STLWorkingMom

Last year I wrote about the girl’s first foray into the public school class “Family Life,” a nice euphemism for Sex Ed.

This year, in seventh grade, the curriculum is getting a bit more detailed. Last night, after dinner, she was giving her dad and me a rundown of what she’s learning. Words and phrases came out of her mouth that simultaneously made me want to either laugh or clap my hands over my ears and sing “Do Wah Diddy” at the top of my lungs.

I kept telling her how, in my repressed parochial school upbringing we NEVER learned the stuff she’s learning and frankly, I think it’s great that she knows what she does from an appropriate source. My generation, you know, the one that hit puberty the same time that AIDS was sweeping the nation, is a throwback to a bit more squeamish time. It’s refreshing to me, that our daughter is comfortable enough to tell us what she’s learning, without embarrassment and with a little bit of delight, I think as we turn to her with our mildly shocked expressions.

Dear Lord, please let our daughter continue to tell us everything, even when it makes our ears bleed. Amen.

I’ve been working a lot lately. More than is reasonable. More than is healthy. (Mom, a long weekend is coming; try not to worry.) It’s just one of those times when I need to work a lot of extra hours and some other parts of my life, (you know, those pesky extracurriculars like eating and sleeping) have to take a backseat.

But that’s not what I’m blogging about (you don’t need to be another in a long list of people hearing me whine). Today, the girl was home while I worked and she, recognizing that I’m barely coming up for air these days, surprised me by making me a very nice lunch and delivering it to my desk.

It was very sweet, and just a little bit heartbreaking.

I knew she was up to something because first, she closed the door to the basement. I could hear dishes rattling around upstairs so I figured she was getting something to eat. A few minutes later she appeared with a plate for me; a turkey and cheese sandwich, chips, cubed watermelon in a small dish, two Oreos and a Diet Coke in a glass — with ice. It was all rather adorable.

She said, “I knew you were forgetting to eat again and if I didn’t do something, you wouldn’t have lunch today.” She was right.

It’s wonderful to have a girl who knows when sometimes, her mama needs taking care of, too.

I had a full day planned. Breakfast with a client and friends at the Chamber of Commerce Commonwealth event at 7:30am, a meeting with a new client, a call with my supervisor, working on a project for a community partner, returning phone calls and touching base with my freelance colleague and finishing up with my weekly appearance on CBS-19. It was going to easily be a 13 hour workday and I was looking forward to it. (I’m weird, I know).

But when the girl got home from school, she had persistent abdominal pain and swelling. Since the girl had an urachal cyst, we just don’t mess around with issues in that region. So I called UVa Pediatrics and got her a morning appointment. We spent about two and a half hours on that adventure which ended with a second appointment in radiology booked a couple of hours later (and lasted another two hours). Fortunately, nothing scary turned up in the ultrasound. Unfortunately, a diagnosis for the pain has not yet emerged, although the girl is doing better tonight.

In short, my day was sidelined as I hastily sent emails and made phone calls to rearrange my day and let people know I was not going to be where I was expected. Instead, we spent the day together at the hospital. The docs at UVa took good care of my girl and let us know what they were thinking every step of the way. It’s great to have a team at work that is understanding and caring when your priorities change suddenly; it’s also great to have doctors nearby who listen and work with one another across departments to care for a patient.