It has been a while since I last posted about a developmental update of Chloe. The last time was at the beginning of the year when she turned four. It is about to time to capture and write down the changes she has been going through in the last six months.
In or around March we had to decide whether we will accept Chloe’s place in school. It was not an easy decision I have to say. Chloe’s confidence wasn’t that good at that stage and so we decided to hold her back another year. No harm in fact. It’s probably more of a regret if we had sent her too early. She would have been 4 years and 7 months. Only lately her confidence has grown and she is less shy. I think it is all down to the fact that we have finally dropped the dodie a months ago.
Chloe was very attached to her dodie. It was the only thing (and her teddies) that would comfort her. However this could have been going on for months or years if we didn’t put an end to it. Matthew got rid of his dodie just before he turned four. We tried everything with Chloe. Santa and the dodie fairy. Nothing worked. In the end, we just said to go cold turkey and threw the dodie in the bin. She asked for it once or twice a few days after but it’s been well forgotten now which is nice.
The next hurdle we had on the agenda was her hair. She hated going to the hairdresser to get it cut. Really we only went every few weeks to keep her fringe trimmed but we couldn’t be doing this for the rest of her life. So eventually I managed to convince her to wear clips in her hair. This is our little routine each morning and she will also let me brush her hair. The last time she’s been to the hairdresser, the lady was kind of giving out because she had a good few knots in her hair. We now use the detangler spray and tangle teezer hairbrush so this will not happen again.
Slowly she was outgrowing her car seat. Not too long ago Chloe and I went to Smyths one day and purchased two new car seats. One for daddy’s car and one for mine. It was perfect time because it was the day Smyths had money off all car seats. She is just so much comfortable in her big girl car seat. She was complaining about the 5 point harness that closes between her legs. There wasn’t just enough room anymore.
Socially it used to take her a good while to warm up to go and play with the other kids. Sometimes it could be up to two hours when it was nearly time to go back home. This has changed by time, too. Chloe knows her big brother is there for her and he is helping her through all the obstacles in the soft play area for example. I remember at the start she was in one of them and she got stuck. This scared her a little bit. Matthew was there for her and got her down safe.
She is big into climbing and doing gymnastic type of activities now. We are thinking of enrolling her in gymnastics as I think she could be really good at it. She keeps telling me how her friends in creche are able to do a roll. She learnt from them and is able to do it herself now.
Not too long ago we purchased a gym membership in our local hotel. This was mainly for the pool part but also for daddy to unwind and go to the gym every now and again. Chloe has never been swimming before and I want to get her used to the water. She is very confident in it now and loves splashing around. She is trying really hard to swim like a fish too. I don’t think it will take her long to pick up on the swimming. For that reason we are going to enroll her in swimming lessons in September.
