Last week, both my children experienced colds--big time. Ellie felt the worst on Monday, felt better Tuesday but then woke up Wednesday with laryngitis. Thursday morning, Ellie still was whispering to me, but seemed to be feeling a bit better energy-wise. Thom and I debated whether or not to send her to school. Now when I was a youngster, we went to school unless we were lying on death's doorstep. If you could become verticle, you were on that bus heading towards school. With all of the flus and what-not these days, there are all kinds of rules about when to have your child go back to school and when to keep them home to try to decrease spreading infection. On Thursday afternoon, Stephanie, Ellie's school nurse called to see how Ellie was doing. I explained the situation and how bad she still sounded, how she wasn't speaking. When suddenly, Ellie yells down the stairs (for the first time in two days!!) "WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO ON THE PHONE??" So shocked was I that I ran to the furthest point in the house away from the stairs. I felt like I was "busted", as if we had been playing hookie and not even realized it. I felt as if I had just made up the whole thing up, did Ellie really have a sore throat in the morning or had I made that up?
An alternate ending: When I shared this story with Cynthia, she thought it would have been even better had I said to the nurse, "WOW!! You just healed her! And over the phone! You are some GREAT nurse!!"
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Entertainment brought to you by our local Blockbuster
[caption id="attachment_2227" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Ellie when we first moved to Madison at 4 years old."]
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Often on the weekends, Ellie and I will walk to our local blockbuster store, which according to our pedometer is 2.44 miles round trip. When we arrived at Blockbuster recently, Ellie asked me if she could walk around. I said, "Sure" as we were the only ones in the store so I knew she wouldn't get lost in the crowd. Well, at one point, I looked up from my browsing to see Ellie walking quickly through the store. I thought perhaps she was looking for me. So I hollered, "Ellie, I am over here!" Ellie responded that she knew and continued on her brisk walk. You see when I heard her say, "walk around the store", I immediately thought she meant, "browsing" the children's movie section. What Ellie meant was literally "walk around the store" which is exactly what she was doing.
Last weekend Ellie and I again went on a walking date to our local blockbuster to exchange movies. While we were there, Ellie attempted to converse with the woman behind the counter. When Ellie tried to tell the woman some of her words and ideas, the woman immediately told Ellie that her words were in fact not "real" words, they were only her own made up words. Geez Louise, I thought to myself, do you also like to tell children there is no Santa Claus? Straighten them out on the tooth fairy too. Who needs all that meddlesome creativity and imagination anyway? And I wondered if perhaps we should switch to Netflix. Seriously, making up words is one of Ellie's greatest joys in life and I get it that not everyone appreciates that but for crying out loud I did not think she needed to be "fixed" of this at Blockbuster. (As you can tell, I am still peeved about the incident, which is pretty silly seeing as how Ellie took no offense in the first place and does not recall talking to this woman in the second.)
Well last weekend I mustered up my courage and we took our trek to Blockbuster and encountered another Blockbuster employee behind the counter. Ellie asked what her name was and immediately wanted to tell the woman how she changed her name to rhyme with her good friend Kelly. The woman listened patiently, then she told Ellie how when she was growing up she had friends and they too wanted their names to rhyme. She totally got the story, but more importantly she TRIED to get the story and relate it to what Ellie was saying. It did not take any longer than crushing a little girl's dream, and we all left happier for the encounter. Boy oh boy do I prefer friendly and I have gotten particularly used to friendly living in Madison for 5 years now.
[/caption]Often on the weekends, Ellie and I will walk to our local blockbuster store, which according to our pedometer is 2.44 miles round trip. When we arrived at Blockbuster recently, Ellie asked me if she could walk around. I said, "Sure" as we were the only ones in the store so I knew she wouldn't get lost in the crowd. Well, at one point, I looked up from my browsing to see Ellie walking quickly through the store. I thought perhaps she was looking for me. So I hollered, "Ellie, I am over here!" Ellie responded that she knew and continued on her brisk walk. You see when I heard her say, "walk around the store", I immediately thought she meant, "browsing" the children's movie section. What Ellie meant was literally "walk around the store" which is exactly what she was doing.
Last weekend Ellie and I again went on a walking date to our local blockbuster to exchange movies. While we were there, Ellie attempted to converse with the woman behind the counter. When Ellie tried to tell the woman some of her words and ideas, the woman immediately told Ellie that her words were in fact not "real" words, they were only her own made up words. Geez Louise, I thought to myself, do you also like to tell children there is no Santa Claus? Straighten them out on the tooth fairy too. Who needs all that meddlesome creativity and imagination anyway? And I wondered if perhaps we should switch to Netflix. Seriously, making up words is one of Ellie's greatest joys in life and I get it that not everyone appreciates that but for crying out loud I did not think she needed to be "fixed" of this at Blockbuster. (As you can tell, I am still peeved about the incident, which is pretty silly seeing as how Ellie took no offense in the first place and does not recall talking to this woman in the second.) Well last weekend I mustered up my courage and we took our trek to Blockbuster and encountered another Blockbuster employee behind the counter. Ellie asked what her name was and immediately wanted to tell the woman how she changed her name to rhyme with her good friend Kelly. The woman listened patiently, then she told Ellie how when she was growing up she had friends and they too wanted their names to rhyme. She totally got the story, but more importantly she TRIED to get the story and relate it to what Ellie was saying. It did not take any longer than crushing a little girl's dream, and we all left happier for the encounter. Boy oh boy do I prefer friendly and I have gotten particularly used to friendly living in Madison for 5 years now.
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