Conversations with Chloe

Over the last week or two I have had several memorable conversations with Chloe. I keep thinking about each of them and decided I should attempt to document some details. One, so I can always remember them and two, so I can share my joy of Chloe.

The first interesting conversation happened last week. Chloe will occassionally play with my hair. Sometimes we are sitting watching TV, sometimes I'm sitting and she is passing by and will just stop to chat and run her fingers thru my hair and sometimes she is just feeling silly and will attempt 'new' hairstyles for me. Whatever the motivation, I love it when she does it. I have, on occassion, offered to pay her if she would just stay right there and keep it up.

This time as she was sifting her fingers thru my hair, she BEGGED me to keep coloring my hair. She said she isn't ready for me to be all gray. I explained I was over the hassle and had decided the gray wasn't that bad. She pleaded. When I suggested I would buy the supplies and let her color my hair, she agreed. I think I'm stuck now.

The sweetest conversation took place over a couple of hours on Tuesday night. Chloe had a rather trying day and evening. She returned home from visiting with her dad in a rather, shall we say, aggitated state. I think she managed to keep it together until she saw me. I know from experience, you can put one foot in front of the other and deal with things and keep going for only so long and then you see your mom and just fall apart. As she sobbed on my shoulder and told me the many things that had gone wrong, I hugged her and tried not to cry right along with her.

I suggested two possible, immediate fixes (I felt so inspired) and she was able to calm down and we had a game plan. I am happy to report both solutions did the trick and we were both thrilled. When she came to say goodnight and give me my hug, she said "You can't die until I'm 80." and that is when I started to cry. :-) I explained that I would be 110! As she patted my arm she said, "You're strong mom. You can do it. I have faith in you." It was just one of those times I'll always remember. She needed me and I was able to come thru for her.

The funniest one was Wednesday night in the car on the way home from church. I usually drop EJ off at the house on my way back from our services to pick up Chloe from her program. So it was just the two of us in the car and out of the blue she says (if you've spent any time with Chloe you know these kind of statements happen a lot), "No offense to you, 'cause, I mean I know you're smart. But where does EJ get his brains from?" I just lost it. I laughed so hard I almost had to pull over. She then proceed to stumble around and reassure me that she did not mean to imply in any way that I was not intelligent. This just made me laugh even harder! "I mean, it isn't like he studies secretly in his room at night. But who did he get that from? Does it skip a generation?" Then she started trying to make me feel better again. I'm not exactly sure why that tickled me so, but I sure did have a good laugh.

That girl just makes me smile.