{"id":15098,"date":"2012-12-11T13:47:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T21:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=15098"},"modified":"2012-12-11T13:47:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T21:47:48","slug":"i-just-want-to-be-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/?p=15098","title":{"rendered":"“I just want to be with you”"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Avery was smaller, we\u00c2\u00a0often had\u00c2\u00a0Friday playdates with kids her age. Though I didn’t write about it much here, Avery usually seemed more interested in being with me – sitting on my lap, for example – than running off with her (seemingly more outgoing) friends. When we found out about her hearing issues last spring, I thought back to those days and it suddently clicked. Of course<\/em> she was quieter than the other kids and liked to stick by me: She probably couldn’t fully understand what was going on around her, and I was her security blanket. The thought of her being in her own little bubble of sorts, and potentially missing out on things that other babies and toddlers got to experience, made me terribly sad.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to this past weekend, when Avery and I were at a holiday party at one of her classmate’s house. Avery\u00c2\u00a0knew all the children – and a lot of the moms and dads – and I figured she would feel totally comfortable and run off\u00c2\u00a0to play right away.\u00c2\u00a0That wasn’t the case, though: She still stuck by my side for most of the party and told me at one point, after I asked if she wanted to go off with one of her friends, “I just want to be with you, Mama.”<\/p>\n

And so it clicked (again): Avery taking time to warm up to new situations and new environments (despite being super bubbly and playful at home and school), and her being quiet and clingy at times, is just who she is. It has less to do with hearing or age than it does with her personality – and I need to remind myself that being quiet doesn’t\u00c2\u00a0equate to being\u00c2\u00a0unhappy. (And I need to let go of my sadness over those playdates from one and two years back. She probably would have sat on my lap even if she\u00c2\u00a0had heard just fine!)<\/p>\n

At some point, I assume, Avery\u00c2\u00a0may feel comfortable enough to run off with her friends\u00c2\u00a0as soon as\u00c2\u00a0we arrive at a party -\u00c2\u00a0or maybe she never will. Either way, it’s fine<\/em>. I’ll just plan to be on stand-by in case she wants to be with me…<\/p>\n

-M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Avery was smaller, we\u00c2\u00a0often had\u00c2\u00a0Friday playdates with kids her age. Though I didn’t write about it much here, Avery usually seemed more interested in being with me – sitting on my lap, for example – than running off with her (seemingly more outgoing) friends. When we found out about her hearing issues last spring, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-78-two-kids-december-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15098"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15122,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15098\/revisions\/15122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}