Female bonding.

Lilly and I spent a few wonderful hours outside this afternoon enjoying the warm breeze coming down from Paris Mountain. While we were having a little female bonding time Ryan took a much needed nap after his horrific experience having blood drawn a Greenville Memorial Hospital. He routinely has his thyroid levels checked because his TSH is elevated without medication. The last time it was checked it was still elevated, so he has been taking an increased dose of Synthroid and the blood draw was to evaluate if this new dose is working. When Ryan was younger he took these appointments in stride, but now he seems to know what we are going to do to him and he starts crying and resisting me as soon as we step into the clinic. I have started immediately going into the lab asking the phlebotomist to get an assistant and requesting the room with the exam table. I explain to the staff that I'll help the assistant hold Ryan still while the blood is drawn. This may sound awful and it is, but it's the only way to get it done and get it done fast.


But like I said, Lilly and I spent a few hours together. Our first task was to explore the garden and to my surprise the peonies Rourk and I divided last September are going to bloom this year. We split one large plant into six smaller ones. I thought this was drastic on our part and we'd have to wait several years for them to bloom again. Not so, three of them have small buds on them. I guess we didn't disturb them too bad after all.


The bulbs I planted with Ryan and Lilly are also starting to shoot through the ground. I also saw a few Black-eyed Susans making a comeback along side the yarrow. Let me tell you this very quickly...if you want a hardy plant for your garden get this one. A couple of years ago I tried to eradicate it because I wanted the area where it was planted for other flowers. Well, forget that! It keeps coming back and now has completely recovered from my attempts to kill it off. It's definitely a keeper.

After the garden tour Lilly decided to play at the foot of the deck steps, so I took a seat at the top of them to watch her and to finish two bibs for a friend's new baby girl. I hand appliquéd them and love how they turned out. a is for Annie by the way. She was born on March 30th. I know Lisa and her family are proud to have her in their family.




As I was sitting there watching Lilly and finishing my sewing I allowed my mind to wonder a bit. I spent most of the time thinking about Lilly and her temperament. It is the opposite of Ryan's at the same age and let me be honest--she's hard to deal with sometimes. She can be clingy and whiny and difficult to console. I have watched her completely fall apart when she anticipates the slightest hint of trouble. I have figured out that she does this mostly when someone is watching. Like today on the deck, she rode her ride-on toy a half dozen times between the deck and the kitchen, each trip she skillfully maneuvered the slight step-up into the kitchen, but the moment she looked up to see me watching she started reaching out, crying for help and demanding that I get up and push her over the threshold. I couldn't help but chuckle at her attempts to play helpless. I am basically clueless as to how to deal with her, but today I tried encouragement and a " Yeah, Lilly." or two. She smiled and continued on her way. Unfortunately encouragement doesn't always work and she could have just as easily fell to the floor and pitched an even greater tantrum. I just tell myself it is a girl thing and cope with her the best I can most days.

I do think, however, that Lilly needs to have opportunities to foster her independence. At 18 months I find it is difficult to find things for her to do, but I have started letting her explore the backyard on her own. Ours is completely fenced and she's always under my watchful eye of course. I have allowed her to do this 2 or 3 times and I believe it has been good for her. While I was sewing this afternoon I lost her for a few minutes and after scanning the yard I found her sitting on a swing. She was actually rocking back and forth on her feet and happy as a lark. She'll be swinging on her own in another month if she keeps that up.

It may sound as if Lilly and I weren't bonding at all because I was encouraging her to do her thing and I was enjoying doing mine, but I believe spending time quietly and each other presence is some of the best bonding time of all.