5 posts tagged “maggie”

Well, let me tell you. My daughter is learning about insects. Here, I will have her show you what she knows:

This kills me every time. The little fingers at the side. The abdomen patting. The weird little buggy thing she does after the first time she says "sometimes wings." All of it. Plus, she really does know what an insect is. Yesterday, I saw a big spider in the corner, and I yelled "Eeeek! An insect!" And she turned to me, rolled her eyes, and chided, "Mo -om, that's an arachnid, not an insect!"

The other day I was at the neighborhood Safeway, shopping with Maggie. She was ahead of me, skipping down the aisle, her blond braids swinging. As I perused the sour cream section, an older gentleman came over to me, his blue eyes twinkling. He put his hand on my arm and nodded his head in Maggie's direction.

"I just had to come over and tell you," He said with a smile. "When I see your sweet little girl, I can't help but think of..."

And let's just stop right there, shall we? Because, what I was expecting was something like this: "When I see your sweet little girl, I can't help but think of my daughter at that age." Or maybe "I can't help but think of my granddaughter who six this week." Or something along those lines. Right? I did Meals on Wheels for years and years, I pretty much thought I had heard all of the "I remember when" comments from older folks.

So, I stood there, nodding, smiling, and waiting for his friendly comment. But this is what came out of his mouth:

"When I see your sweet little girl, I can't help but think of that girl in Tracy who was murdered a while back. Such a Tragedy"

Oh Man, I wish there had been a video camera on my face right then, because it went from friendly and interested to absolutely horrified, but trying not to look TOO horrified, because obviously, he wasn't a child killer, right? RIGHT? And there he was, with his hand casually placed on my arm, looking deeply into my eyes. And Oh My God. I just sort of sputtered something like, "Oh my Goodness!" And slowly backed away with a tub of sour cream in one hand, and Maggie's hand clutched firmly in the other.

I know he wasn't a child murderer. He was just trying to be conversational. But jeez. He needs to work on his conversation starting material. That was VERY uncomfortable. 

My dear four and a half year old has a lot of energy -- and is so very joyful. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience these years with her. She slays me with some of the things she says and does. Here are a few of her antics from the past few days... 

 It was my fault. I was the one last Saturday who carelessly left the 10 pound wooden shelves lying around, leaning against a chair where anyone could run into them and send them smashing to the ground. And, well, you have probably already guessed who the unlucky person was whose toe was smashed by those same shelves. Yeah, uh huh -- my poor little 3 year old girl child. That's who. Oooops. Crap.

 

Within two seconds the toenail on her left big toe was bright blue. I am not kidding. It was that immediate. And so were her screams. Gulp. The screaming went on forever. Until I finally had the bright idea to let her watch a video. The video? Works. EVERY. Time. She stopped crying and just went into little whimpering sobs every few minutes. Very pitiful. But I didn't take her to the doctor. Who knew? Did you know that if you have a black and blue finger or toenail you can go to the Doctor within 24 hours and have a hole poked in it with a burning hot needle (yow!) and that will drain off the pus and relieve the pressure? I know, I know, that SOUNDS horrifying. But believe me...after the pain she was in for the next few days, I was sure wishing I had known that.

By Monday, she was a mess. She had been waking up crying through the night on Saturday and Sunday night. She was on a steady diet of Motrin and tears (oh, and videos, don't forget those...). I felt AWFUL. So before taking her to school on Monday morning, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for her that afternoon.

When I picked her up from school, she was limping around, and the teacher was like, "Oh, by the way, we were making paint footprints today for our art project" What are the odds? How often do kids paint with their feet at school, and on the day my kid has a busted foot, they do that project?! Whatever.

Anyway, so, I took Maggie to see her pediatrician and waited for a freakin' HOUR in the waiting room. And when she finally got in to the room, the pediatrician informed me that since it was 48 hours after the injury, all of the blood was probably coagulated and it wouldn't do any good. But she would try...

So she took off Maggie's sock, and almost fainted. "How long has it been since the injury?!" she asked.  "Her foot is green!" Oh Good God. Like I would let her get gangrene! Please. But I looked at it, and, well, it DID look pretty bad. I explained the whole foot painting thing at school, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Okay.

Then came the toenail stabbing with a sharp pin. Let me just sum it up by saying one word -- AWFUL. Plus? It did nothing. Except make Maggie scream like her head  was on fire. And I don't know about your pediatrician's office, but mine doesn't have videos. So we were out of luck in that department. Luckily I had brought along ALOT of left-over Easter candy.

After the terrible, terrible stabbing, came the declaration that we needed to go get an x-ray. Just to make sure it wasn't broken. Apparently? A broken toe on a child's foot is bad. Very bad. Like, they might not walk right ever again. Nice.

I am not going to write all about the whole x-ray experience except to say that it involved ANOTHER waiting room and several botched attempts at trying to get a picture of a rather tiny toe.

Of course, then we had to go BACK to the pediatrician's waiting room and wait AGAIN to go in to see our pediatrician so she could tell us the results. Four hours after stepping into the doctor's office we learned -- hooray -- Maggie does not have a broken toe. Her toe nail will probably fall off in a few weeks and we will have to dose her up on Motrin for another week. But her toe will recover.

 

What I am worried about now are her teeth. I shoved so many marshmallow peeps and jelly beans in her mouth that afternoon to keep her quiet, that it will be a miracle if her teeth don't rot out of her head.