Through a confuzzlement of dates and a conundrum of memory lapses, last year I managed to break a tradition of posting an annual "Performance Review" for Alexis. If I had, it would have been a virtual repeat of the ones from 2008 and 2007, which is to say the kid continued to suck at staying in her bed and still had a mullet that would have made 1992's version of Billy Ray Cyrus' hair very proud.
Interesting how not setting a 2010 goal of staying in her bed somehow led to the kid staying in her bed. And, OH YES, I did just write that. Out loud. I'm so confident in the staying in bed thing that I'm willing to put it in the books. MY KID STAYS IN HER BED AT NIGHT!
(Please beat me with a thousand wet noodles if those words come back to haunt me.)
(We'll not be discussing the mullet. THANK YE GODS OF HAIR that she has big curls that disguise it so well. Because it's still there. BAD.)
The biggest goal I would have set, if I hadn't slacked, is that I would have established that Alexis really needed to work on that Shy Thing. For her, it was always a confidence issue, which is borderline ridiculous given that the kid is pretty damn cool. She, however, doesn't always feel that way. When around a large group of people, she has always had a tendency to try to climb back in the womb and hide out. And if that large group of people looked at her or talked to her or in any way paid attention to her, she started willing herself to vanish into thin air as she crumbled into a heap of tears and misery.
Her birthday party last January was an excellent example of The Shy at work. She had fun, but she definitely spent a good portion of the party hiding and upset and crying because people had the audacity to look at her as they sang Happy Birthday to her. It was all fine, definitely fine, but it was painful to watch. Why couldn't I just go to the store and buy the kid some confidence?
And now I write about all of that in the past tense because it's gone. Well, not gone, but The Shy has certainly been pushed to the edge of her landscape. If I look far off towards the horizon, I can still see it, but it's over there. Not here. Not in her way.
In recent months, she-who-didn't-talk-to-strangers has learned to command a room. She has walked up to strangers and started a conversation. She has gotten silly with cousins she previously wouldn't even look at. She has strolled into a new classroom as if she owned the place. She knows who she is and she likes who she is.
It's amazing and wonderful and more than I could have ever possibly imagined for her at this time last year.
As I was thinking about the growth and how remarkable it has been , I realized there was a turning point. While we didn't exactly manage to buy the kid some confidence, we were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time for someone to be able to gift it to her.
Lily.
The day Alexis met Lily was the starting point.
Never question the power of a little pixie dust.
