Surprised

I had a friend at work ask me recently, “What is thing that surprised you most about Kylie’s personality now that she’s been home 9 months?”

It was a very intriguing questions and not one I had thought about.  But now that he asked it, it’s been on my mind and I think the answer I gave him then is just being confirmed over and over.

I think I was most surprised at how happy Kylie is.  Since last Wednesday, Kylie has just been kind of out of sorts.  Wednesday night she was clingy, quiet and rather lethargic acting and we thought she was running a low grade fever. 

Because she slept through the night without incident, I thought we’d dodged the bullet when I got up for work the next morning.  But she woke up earlier than normal and was running 102 fever.  We thought it was teething, but with the higher fever, we thought strep (had her hands in her mouth and was holding saliva in like she did right after her cleft surgery) but that test came back negative.

She was super moody and would break down at the slightest thing and much of the time we had no idea what the problem was.  She was whiny and clingy and you could do NOTHING to please her.  She wasn’t eating well and quite honestly, mealtime was a battle.  She didn’t want what you put in front of her and she’d let you know that by shaking her head no, but when you took it away, she’d scream and cry big ole tears.  It doesn’t help that she’s speech delayed and so really can’t tell us what hurts or what is bothering her.

Anyway, the fever was gone by Friday but the other things were still hanging around and she just wasn’t my happy girl.  It was then I realized how happy and animated she is normally and how different it was not having her like that.

It’s not that I thought she would be UNHAPPY.  It was just all those times I would sit and daydream about her, I just never imagined her being as happy as she is. 

The last day or two has been more normal (PRAISE GOD!) and I find myself hugging her a little tighter and thanking God that my girl is back.  I look at her smiling and how her smile reaches her eyes (like Jenna’s) and I think how much I love those eyes.  That was one of the comments we heard over and over about this picture:

Oh how I love those sweet, almond shaped eyes!

The good news is, my girl IS back and she’s giggly and animated as ever…

And I’m so glad.