I came across a really good article on Holiday stress and how the Holidays can affect a newly adopted child. It was a light bulb moment for me. My daughter’s behavior got really vamped up about a week after her second birthday, I thought wow terrible two’s are right on schedule. Then after reading this article it dawned on me… we totally changed her surroundings a week after her birthday. She went to sleep and woke up to find a big tree in the middle of her family room (playroom); everything was moved around and looked different. I moved her big toy box upstairs and changed her playthings all around to make room for the tree. Then here is this sparkly tree and mama says don’t touch. I took her to see this big man dressed in red and told her he would be coming to our house. This is all new to her. I guess I just did not think about it from her perspective, for a child who has been in four different places and had several Mama’s in her short life. No wonder she has been off kilter, pushing my buttons and testy. Is she thinking her world will change again? I can’t believe I did not think of this before today. It all makes sense now. Sure some of the behaviors are typical two-year-old behavior… but the hair pulling, pushing me away and other signs are real signs that she is stressed and unsure of what’s happening around her. This is the time to go back to our attachment tools. To remember to keep things low key and to view it from her little memory banks. I thought of how great the Holidays would be for her; I never thought that they might stress her out.

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