Sydney gets very excited when I am coming home. My mom, dad, and sister all tell me that she talks about Aunt Amy, and really looks forward to my visits. When I get there, she gets shy. She has come with mom to the airport several times to pick me up. She'll tell everyone she meets that her Aunt Amy is coming in on an airplane. But the moment she sees me, she hides behind my mom. She'll pull at mom, and walk around mom to stay as far away from me as possible. The first time she did this, I was a little hurt. Now I know it's just how she is, she has to warm up to me. Thankfully, the older she gets, the less time it takes her to warm up.
This time, we decided not to have her come to the airport. Mom told her we would pick her up at school. She was very excited that Aunt Amy was going to come to her school. We walked into her classroom, and she saw mom and ran to her. She saw me, and her eyes got really wide, she looked temporarily horrified, and she grabbed mom's leg. She buries her head in mom's leg, and is very careful not to look at me as we walk to the car. She got in the car and still wouldn't talk to me. She told mom she was hungry, and mom gave her a snack. As she started eating and we left the parking lot, she started talking. She still wouldn't say 'Aunt Amy'. Mom kept asking her 'who's here?' and she wouldn't say my name. But she talked. She chattered about different things that happened that day. We told her we were going to Target, and she said she liked shopping.
When we got to Target, mom told her to hold my hand while mom locked the car. She willingly took my hand, and I knew things were warming up. I furthered this when we got to the book section at Target, and she saw books she wanted. I offered to buy them, and she was very happy. By the time we got back in the car, she was bubbly and cute, and talking to Aunt Amy. She created stories about the books. When I stopped looking at her (because I was in the front seat, and craning my neck to look at her was painful), she said 'Aunt Amy....' and then told me something else. We were on the path, somewhere between being terrified of me and being my shadow.
I learned early that a good way to warm her up is to give her something. Ok, so it's a bribe. I had a little dress and stickers in my bag for her, and I let her open my bag to find them. She loves dresses, so I scored a lot of points with that. Once she has warmed up to me, she feels the need to show me things. She always wants to show me her room. Maybe she thinks I've forgotten what it looks like. She shows me her closet, and her dresser, and her toys. She pulls out books for me to read. She shows me her pictures (most of which are of my beagles). I think it is her way of getting reacquainted. She shows me things that are important to her. She showed me the nursery, and told me again that 'we're having a baby brother'.
And then, I knew she was no longer shy. She climbed up next to me on the couch, snuggled up, and played with stickers and books. She still wouldn't give me a hug or kiss, but she would get close to me. By the end of the weekend, she was my shadow. If I left her side for a minute, she called 'Aunt Amy....' until she saw me again. There is always an adjustment period- a time for her to warm up to the idea of me being right there rather than a voice on the phone. I am thankful that the warm up period has been cut down from a day to a few minutes as she has gotten older. Of course, I'll probably have to go through it all over again with her brother. Maybe, if he sees her coming to me quicker, he'll do the same.
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