Blog, meet Lisa. Lisa, meet your blog.

WOW- it has been a LONG time since I have updated my blog. I am an avid blog reader, and I love to write- but so much has happened since I began blogging that I let life overwhelm me and swallow up everything I used to love doing. Since my last post, we have had ups and downs, good times and bad times, and life-changing times as well. Please excuse me if I ramble, sound pathetic or whatever. It’s just how I roll. Since my last post, Zoe’s daddy and I have split up. We are working on our relationship. but putting our daughter first right now.
Anyway, on July 4th- a matter of 2 weeks after we decided to split, we both packed up all of our stuff- He moved home to his mom’s, and Zoe and I moved home with my mom- leaving behind our old apartment, and (A! Brand! New!) thousands of dollars in debts that now need to be paid off. Sounds sweet, huh? Moving back home and getting your life straightened out- paying off old bills and getting back on your feet… uh, no. it’s not quite that simple. You see, my (decent paying, albeit mind numbingly boring) job is in Baltimore- and my mom, she lives in bumfucked Pennsylvania. Nearly 2 hours ONE WAY- TWICE A DAY. I swear I spend enough in gas and car repairs to have my own place, but I am trying to be patient. Well, I fear that I may bore you to death with my misery and woes, so let me get back to the point of the blog.
What’s that? Zoe? OH!!! Zoe is just fine. Over the last 3 months or so since I last wrote, she has really begun to blossom! She has become very accustomed to wearing her hearing aids, and rarely takes them off- except in the car. We still haven’t figured out exactly why, but that’s where we are. I have to tell you- watching her learn and grow every day is just amazing. She is now doing quite well with naming the parts of the face- and I have never been so happy to have someone shove a chubby, sticky little finger into my eye socket and proudly proclaim “EYE”! She’s just amazing- she even knows how to do “itsy bitsy spider” now. Except when you get to the “out comes the sun” part… for some reason she hates that part; refuses to do it, and will bite you if you try to make her.
She has a small, but recognizable (to us) vocabulary- which is exciting. She says: Eye, nose, mouth, hand, Ow (ouch), “It Hurts” (always the drama queen), shoes, mama, she barks like a dog, sometimes meows like a cat, and she has a much wider range of signs that she uses on a daily basis. Granted, some people’s kids have full conversations at this age, but I am trying not to let it discourage me. I work with her as much as possible- I name everything as we walk, sound out words and teach her signs. She is still working with her developmental specialist to learn new signs and everything, but she has gotten most of her progress from right at home.
One of the newer things we have been dealing with lately has been her behavior. For the last couple months, we have run face first into the terrible two’s like a brick f’ing wall. It’s funny to look back now and laugh at your (formerly childless) self, isn’t it? Remember when you would see a child in a store, running from their parents, throwing themselves on the floor, screaming for some random toy or whatever? You’d watch in horror and confidently tell yourself “that will never be MY kid”. HA!!!! Karma’s a bitch, my friend. My daughter is now in what I lovingly refer to as the “fish phase”. That is, whenever she doesn’t get her way, she drops to the floor like a ton of bricks, then proceeds to flail her arms and legs wildly like a fish out of water.
Most of the time, it’s the smallest things that set her off into full blown tantrum mode in public. She absolutely WILL NOT hold my hand. EVER. You know, because I might embarrass her in front of the kid who is knuckle deep in his nose, or the little girl with the snot crusted to her face… I don’t know. So she will immediately go limp, dangling by one arm in one violent jerk. So I do what anyone would do- I pick her up. BIG MISTAKE. HUGE. She will thrash about and scream and swing her noggin around until you get into the store, sometimes longer. I know this will eventually (please God) pass… but it’s what we’re dealing with right now, and it aint pretty.
Thanks for reading this- I promise (to myself?) to start updating more regularly!!!!!!!