount of kids.  Not so much.  When a boy asked if he could have one of her crackers, she went hysterical.  When a baby touched my leg while crawling, she went hysterical, and so on and so forth.  It is embarrassing.  I feel like a total failure.  Here I have this 2 year old that is just an angel at home, but when she is around other kids, she has major meltdowns.  None of the other kids act like this.  I really don’t understand it.  She eventually calms down, but she never makes an effort to really “play” with the other kids.  Afterwards, we’ll drive home and she’ll say stuff like “that was so fun” or “I like Emma, she’s nice” but she sure doesn’t act like it when we’re in the moment.  And today, we sat outside at the coffee shop waiting for Kim and my napkin blew over and Chloe freaked out yelling “mommy’s napkin, mommy’s napkin” and proceeded to cry.  WTF???  Why does she go ballistic over such little things??  

Its really frustrating.  She is such a good kid at home and rarely ever cries.  I’m really embarrassed when she acts out, but the only “punishment” would be to leave, and that doesn’t really fix the problem.  I can’t think of anything that has “traumatized” her to make her act this way.  What’s weird is that she is cool with strangers, even men.  She’ll smile and laugh and say “hi”, but when we’re in an intimate setting where she’s forced to interact, she cries and wants to go back in the car.

I feel selfish for wanting her to change.  Why can’t she just play along with the other kids?  Have I sheltered her too much?  Is it all my fault?

I have a blog.  Two years ago I didn’t even know what a blog was and here I sit writing my first entry.  I probably should’ve done this a long time ago considering that my memory is pretty much non-existent.  It would’ve been nice to write things about Chloe and Pete before I forgot about them.  Oh, well.

I’m here now, even though I don’t really enjoy writing.  Maybe this will make me better at it.  Doubtful.  Even more doubtful that people will even read this.  But hey, if you do, I hope you enjoy!