Beautiful Moments

   Today did not start off well. I had this plan for my morning (yep, go ahead, have a good laugh, God did) and was very conscious of the time it would take me to to accomplish each of tasks ahead of me. Some were trivial tasks, but others were important, like going to my daughter's school to see her presentation on her state project. Dropping off materials that were loaned to me for my religious education class preparation. Working on my laptop to see if I could figure out why it is freezing up from time to time (or more often than that) and working slower than it should be. Calling the doctor and making some check up appointments.

   I had gotten my daughter up, made her lunch, started putting together breakfast and was about to call up to her room to tell her to get moving already when I received my first inkling that all was not well. My daughter called me. From the living room. Where she was lying on the couch. My first surprise was that she was fully dressed. My second was that she did not look too good. She said she had a very bad headache. And she looked like she did.

   My suggestion that she eat something and it might help were met with a hard line "get real mom" stare. So I went in the cabinet, broke a Tylenol in half and brought it back to the couch with some milk and dry Fruit Loops in a bowl. She was clearly upset. I got myself a bowl of Fruit Loops and a cup of coffee and sat down with her. The bird, marveling at breakfast in the living room (she usually joins us on the kitchen counter) broke into a combination of song and talking to rival any past performances on her part.

   No sooner did I take a bite of my nutritious breakfast (I read the box - it is chock full of nutrition!) than my darling needed a cold washcloth. Being the good mom, I provided one. My spoon poised above my bowl once more, my beautiful girl asked for a tissue - located in the kitchen. I no sooner had the thought of actually taking a drink of my coffee when she announces that she feels queasy.

   I am really not a bad parent, just a person who is not good at mornings. I suggested that she go up to the bathroom. Fortunately for me, she only had to use the bathroom, so it was a good suggestion. When she came back down to lay on the couch, she informed me that her head felt all stopped up. And she wanted to go to school. Today was See The USA day when all the kids did their presentations on their State poster and boxes. She had worked very hard on her project, doing research and practicing speaking with her note cards. Since she was presenting to a bi-lingual class, she even had a few note cards in Spanish.

 

   I assured her that I would take her to school as soon as she started feeling better. I gave her an allergy pill (duh, you would think I would have thought of this before) that had nothing other than antihistamine in it (remember, I had already administered Tylenol some time earlier) and called the school to let them know that she had a headache and we were hoping to get to school soon. I promised to call back if there was no improvement.

   We talked some over the zealous bird chatter. She told me about who she sat next to in class. I rubbed her feet with lavender oil (my friend called me to tell me that this was a great homeopathic remedy, just use a drop of lavender with some oil). My daughter looked at me funny. I told her if it did not work on her head, at least she would have some good smelling feet! That reminded her of a car trip when she took her shoes off and we threatened her that we were going to hang her feet out the window if she did not cover them again. As her head began to clear, she started to eat her nutritious breakfast of dry Fruit Loops (read the box, it tells you all the nutrition facts!). Soon the washcloth was not needed anymore. She leaned back the recliner on the couch end and sat up looking more like her usual self. Color began to fill her cheeks. After awhile I had her go stand outside on our front porch in the chill air to get some fresh air into her lungs. That did the trick. She was ready.

   We arrived at her school just as the presentations were beginning. Since my morning was already out of order, I watched the kids that came before her and enjoyed their talks very much. My daughter did a really great job herself (if I say so myself) and I saw the teachers nodding their approval when she read her Spanish cards to the class. It was a proud moment for me. And I was glad my day was out of order, because I would never have had this quiet time with her, fun time with her class, or down time for myself.

   When I left class, I told Kate just to call if she needed to come back home. She said she was doing fine. I ran my errands and did some of my to-do list. I did my thing.

   Chirp, our bird, did her thing.